It's seriously dubious, I'm frankly grasping at straws not to just give up on the season and migrate to football, but there's reason for a glimmer of hope, no matter how tiny. That glimmer is a lot bigger than it was 2 days ago.

Milwaukee and St. Louis each have 4 more games against each other, and other tough series to play that will probably lead to losses (each team has 4 games against the Phillies, and St. Louis has an additional 3 against Atlanta).

Atlanta has a double header with the Mets today, then we play them for a three game set. Lets just sit back and root for the Mets and Phillies.

More doable than 4 days ago

artie_fufkin wrote:

alz wrote:

Cardinals making a run I hope. We still need help but 4.5 out isn't too out of the question.

The only unfortunate part is the Cardinals have more games left with the Phillies than the Braves do.

By that time we can hope that the Phillies have pretty much clinched home field and will be resting their starters.

Last edited by Max (9/11/2011 6:40 pm)

I noticed the Phillies double header, and schedule with no days off but didn't want to sound like an "over-optimist". There's hope for us doing well there.

1) We play the Phillies tough
2) We play good teams tough
3) We're playing for our lives, they aren't
4) We will be rested

There's plenty of reasons to be horrified though too.
1) Roy Halladay
2) Cliff Lee
3) Roy Oswalt
4) Cole Hamels

The pitchers won't be taking the time off, ours better step up.

A rare off-day for all three teams we're watching. Help from the Rockies last night was appreciated, but that walkoff homer by Braun on Tuesday might have been a killer as far as the division title is concerned.

The wild card is our only shot to get in, but here's what has to happen. It's still a long shot.

The only real way the Cardinals have a shot is dominating Philadelphia in this 4 game set. That's going to be key. Winning 3 is a must, and 4 is really what we need.

I expect Atlanta to do the following.
VS NY Mets --- Atlanta wins 2 of 3
@ Florida --- Atlanta wins 2 of 3
@ Washington--- Atlanta wins 2 of 3
VS Philadelphia --- Atlanta wins 1 of 4 (maybe 2 of 4)

That means Atlanta finishes 92-70 or 91-71

We own the tiebreaker with Atlanta (having beaten them 5 out of 6 times we played them this season).
To match 92-70 we must go 11-2 <---- This is going to be difficult
To match 91-71 we must go 10-3 <---- This may be doable

In either event, I figure at max we have 3 losses we can have before we're toast in this race, and that's not cool when you have a 4 game set in Philadelphia...

alz wrote:

Cardinals Magic Number(s): 4 (WC)
Games Left: 3
Games back: 1 (WC)

Magic numbers only get us to the point where we qualify for a 1 game playoff if needed.

I'll update this every weekday until the Cardinals are eliminated.

9 to go, Atlanta needs to lose two more games then we do over their remaining 8 games.

HELL YES BABY, ARE YOU READY FOR A RACE?!?!?

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