The game will feature the hottest team in Major League Baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals are 23-9 since late August when they were behind in the wild-card standings by 10 1/2 games to Atlanta. They clinched the wild-card berth on the final day of Jacoby Ford Jersey Black the season.More important, the Cardinals are 6-3 against the Phillies this year, including taking three out of four games in mid-September. The Phillies played 34 games in 31 days over the final month of the season without a day off. Yet they still managed to sweep the Atlanta Braves on the road in three games, the last one in 13 innings by a 4-3 Raiders Jason Campbell Jersey score.Philadelphia comes in as winners of four games in a row after having an eight-game losing streak. The Phillies are probably the most exhausted team in the major leagues right now.The pitching duel is scheduled to be a dandy for Game 1. Kyle Lohse(notes) of the Cardinals will face Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay(notes). Both pitchers have done well lately.Lohse is 14-8 on the Authentic Jason Campbell Jersey year with 3.39 ERA. Permier Jacoby Ford Jersey He is 6-1 over his last 10 starts with three no-decisions. His worst outing was against the Los Angeles Dodgers when he gave up eight earned runs on eight hits over three innings Aug. 23. He came into the month of August 9-7 and has markedly improved later in the season. Lohse got a win in Philadelphia on Sept. 19 by a 4-3 score and gave up just one run on seven hits.Halladay is a little better over the entire season but has struggled against playoff-caliber teams. He is 19-6 overall with a 2.35 ERA. In his last 10 starts, Halladay is 6-2, including a loss against the Cardinals the last time he dueled Lohse in mid-September. His other loss was against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 16. Both games were at home.The Cardinals may have a pitching Jason Campbell Authentic Jersey advantage in this case. They know they can defeat Philadelphia, and Lohse did so recently. If St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa needed to do so, he can start ace Chris Carpenter on Oct. 4 at home in the critical third game of the series.We are Cardinal Nation.While the Boston Red Sox were attempting to extend their season for at least another day vs. the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night, New York Yankees Authentic Jacoby Ford Jersey Black first baseman Mark Teixeira(notes) seemingly cleared their path to such at Tropicana Field by hitting a grand slam and solo home run off Tampa Bay Rays starter David Price(notes).The Rays and Red Sox entered the day tied atop the AL wild card standings, but the latter, so it appeared, seemed headed toward the postseason thanks to, of all things, a Yankee.Teixeira, in one night, did more to help Boston reach the postseason than its starting pitching did this entire month. He spearheaded New Yorks 7-0 lead going into the bottom of the eighth.But then Evan Longoria(notes), that selfish player, hit a three-run homerin that crazy eighth inningto bring Tampa Bay within 7-6. Dan Johnson(notes) took reliever Cory Wade(notes) over the right field wall in the ninth, tying the game at 7. In the 12th, Longoriayes, that guylined an offering from Scott Proctor(notes) over the left field fence to beat New York 8-7, roughly three minutes after Robert Andino(notes) hit a walk-off, bottom of the cheap nfl jerseys china ninth single off closer Jonathan Papelbon(notes) that sealed Bostons fate.At worst, Boston, had it held on Jacoby Ford Jersey White to its 3-2 lead going into the ninth, would have flown Replica Jacoby Ford Jersey down to the Rays to settle the 2011 AL wild-card race in a one-game playoff. But no, they, Longoria and Andino, had different designs: to rob Mark Teixeira of his rightful place in Boston sports history.Cant give a Yankee a place in that pantheon, huh? Rather wreck an otherwise promising season instead.Sick.And then theres been this notion floating around that the Yankees were purposely losing to Tampa Bay to screw the Red Sox over. But Teixeiras performanceand the triple play Russell Martin(notes) bounced into on Tuesdayproves said suspicion to be baseless.I know, Sox fans, that many of you would quicker defenestrate yourselves than show a Yankee some love. But Teixeira tried; he held his end up. Blame the teamnot Theo or Titofor a wild card berth not happening.
