2011 NLCS Preview

Hello friends! Tomorrow afternoon the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers will wage battle with a trip to the Fall Classic on the line! So with that here is my breakdown of what should be 1 heck of a series between these bitter Division rivals!

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers

Wow what an amazing last couple of weeks it has been for the St. Louis Cardinals as they went from being 10.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL Wildcard race to pulling off 1 of the most epic comebacks in the Wildcard era to now knocking off the team that many including myself dubbed as the odds on favorites to win the World Series in the Philadelphia Phillies despite being outscored 21-19 in the series. Timely hitting, great defensive plays, but most of all solid starting pitching was what won that series for the Cards especially the complete game masterpiece by ace Chris Carpenter in the decisive Game 5! Meanwhile Milwaukee won their 1st postseason series since winning the American League pennant in 1982 when they beat the then California Angels in 5 games despite being outscored 25-23 in their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks! In terms of how Milwaukee won that series it was really the Brew Crew's potent offense and in particular their small ball which led to their walk off win in Game 5 because the Brewers starting pitching only had 1 starter turn in any quality starts and that starter being their ace Yovany Gallardo! For St. Louis to win this series they will need continued solid starting pitching from ace Chris Carpenter and they will also need solid starting pitching from Jaime Garcia and Kyle Lohse to shut down that strong and potent Brewer offense not to mention production from their 3 big bats Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman who were somewhat non existent against the Phillies. For Milwaukee to win this series they will need continued solid starting pitching from ace Yovany Gallardo and they could also use solid starting pitching from Zack Grienke, Shawn Marcum, and Randy Wolf as well. In terms of offense both ballclubs are almost even in terms of big bats and star power but I give the slight edge to Milwaukee mainly because of  sparkplug Nyjer Morgan and Rickie Weekes at the top. In terms of starting pitching I give the edge to St. Louis mainly because their ace Chris Carpenter is finally looking like his old Cy Young self again and if he pitches the same way he did in the NLDS against Philly then the Cards will have a chance. In terms of closers I give the edge to Milwaukee because John Axford has been lights out as of late including converting 43 of his last 44 save opportunities! So who wins? Well both teams split the regular season series 9-9 but because Milwaukee has the homefield advantage in this series and because of how dominant they were at Miller Park this season I will pick Milwaukee to win this series in 6 games!

Winners: Milwaukee Brewers 4 games to 2

That concludes my 2 part LCS preview thanks so much for reading along and be sure to join me on this blogsite next Saturday night as I will preview TNA/Impact Wrestling's biggest event of the year Bound For Glory! So until then you know the routine everybody! Thumbs up talk to you later! YEAH!!! Bye for now!