NLCS 2013: Cardinals blow out Dodgers, advance to World Series

Why? Because this series, more than any other in recent memory, featured missed opportunity after missed opportunity for the Dodgers, compounded by bad luck on top of bad luck. And just for fun, some of the worst managerial decisions I’ve seen in a baseball game, much less a playoff game. But we’ll try to keep Don Mattingly’s Mr. Magoo-level bungling to a minimum here and focus on all of the things that went wrong or could have swung the first three Dodgers losses the other way.

1. But the Cardinals might not have scored at all in the third inning, which means the Dodgers very well could have won 2-0. Do you know how close that Beltran double came to being a long out?

“If it’s up to me, I’ll be there,” Craig told reporters. “I’m ready. I feel I can help.”

He took part in a simulated game Friday, taking what would have been 10 at-bats. Manager Mike Matheny said he looked good and that there were no evident signs of rust. Craig is expected to take one more round of batting before the Cardinals make a decision on his status for the World Series.

Almost everything about Game 6 of the National League Championship Series was unconventional.

From a standoff between players between the national anthem and the first pitch, to a severe pounding suffered by a perennial Cy Young candidate and an unbelievable performance from a rookie starting pitcher, it was a weird night in St. Louis.

Wacha tossed seven scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and a walk while striking out five.

The 22-year-old rookie did not allow a run in 13⅔ innings across two NLCS starts. He gave up seven hits and racked up 13 strikeouts against only two walks.

Beltran had three hits, including a double, and drove in a run against Kershaw. Beltran finished with two RBI.

Kershaw entered the game having surrendered five total runs in his previous 46 innings, spanning seven starts. The loss was his fifth straight against the Cardinals.

Kershaw allowed 10 hits, which marks the third time in his career he’s given up double-digit hits. The other two games were played at notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field.

• Power surge keeps Dodgers alive | More NLCS coverage

The behavior of Puig, which includes his treatment of umpire Ted Barrett during an at-bat that ended in a strikeout in Game 5, resulted in a heated exchange between MLB executive Joe Torre, who oversees the crew, and Dodgers president Stan Kasten, per Gurnick.

MLB sent a memo to the Dodgers’ clubhouse indicating that any showing up of umpires, especially by Puig, would not be tolerated, added Gurnick.

Kershaw has surrendered four runs for just the fifth time in 36 total starts this season. He’s allowed seven hits and a pair of walks while striking out five.

Wacha has given up a hit and a walk while registering three punch-outs.

• Power surge keeps Dodgers alive | More NLCS coverage

• Roth: You can’t hate the Dodgers

After more than 12 minutes just standing there -- Van Slyke’s teammates put a batting helmet on his head to help his case -- both players were forced to retreat to the dugout by home plate umpire Greg Gibson, who appeared none too pleased with the shenanigans and told them to get off the field so everyone else could play ball.

Looks like it’s going to be a fun one in St. Louis.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly previously held Ramirez out of the lineup due to the rib injury he suffered in Game 1. He hoped Ramirez would be available at some point in the game, but didn’t feel comfortable putting him in the lineup:

Ramirez is 2-for-12 at the plate in four NLCS games, but his bat isn’t one the Dodgers can afford to have missing from the lineup. The 29-year-old veteran hit .345/.402/.638 with 20 home runs in only 336 plate appearances during the regular season.

1. Crawford, LF

2. Ellis, 2B

3. Gonzalez, 1B

4. Puig, RF

5. Ethier, CF

6. Uribe, 3B

7. Ellis, C

8. Punto, SS

9. Kershaw, P

1. Carpenter, 2B

2. Beltran, RF

3. Holliday, LF

4. Molina, C

5. Freese, 3B

6. Adams, 1B

7. Robinson, CF

8. Kozma, SS

9. Wacha, P

• Power surge keeps Dodgers alive | More NLCS coverage

• Red Sox hold on, take 3-2 series lead | More ALCS coverage

There are the teams that work like workplaces -- everyone showing up and doing things and liking each other more than not, but generally projecting not much more in the way of transcendence or fun than you’ll find in the average workplace break room. And then there are the Good Time Bros, just having some scruffy fun out there and making things easy for Fox Sports producers, who are at their happiest when crafting promos built around facial hair.

They behave about like a baseball team would, and their fans -- lazily lauded and lazily loathed as The Best Fans In Baseball -- are knowledgeable, supremely devoted and passionate and so, on balance, more or less as unbearable as any other fan base. The whole St. Louis Cardinals thing is a lot easier to dislike in the abstract than the team itself is in any concrete, as-they-actually-exist state.

Kershaw also pitched very well in Game 2, but was done in by the Dodgers’ silent offense. The southpaw needed just 72 pitches to navigate six innings, sprinkling in two hits, a walk, and one unearned run with five strikeouts. Though he has allowed four runs total this postseason, Kershaw is only responsible for one of them, and he has racked up 23 strikeouts in 19 innings.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:37 p.m. ET.

The Cardinals outhit the Dodgers, but couldn’t come up with a situational knock to save their lives. That was no more evident than in the first inning, when a bases-loaded opportunity was squandered:

He wears Mickey Mouse shirts and does Mickey Mouse things. For real, though:

Greinke went into shutdown mode after allowing the two-spot, retiring the final 12 batters he faced to get the Dodgers to the eighth with a three-run lead. The right-hander finished the day with just four strikeouts, but was still good enough to hold the Cards back during the meat of the game, and even got an RBI single to help his own cause.

• Power surge keeps Dodgers alive | More NLCS coverage

The sun is brutal at this time of day at Chavez Ravine, so there’s no much blame to be laid on Puig -- especially given that his shades were down. He did take his time getting to the ball once it landed, however, allowing Holliday to take second.

Greinke is currently at 93 pitches, so it’s likely that Don Mattingly will turn things over to the bullpen in the eighth if the right-hander can’t make quick work of things in the seventh.

• Cards take 3-1 series lead behind Holliday, Carpenter | More NLCS coverage

The dinger is Crawford’s fourth of this postseason alone, which is one more than he had in 21 games of playoff experience before this October.

Adrian Gonzalez got the Dodgers off the homer snide in the third, launching a Mickey Mouse solo shot into the seats.

It was the Dodgers’ first home run of the NLCS, which A-Gon decided to celebrate with some literal Mickey Mouse stuff.

The latest chapter in the Dodgers’ continuous violation of Baseball’s Unwritten Rules included the following quote from the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright regarding L.A.‘s reaction to a big Yasiel Puig hit:

Wainwright was talking about this. Well, Gonzalez hit a home run in the third inning of Game 5 Wednesday and showed us all what “Mickey Mouse stuff” TRULY looks like:

After mashing seven home runs in the division, the The Dodgers had none through the first four games of the NLCS. Well, now make that one for Adrian “Mickey Mouse” Gonzalez:

The Dodgers take a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fourth.

Greinke eventually got out of the jam with his second double play of the day.