The St. Louis Cardinals face the Los Angeles Dodgers in a rematch of last year's NLCS.
Both team's won their respective divisions behind a strong starting rotation, setting up a series that promises to feature some stellar pitching matchups.
Records:
St. Louis: 90-72, 1st place in NL Central
Los Angeles: 94-68, 1st place in NL West
Season Series: Dodgers won 4-3
St. Louis Outlook: After quietly hanging around for most of the season, the Cardinals took the division crown while the Brewers crumbled, holding off the Pirates by one game.
The 2014 season came with a number of struggles: Yadier Molina missed over 50 games with injuries, Michael Wacha missed 12 starts and Jamie Garcia re-injured his shoulder after just seven starts.
Still, the Cardinals were led by Adam Wainwright's remarkable season, going 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA, and production from every spot in the lineup, as they were led by a different player in average (Matt Adams), home runs (Johnny Peralta), RBI (Matt Holliday) and OBP (Matt Carpenter).
The dominant bullpen produced as usual, with Trevor Rosenthal locking down 45 saves with a 3.20 ERA.
Los Angeles Outlook: The Dodgers took the NL West crown with another mid-season surge, going from 10 games back of the Giants on June 8, to finish six games ahead by season's end.
The obvious contributor was Clayton Kershaw, whose 21 wins, 239 strikeouts and 1.77 ERA have him the front runner for not only the Cy Young but even MVP honors.
Overshadowed by Kershaw, Zack Greinke also had a remarkable season, going 17-8 with a 2.71 ERA and 207 strikeouts.
Adrian Gonzalez quietly led baseball with 116 RBI and led the Dodgers with 27 home runs. Dee Gordon barely won the starting second base job out of spring training, but ended up finishing with 64 steals, 92 runs and a team leading 172 hits.
What to watch for: How will the Cardinals fare against the Kershaw/Greinke duo? The Dodgers boast arguably the best one-two punch in baseball, but injuries have decimated the bottom of the rotation.
It's conceivable that Kershaw will get two starts if the series goes long enough, but the Dodgers will have to send someone else to the mound for at least one game (likely Hyun Jin Ryu if healthy).
If the Cardinals can steal a win with Kershaw or Greinke on the mound, it may be a deciding factor in this series.
What they're saying - Cardinals:
Cards fare better than most against Kershaw (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Cardinals made right decision with Wacha (Viva El Birdos/SBNation)
What they're saying - Dodgers:
Dodger running game to be tested in NLDS (Lasorda's Lair)
Crawford appears to be back in form for playoffs (LA Daily News)
For more coverage check out the Chat Sports team pages:
St. Louis Cardinals News & Rumors
Los Angeles Dodgers News & Rumors
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