ST. LOUIS — There will be playoff implications all around when the Los Angeles Dodgers travel to St. Louis for a four-game series starting Thursday
Carlos Baerga Jersey , including thoughts of a potential preview for a one-game National League wild-card matchup.Where that playoff game could potentially be played could be decided starting with Thursday’s series opener, which will pit the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (7-5, 2.42 ERA) against the Cardinals‘ Austin Gomber (5-0, 2.93) in a battle of lefties.The Cardinals won all three games between the teams in Los Angeles three weeks ago. One victory in this series would give the Cardinals a home game if they were tied with the Dodgers at the end of the season in the wild-card standings.Article continues below ...The Dodgers are two games behind the Cardinals, who currently hold the second wild-card position in the National League.The Dodgers, though, remain intent on winning their sixth consecutive National League West title. By finally defeating the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday for the first time this season, the Dodgers temporarily moved one game behind the division-leading Colorado Rockies.The Dodgers had some offensive flow in that game, scoring eight runs, but otherwise it has been a stop-start year for the bats. The Dodgers have scored eight or more runs 11 times since the All-Star break. But they scored have three runs or fewer 25 times in the same span.“Our players have got to accept it because this is the way it’s gotta be with our roster
Yonder Alonso Jersey ,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, according to the Orange County Register. “I know it’s going to turn. We haven’t had (offensive) consistency all year. September, we obviously have a deeper roster but we’ve had these same inconsistencies all year. So it’s not about just September and this sample of September.”The Cardinals have found far more consistency in the second half as they went from near sellers at the non-waiver trade deadline to definite contenders barely over a month later.When the Cardinals swept the Dodgers toward the tail end of August, they were playing at their best. They lost Wednesday to the Pittsburgh Pirates and have endured a three-game losing streak since their sweep of the Dodgers, but St. Louis has still won 23 of its last 33 games.Not far away from being an afterthought in the NL Central, the Cardinals are still in striking distance of a division title, but still would have to leapfrog the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers to claim that prize.Gomber has been a key contributor in the turnaround. He has solidified his spot in the rotation by going 4-0 with a 2.77 ERA in seven starts since the beginning of August. He faced the Dodgers last month, giving up two runs over five innings in a no-decision while seeing his 15-inning scoreless streak come to an end.Gomber is new to the league so this is his first charge toward the playoffs. But it is also new to the Cardinals’ Marcell Ozuna, who was previously with the Miami Marlins.“I’ve never been in that spot before,” Ozuna said
http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-jose-ramirez-jersey��, according to mlb.com. “Every at-bat, I go trying to push my team on top.”Kershaw is far more familiar with the rigors of a second-half playoff drive. He will enter Thursday’s start having not given up more than two earned runs in nine consecutive outings. Kershaw is 6-5 in 16 career starts against the Cardinals with a 2.99 ERA, but he has not faced St. Louis this season. SAN DIEGO (AP) — The San Diego Padres have promoted yet another prospect from the minor leagues, and this time it’s the best one yet.The Padres selected the contract of 21-year-old Luis Urias, one of baseball’s top prospects who is expected to be their second baseman of the future.Urias was set to bat second against Felix Hernandez in his big league debut in the opener of a two-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.Urias’ promotion comes as the rebuilding Padres are on pace to lose 100 games for the first time since their infamous Fire Sale season of 1993.The Padres brought up Urias even though Triple-A El Paso has qualified for the Pacific Coast League playoffs.“We felt like he’d done enough in the month of August,” manager Andy Green said. “He played really, really well. He was kind of challenged at the beginning of the month to kind of step up his game because there was the belief he had more inside of him and he did a great job. He’s a guy we’ve been talking about all year that the time would come, and when would the time be, and we got to the point where felt the time was now. It gives him the opportunity to play over a month in the big leagues the rest of the year.”The arrival of Urias marks the beginning of another wave of talent coming from the prospect-rich farm system to the big league squad, which at 50-83 has the worst record in the NL.He hit .296 with a .398 on-base percentage with Triple-A El Paso. He hit eight homers and drove in 45 runs
Bradley Zimmer Jersey , with 67 walks and 109 strikeouts.Urias signed with the Padres as an international free agent in December 2013 when he was 16.His first call after the promotion was to his parents in Mexico.“I always thought it would be a great feeling. It was something that I cannot explain right now,” Urias said. “I was so happy, especially when I called my dad and my mom. That was a feeling that I will never forget.”The Padres have one of worst offenses in the majors. Green knows bringing in one guy won’t radically change the production.“He’s a guy we believe in,” Green said. “We love his on-base skills. It’s a good spot in the lineup. Just in general we’ve struggled to get on base, and he’s always done that very well. Whether he starts off doing that well in the big leagues or it takes a little while, we believe he’s going to do that very well for a long time.”“I’m the player that I can get on base,” Urias said. “I think that’s my type of play, to put the ball in play and score a couple of runs.”Green said Urias will also play some at shortstop.
