If you scream at the Cardinals in October, you better be ready to fight
If you didn't watch the Cardinals beat the Dodgers 10-9 Friday night, well, that's your problem. I mean, that's your prerogative.
Just don't expect what you're going to read here to appropriately describe the shocking drama that unfolded at Dodger Stadium. Grantland Rice couldn't do this one justice. Heck, the screenwriters down the road in Hollywood couldn't make up what happened in the first game of this NL Division Series.
Let's get right to the crux: Against Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet, the Cardinals were losing 6-2 with nine outs to go. And they won.
According to the Dodgers, Kershaw had been given a four-run lead 67 times in his career and never lost. Until the Cardinals scored eight runs -- count 'em, eight -- in the seventh inning and held on for as unbelievable a comeback victory as they have enjoyed since, well, Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS or Game 6 of the 2011 World Series or Game 2 of the 2011 NLDS.
No wonder closer Trevor Rosenthal said in a postgame interview on FOX Sports Midwest, "It's not a surprise, but it's always fun."
OK, so the Cardinals seem to have a knack for such drama. Let's just say none of the comebacks was any more improbable than this one.
The seventh went like this:
Matt Holliday: Line-drive single up the middle.
Jhonny Peralta: Line-drive single up the middle. Two on, no outs.
Yadier Molina: Ground-ball single up the middle. Bases loaded.
Matt Adams: Line-drive single up the middle. 6-3, bases loaded, no outs. (Don't think all the up-the-middle hits were a coincidence, either. That is the preferred approach of Cardinals hitters.)
Pete Kozma: Strikeout.
Jon Jay: Single to left. 6-4, bases still loaded, one out.
Oscar Taveras: Strikeout. Two outs.
And the biggie: Matt Carpenter's bases-clearing double off the right-field fence. The Cardinals led 7-6 and Kershaw, finally, was taken out.
But the Cardinals weren't done.
Randal Grichuk: Walk. Two on, two outs.
Matt Holliday: A no-doubt, three-run home run into the left-field seats. It's 10-6 Cardinals and Adrian Gonzalez is stunned.
Said Kershaw, who had allowed more than three runs only once all season: "I left some fastballs over the middle of the plate and they got good hits. They ride on momentum. They got a couple of guys on base and they gained a lot of confidence really fast."
The Dodgers rallied themselves and did not stop until Rosenthal threw a 99-mph fastball past Yasiel Puig for the final out with the tying run on third base.
And this was supposed to be a duel between two of the top starters in the game. But Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright had just as rough an outing as Kershaw. Wainwright gave up 11 hits and six runs and was able to get only 13 outs before departing in the fifth.
"It was terrible," Wainwright said in a postgame interview televised on FOX Sports Midwest. "Terrible fastball command. Usually, I'm much tougher because they don't know what's coming. Tonight they had a much better idea."
Even before the Cardinals' comeback, the game had been running high on emotions. The first two innings were mild enough, with the only highlight provided by Grichuk, who became the first Cardinals rookie since 1930 to homer in his first postseason at-bat.
But in the third, the bad blood between the teams came into play. Trying to pitch inside, Wainwright came too far in and hit Puig with a 90-mph sinker just behind his left shoulder. The Dodgers' next hitter, Gonzalez, apparently took exception and said something to Molina while approaching the batter's box. Molina did not like whatever was said and he let Gonzalez know.
"You can't talk to me like that," Molina said he told Gonzalez, according to an interview with FOX Sports 1 insider Ken Rosenthal.
Molina did not say what Gonzalez said to him, though Gonzalez told reporters: "They're going to say it's not on purpose, but we all know it is."
If umpire Jerry Meals had not shown the gumption to step between the two, there might have been more than talking between the two sides. Molina certainly looked ready to do more than talk as he walked right at Gonzalez, who was backpedaling by then. Molina even tried to shove aside Meals as the benches emptied and the tension thickened. Manager Mike Matheny, who towers over Molina, was able to keep his catcher from getting to Gonzalez -- but barely.
Molina later told reporters, "If you're going to scream at me, you've got to be ready to fight."
After the incident, Wainwright continued to struggle and the Dodgers started taking advantage. Two innings later, he departed with the Cardinals down five and the game felt like it was over. Teams don't come back on Kershaw like that.
The Cardinals can thank Carpenter for delivering the biggest blow. Again. In last year's decisive Game 6, his 11-pitch at-bat broke Kershaw and the Cardinals won, 9-0.
In this one he got to Kershaw on the eighth pitch with a blast off the right-field wall that didn't miss being a grand slam by much. Still, the Cardinals went from two down to one up on the hit.
Of course, if you had been watching, you'd know all that. If you weren't, perhaps next time. Knowing these Cardinals, there will be a next time.
You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter at @StanMcNeal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.
Watch the Missouri Lottery Cardinals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Midwest after every St. Louis Cardinals postseason game.
