Cardinals fans hopeful, but wary after Game 4 win

With an 8-3 blowout victory over the Giants in Game 4, the St. Louis Cardinals now stand just one win away from their second consecutive World Series berth. Matt Holliday, Jon Jay and Yadier Molina led the attack for the Cardinals Thursday night, plating two runs each and forcing starter Tim Lincecum out of the game after he allowed four runs in 4⅔ innings.

For Dan Moore of Viva El Birdos, even with Barry Zito taking the mound for the Giants in Game 5, a World Series berth for St. Louis is hardly in the cards:

I can't be certain or even a little confident that the Cardinals are going to win one of the next three games. The Giants have themselves just completed an improbable comeback against the Reds, a classic enemy-of-my-enemy Alias arc, and now that I've seen the Cardinals cheat death in all these improbable ways it's impossible to assume any team is really dead, not even when you just watched them lower the body into the ground on network TV.

That's a hazard of watching a team that constantly surprises you; eventually you can't expect anything else...

But every time they pull out another surprise—in that moment it's like I'm watching David Freese's baseball skip over Nelson Cruz's glove all over again. One more positive one (and I won't be confident of it until the credits roll) and they'll be able to do the least surprising thing they've done in years, and play the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

The Cardinals will turn to young right-hander Lance Lynn on Friday night in what could be a decisive Game 5 at Busch Stadium. Game time is set for 8 p.m. ET; the broadcast is on FOX.