Tagged: St. Louis Cardinals
10/5 Path to the Pennant – Playoff Preview
We have a couple of themes on tonight’s show. It goes 1, 2, 3, 4. We’re going to look at the best 1-2 pitching combinations for this year’s playoffs as well as in past playoffs. We’re also going to do the same for 3-4 hitting combinations.
First up is the 1-2 pitching duos. We have a few good ones this year with Carpenter-Wainwright in St. Louis, Lester-Beckett in Boston, and Sabathia-Burnett in New York. The thing that always fascinates me about these debates is the historical part of it. There have been some great 1-2 punches over the years. Koufax-Drysdale for the Dodgers, McLain-Lolich for the Tigers, and Schilling-Johnson for the D-backs to name a few. Who is better? That can be debated for a long time.
The same can be said for the best 3-4 hitters of all-time. Again, we have a few good ones this year. Teixeira-Rodriguez in New York and Pujols-Holliday in St. Louis jump out at you right away as the most formidable 3-4 combos in this postseason, but are they better than say Manny-Papi? Tough to say.
The other topic I can’t wait to get into tonight is the one-game playoff. This is the 3rd year in a row we’ve had one. We’ll have two guys on the set tonight who played in one and that’s Barry Larkin and Al Leiter who squared off in 1999 for the NL Wild Card. Leiter and his Mets won 5-0.
We’re on from 6-8 tonight previewing all of the playoff matchups so make sure you tune in.- Matt Vasgersian
9/28 Path to the Pennant Debut
We’re debuting a new show today called “Path to Pennant.” It will air all this week from 5-6 as a lead-in to MLB Tonight. This is where our network is different from everyone else. We can bring you baseball in a variety of ways.
We’re going to begin the show tonight discussing the 10 teams that have a shot at the winning the World Series. I know there are only 8 playoff spots, but the Braves and Twins still have a great shot at making it with one week to go. Atlanta is 2.5 back in the NL Wild Card race and Minnesota is only 2 back in the AL Central and they begin a 4-game set in Detroit tonight. We are carrying this game on MLB Network.
The Twins-Tigers series is going to be fun to watch this week. We’ll be breaking it down from every angle. Tonight Harold Reynolds will be talking about Nick Blackburn, Tom Verducci will discuss Rick Porcello and our John Hart will break down the pitching matchups in all 4 games.
The other big topic tonight will be on the Yankees and Cardinals since they both clinched their divisions over the weekend. Harold’s going to break down the seasons of Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, and Johnny Damon and how they’ve benefited from the short porch in right field at the new Yankee Stadium. He’s also going to look at facing the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright back to back and whether that’s good or bad.
Make sure you tune in to all of it tonight. Path to the Pennant at 5, MLB Tonight at 6, Twins-Tigers at 7 and then MLB Tonight after the game.-Greg Amsinger
9/24 MLB Tonight – Hart of the Matter
We’re coming on after the World Cup game between USA and Cuba so make sure you tune it a little earlier tonight.
We’ll begin with the Cardinals who can clinch a playoff spot with a loss by the Cubs this evening. It’s amazing the job Tony LaRussa has done. At the beginning of the year he didn’t know what to expect from Chris Carpenter and he didn’t have a closer. Carpenter is back to being his ace and Ryan Franklin has stepped up to be his closer. Also, remember he didn’t have anyone to protect Pujols to start the season, but he had his team in good shape until they got Matt Holliday and we all know how that trade has worked out. Let’s not also forget the moves to bring in DeRosa, Lugo, and Smoltz. The Cardinals know how to stay in the race year in and year out and a lot of the credit has to go to their manager.
Another team that’s interesting is the Twins. This is a team that is always in the mix year in and year out and they have to do it with a low payroll. They lose players like Johan Santana and Torii Hunter, but can replace them with a Joe Mauer and Justin Morneuau. Even with Morneau out for the season they are right there with the Tigers with players like Michael Cuddyer stepping up. Their race with the Tigers down the stretch will be fun to watch.
Speaking of the Tigers they are playing in our Thursday night game tonight against the Indians. They have had a great turnaround from a year ago with letting players go like Gary Sheffield and Edgar Renteria and allowing young players to flourish like Rick Porcello. With Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson, and Porcello at the top of that rotation the Tigers could be a tough out in the playoffs.-John Hart
9/22 MLB Tonight Pre-Show Meeting
One of our main themes tonight will be who will be the 3rd starter for some of these teams that could make the postseason? We’ll begin that discussion in the first hour with former Twin and current broadcaster Bert Blyleven. If the Twins make it they’ll start with Scott Baker and Carl Pavano, but who do you go to after that? Is it Nick Blackburn after his performance last night or is it rookie Brian Duensing who is 4-1 since being called up from the minors.
Another pitcher with an important start tonight is Ervin Santana of the Angels. Right now the Angels are set with John Lackey, Jered Weaver, and Scott Kazmir. Can Santana change Scioscia’s mind and get a start in the postseason? He also has to think about Joe Saunders who pitched well last night.
How about the Phillies? Is your number 3 Joe Blanton or Pedro Martinez behind Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels? What about Jaime Moyer who has 12 wins?
Another interesting team is the Rockies. They’ll begin with Ubaldo Jimenez and Jason Marquis, but who do they go to after that? Is it Jorge De La Rosa or Aaron Cook?
Finally, what do the Cardinals do? We know Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright are a given, but is Joel Pineiro definitely their number 3? What about John Smoltz or Kyle Lohse?
This is some of the things we’ll be talking about tonight starting at 6. -Greg Amsinger
MLB Network 