The Cards surged during September to claim the NL Wild Card and have sustained their good play from the last month of the season. During that time they took five of six from MKE (in addition to taking six of nine from PHL). Not only should they beat the Crew (six seems about the right number of games given the matchups) but the Cards might ride that all the way to a World Series Championship. It's not just the Brewers flaws that will get them, it's that STL is a good team playing great ball right now.
As for the Brewers, their rotation does not seem to be in a good place. Greinke's last start (albeit on short rest) was mediocre. Gallardo battled last time out and was effective, but he struggled, and usually doesn't pitch well coming off games in which he has to labor with high stress innings. Wolf and Marcum are presently a mess. In the bullpen, their closer just blew a save and their set up guy looked to be on the brink of doing the same. Overall, the Brewers staff doesn't seem like it is ready to shut down a Cardinals team that just handled the best rotation in baseball. This is not the kind of group I want to throwing to a brutal middle of the order (plus David Freese, who appears to be emerging as a high quality hitter). Mix in a closer they can't hit (Motte) and a couple of starters who have owned them (Garcia and Carpenter, both of whom they'll see twice) and I don't think the outlook is good for MKE.
St. Louis is historically associated with the self-proclaimed "King of Beers." With a handle like that it really is no surprise that the baseball team once owned by the brewery seems to consider itself the arbiter of the game's "unwritten rules" and possessor of the sacred knowledge of "the right way to play the game." This sort of sanctimony is sickening. That is going to make the outcome of this series either completely satisfying (should I be wrong and the Brewers win) or devastatingly disheartening (should my feelings be born out). Either way, it should be good theater.
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