Unfortunately, there's little reason to believe that won't be disappointing. I'd talk about Carolina, but our season ended the day we re-signed a guy who turned the ball over 7 times his last game out.
If our rival was a hopelessly tormented fan base with a horrid closer, I'd probably hang around too. But they're not. They're a recent champion with Ryan Franklin pitching his way to a Bob Gibson ERA and the greatest player of all time.
Maybe the Cardinals are just better than us? Are they Kyle Blanks better? Seriously, what happened to Gregg? The Cardinals have turned Ryan Franklin into steroid-era Eric Gagne and we picked up a supposedly half-decent closer and he has been awful. No homers given up last year until Ward and he's given up 12 this year. There is no explanation anyone can give me for such a dramatic spike.
He can't close anymore. He just can't. He's horrible. I know his numbers say otherwise, but he keeps doing this, over and over and over again, and he can't be allowed to.
The 3-4-5 of LA, the best team in baseball, going down on 4 pitches in the 9th against Trever Miller and Ryan Franklin, for the Dodgers' 4th loss in 5 games against the Cardinals. I almost laughed as I typed that. It's a joke.
Hold on to your hats. Manny will bat in the 9th for LA against Mr. 1.93 ERA Trever Miller. Manny will face Franklin I wonder how far below 2.00 his ERA is.
Some idiot on the Cardinals just went 1st to 3rd when Russell Martin tossed the ball about 20 feet short of second on a SB attempt and it bounced into center. Good lord.