CHICAGO -- For a big league baseball team, there is no more helpless feeling than carrying '1' under the elimination number column of the standings. That one little perpendicular mark screams at you that you've ceded all control over your fate.
That's what Miles Mikolas and the St. Louis Cardinals were up against as they prepared to take on the Chicago Cubs Saturday afternoon in a frigid fall affair at Wrigley Field. After dropping the series opener on Friday, the Cardinals knew that with one more loss or one more Los Angeles Dodgers victory there would be no October baseball in St.