Cardinals Own the Central

Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

That is what it said on the St. Louis Cardinals t-shirts they wore as they celebrated winning the NL Central for the 8th time since 1995.  It was a night of celebration from the bottom of the first till long past the game had finished.  The game was really not in doubt as the Cardinals scored three runs in the bottom of the first and cruised to a 7-0 win.  On several occasions one could tell the Chicago Cubs were already scheduling their vacations and  making tee times.  Let’s just say their play was not crisp.

Lance Lynn is making life complicated for Mike Matheny with pitching another very strong game throwing six shut out innings.  That is four starts, 24 innings total, and only given up 4 earned runs during this stretch.   Lance had struggled most of the second half of the season, but it appears he as figured it out now.  All five starters are pitching well right now and one will end up in the bull pen.  It could turn out to still be Lynn since he has already pitched out of the pen for playoffs previously.

David Freese hit a home run to right center and everyone is hoping that shows he is getting right and ready to have his October bat like he had 2 years ago.  Matt Holliday also hit a home run which was good to see considering he missed 3 games in a row earlier this week with back spasms.

Jon Jay had a spectacular catch in right center has he stretched out diving showing that not only is his bat steady, but he handles patrolling the gaps with Holliday and Carlos Beltran on each side of him.

Leading 7-0 Matheny still handled the last three innings like it was a one run lead.  At first I was confused by this, but it finally made sense to me.  With Trevor Rosenthal as the new closer, the Cardinal skipper wanted to get everyone use to their new position in the bull pen and with the crowd excited anticipating celebrating the NL Central championship it was clearly a playoff atmosphere.  This allowed the rookies Rosenthal, Carlos Martinez and Kevin Siegrist a chance to pitch in that kind of atmosphere so they will be slightly more prepared come next week in the playoffs.

Now all that is left the last two days is to see if the Redbirds can secure home field advantage, because we already know the Cardinals own the Central.