Blogging from the Ledge

3-1.

That's the deficit the Cardinals are staring at in the NLCS. Which wouldn't be so bad if it were, say, best of 11. Unfortunately, it's best of 7, which means one more loss and the season, as great as it has been, is over.

I will say I have a bit of the pessimist in me. I hate close games and I especially hate back-to-the-wall situations. Too many chances for miscues. Too many possibilities that a single mistake puts you home for the winter. Don't like it, don't care for it, never have.

The Clubhouse is, of course, in an uproar, as posters (some of which, amazingly enough, have never posted before) are predicting doom, calling names, berating umpires, etc. We mods are trying to keep the best lid on it as possible, and I think we are doing a pretty good job. People like msredbird, BrewCards, NJCards, and Oberkfell3B (hey, Obie, if you'd blog I'd link to ya!) are the right people in the right positions of authority.

Still, it's tough to battle the flame when you have a sneaking suspicion that the underlying cause (not the expressions of it) has merit. I'm personally quite down on the Cardinals' chances right now. I was glad when they beat Pettitte in the first game, because lefties have been tough on us so far. But now we have to face him again in our first (only?) elimination game. The Cardinals haven't hit, with only Pujols doing much of what is expected. They are banged up--Sanders took a fall in Game 2, and even though he was back yesterday, who knows how close to 100% he is, and then Nunez has a rough collision in Game 3 and is out for Game 4 and maybe even tonight as well. That on top of Rolen and Al Reyes being out for the entire postseason.

There are glimpses of hope, of course. Carpenter goes tonight, and if there was one pitcher on this staff you want on the mound in a must-win game, it's him. The Astros' closer, Brad Lidge, has pitched a number of innings this time around (as he did last year), and if yesterday's 9th inning is any indication, the Cards might be starting to figure him out somewhat. Plus, if they win today, they go back home to Busch, with the adoring crowd and, more importantly, last at-bats.

But Houston is making the plays that you'd expect a winning team to do. Rodriguez comes in and finishes Edmonds' AB yesterday after Edmonds was tossed (that did look like a ball, but Jim should know better than to argue in that manner in a key situation like that). He hits a drive that 1) would have been out of any other part of the park and 2) would have been over most people's heads. But Tavares catches it at the wall.

Then, after Pujols went on contact in the 9th and was thrown out at the plate (TLR, and I know he was tossed by then, but it's his philosophy and the staff knows it, uses that contact play way too often, and it burns the Cards a lot), it's first and third, one out. Grounder looks like it'll tie the game--but the 'Stros turn an amazingly-quick DP and end the ballgame. Those kind of breaks tend to reside on winning teams.

That said, I'm still rooting on the Cards and hoping they'll get a chance to continue a curse instead of ending one. The White Sox, the AL representative to the Series, hasn't won since 1917, a year before the Red Sox last one before the 2004 Series. Here's hoping!

On the non-baseball side of things, Benjamin's continuing to walk more and more. He's not doing it a lot in public, but he's going all through the house when we let him. He's even figured out how to get around the Pack and Play that we had blocking the hallway to the back of the house, so it looks like it'll be time to get a new baby gate.

Played some poker Saturday night. The guys got together for an unscheduled game that didn't count toward the PPT point standings. I played a little more aggressively than I usually do, after watching to WPT poker that morning. It went fairly well for me, but I lost a couple of big hands, even though I played them right. The first, I was holding A-Q suited and Joe (who was all-in) had J-Q. What does the flop come? J-Q-X. Between the turn and the flop I had a chance for a flush on the river, but it didn't come.

My last hand of the night, I held pocket queens. Charles was the only one that called me, and he had 9-10 suited. The flop held a 7, but that was it. The 8 came on the turn, and as soon as it did, I said, "The river'll be a Jack", which, of course, it was.

Not much else going on. I've got PK tonight so I probably won't watch much of the Cardinal game, which is probably better on my system anyway. Maybe tomorrow I can title my blog "A Breath of Hope!"