A Tale of Two Series

Clayton Kershaw delivers pitch in St. Louis on Tuesday

The two series this year between the Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals essentially closed out this season’s hopes of each team.  Though it was as early as April this year, the Cardinals domination of the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium took the wind out of their  sails as the Cards won 3 of 4 from April 14-17.  It was during that first St. Louis series that the Dodgers dipped below .500, a harbinger of things to come.  Though the Dodgers won the finale of that series on a dramatic Matt Kemp walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, we all saw that this Dodger team had serious weaknesses following those four games.

(Results were Cardinal victories 9-5, 11-2, 9-2 with the Dodgers winning the last game 2-1)

I chronicled the first two games of that series in the post linked below.  

CLICK HERE for LINK to April 15th post

I find it interesting to see my thought process at the time.  Yes, I was still hopeful on the season, but I saw the warning signs and could see things slipping away.

Fast forward to August, 22-24th.  With the Dodgers essentially out of the running.  They plunged the dagger in the Cardinal post season hopes with this three game sweep in St. Louis.  The last time a Dodger club swept the Cardinals in St. Louis was 18 years ago.

Now both teams are on equal footing in the standings.  Yes, the Cardinals have a winning record at 67-63, but they are 10 games out of first place in their division, the same as the Dodgers.

Wishful thinking

The three game sweep has made things a bit interesting.  With 33 games to play, the Dodgers are 10 games out.  But what if they caught lightning in a bottle during this Cardinal series and they were to roll out  10-11 games in a row?  The NL West is weak enough that a comeback of epoch proportions could occur if the Dodgers were to get real hot.

Yes, I’m dreaming, I know that.  But that’s what makes the grand old game so special.  Magic occurs almost every year with somebody.  Why not us?  This year has been so bad so far.  How about a little luck turning our way for once?