The St. Louis Cardinals have the luxury of enjoying three opportunities to wrap up their NL Championship series by eliminating the Los Angeles Dodgers and advancing to the World Series starting this afternoon. While the odds may be in their favor, a recent memory serves as a constant haunting reminder that it’s not wise to count chickens before they hatch.
In last year’s playoffs and NLCS, the Cardinals held an identical 3-1 game lead over the San Francisco Giants and were starting to imagine a second consecutive World Series appearance. Then the unthinkable happened and the Giants reeled off three straight wins, leaving the Cardinals and their fans completely stunned. Will the Cardinals fold again? We will find out today when we watch Cardinals vs Dodgers Game 5 NLCS online free live streaming on TBS (not Fox) this afternoon by following the links shared below.
In yesterday’s Game 4, Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn stepped up big time and defeated Ricky Nolasco for a 4-2 win and stranglehold on the series. Lynn pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up two runs off six hits. A combination of three relievers were able to hold on and with Trevor Rosenthal securing the win with a save.
St. Louis has a paltry .148 batting average in this series so it was key for them to see Matt Carpenter drive in the game’s first run with a double, then have Matt Holiday launch a two-run homer shortly thereafter. Hitting has been at a premium in this series regardless of who his on the mound or who is at the plate.
Today’s pitching matchup is an encore of Game 1. The Cardinals send Joe Kelly to the mound and his 3.18 ERA. Kelly didn’t earn a decision in that game and gave up only two runs through six innings. It was enough for the Cardinals to eventually go on and win the game.
Los Angeles sends Zack Greinke back to the mound in hopes he can avenge Game 1 and buy the Cardinals a Game 6. Greinke was in near peak form in Game 1 in allowing two runs through eight innings of pitching. More impressively he managed to strike out 10 batters, a season high.
Greinke has a stellar 1.65 ERA in his last four starts against the Cardinals and has handled pretty much everyone in their lineup well except for Matt Holliday. The St. Louis slugger owns a .310 average against Greinke during hish career with two of those hits leaving the ballpark.
The Dodgers could use some production from the top of their lineup. Carl Crawford, Mark Ellis, Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez were a combined 1 for 15 in Game 4. A repeat performance like that and the champagne will be flowing in the visitor’s locker room a little later today.
One Dodger bat starting to come to life is that of rookie Yasiel Puig. He was 2 for 3 in Game 4 with an RBI and capable of exploding offensively at a moment’s notice.
This afternoon’s Los Angeles Dodgers vs St. Louis Cardinals Game 5 of the NL Championship Series at Dodgers Stadium has a start time of 4pm EST / 1pm PST, with the first pitch being thrown at 1:07pm EST. The game will be televised TBS so check your local listings for the channel number.
If you would like to watch Cardinals vs Dodgers Game 5 NLCS online live streaming baseball on TBS, you must be a subscriber of TBS directly or through a cable or satellite package with that channel included in it. Those that do can access TBS online free live streaming of the game here. An alternative for those outside the U.S. and Canada is to subscribe to MLB’s postseason package for $24.99 to gain live online stream access to all the 2013 MLB postseason games.
The Dodgers are due a bounce back game and with Greinke on the mound, today is the day I feel it will happen. Should the Dodgers win Game 5, as I suspect they will, the Cardinals can look forward to facing Clayton Kershaw again next.
