St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres
The St. Louis Cardinals enter postseason having lost nine of their last 12, nearly squandering a seven-game lead. The Cardinals are not as dominating as in recent years and now meet a good San Diego Padres team who has home field advantage.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa gambled in the regular-season finale by scratching Chris Carpenter (15-8, 3.09 ERA) for a possible playoff opener, reasoning that his struggling team needed two starts by the 15-game winner in the first round to have a chance against the Dodgers.
On the road, Carpenter is 7-4 this year with an ERA of 4.70. He's 2-2 lifetime against the Padres in 5 starts. In his last appearance against SD the Padres beat him up for 6 runs off 12 hits in a loss.
Jake Peavy (11-14, 4.09 ERA) goes for the Padres. Peavy hasn't had much success when facing the Cardinals with a career record of 1-2 manufactured in 5 starts. In his last outing against St. Louis he managed to get a win despite giving up 6 runs and 9 hits in 5 innings of work.
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- Cardinals are 1-4 in their last 5 playoff games.
- Cardinals are 0-4 in their last 4 during game 1 of a series.
- Cardinals are 0-6 in their last 6 playoff games as an underdog.
- Padres are 5-0 in their last 5 day games.
- Padres are 6-1 in their last 7 games as a favorite.
- Padres are 13-3 in their last 16 games as a home favorite.
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LA Dodgers vs. New York Mets
Mets' hurler Orlando Hernández brings sufficient postseason experience to the mound in Game 1, but the Dodgers are 6-0 in their last 6 games vs. a right-handed starter. As well, Mets are 0-4 in Hernandez's last 4 starts during Game 1 of a series. He's had 3 career starts against LA with a 1-1 mark. Home cookin' hasn't helped much this year as he's 5-6 in New York with a 4.67 ERA.
Derek Lowe toes the rubber for the Dodgers in hopes of giving his club a victory right out of the gate on the road where he's 6-4 with an ERA of 4.13. In his last outing against the Mets he got a win in a solid 6 inning appearance while allowing just 2 runs.
Mets' pitching suffers without Pedro Martinez and the Dodgers have solid starters and good depth out of the pen. Jonathon Broxton and Joe Beimel have been great in front of Takashi Saito. However, overall, both pitching staffs are pretty evenly matched.
This series will be won at the plate and each team has a talented lineup. The Mets scored 800 runs this year and the Dodgers posted 799. LA has a slightly better BA at .276 compared to .264 hit by the Mets.
The underdog Dodgers give the Mets all they can handle while taking the series in 4 games.
- Dodgers are 6-0 in their last 6 games vs. a right-handed starter.
- Dodgers are 4-0 in their last 4 day games.
- Mets are 1-4 in their last 5 games as a home favorite.
- Mets are 1-4 in their last 5 playoff games.
- Mets are 1-5 in their last 6 home games.
