Cards Try To Trump Defending Champs
The St. Louis Cardinals have never lost a playoff series, and they don’t seem overly worried about facing the Atlanta Braves.
“They’re more relaxed than we are right now, but we’re going to have fun,” Brian Jordan said. “We’re on a high and we’re going to lay it on the line.”
After sweeping the N.L. West champion Padres, the Cardinals are 4-0 in playoff series. That includes a sweep of Atlanta back in 1982, when Willie McGee was a rookie and Ozzie Smith was in the first of his 15 seasons with the Cardinals.
The Braves, 9-4 against St. Louis in the regular season, have been to three of the last four World Series. The Cardinals are making their first postseason appearance in nine years.
Manager Tony La Russa, who took over St. Louis after last season helped the team improve from a 62-81 record and fourth-place finish, sometimes has to pinch himself.
“To watch this club grow and improve through the course of the season has been a real pleasure and a privilege,” La Russa said. “They came so far so fast and refused to make any excuses about all the newness and taking the time to gel.”
The Cardinals added several players during the offseason, including Ron Gant, Andy Benes, Gary Gaetti, Todd Stottlemyre and Dennis Eckersley. But it was one of the holdovers, Jordan, who led them to the second round.
Jordan has been touted for a Gold Glove in right field by La Russa, and his diving catch of Jody Reed’s liner saved the go-ahead run in the eighth. Making the play banged up his shoulder, but after getting a massage on the bench from trainer Gene Gieselmann, he felt good enough to hit a 3-2 pitch from Trevor Hoffman over the left-field wall.
“It was starting to stiffen up on me,” Jordan said. “When I wake up tomorrow, I might not be able to move it at all. But when you’re caught up in that intensity, you don’t even think about it.”
Jordan had three RBIs in the first round, all in the clincher. Gant was 4 for 10 with a team-leading four RBIs, including a home run in Game 3. Gant hit .207 in four previous playoff appearances.
“In past playoffs, I think I tried to do a little too much,” Gant said. “In this series, I just tried to hit the ball hard and get base hits. But if I do hit it hard, a lot of times it’s going to go out of the ballpark.”
The team didn’t work out Sunday after arriving in mid-afternoon from San Diego. At least one of the players needed the rest: Gaetti injured his right ankle when he landed awkwardly on first base running out a grounder in the eighth.
“It’s not as bad as I expected it to be,” Gaetti said. “I’ll know more Monday, but I’m sure I’m going to play Wednesday.”
La Russa has some decisions to make on his pitching rotation. Andy Benes, who was 18-10, started behind Todd Stottlemyre in the Padres series so he could come back on three days’ rest if it had been necessary.