St. Louis Cardinals' Jason Motte looks to playoffs – MLB News
With Sunday’s excellent 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals are now bracing themselves for the series against the Houston Astros. The three-game series will kick off from Tuesday, September 18.
Cardinals now have a game lead over the Dodgers when it comes to the Wild Card race. The Redbirds had made it into playoffs the past season through their success in retaining the Wild Card race.
Faced this year are numerous challenges that the club has to overcome. One such challenge was posed by the Dodgers in Sunday’s game which the Cardinals eventually succeeded in overcoming, winning the game by 5-2 in the 12th inning.
It was closer Jason Motte who played a fundamentally important role in defence to translate the 5-2 lead into ultimate win. This was the 35th save of the closer this season.
It obviously did not come easily. The club had to work hard to attain that victory. The incredible combination of defence and offence, at last, paid off for the Cardinals.
"I don't know if must-win is the right phrase, but it was pretty darn close to a must-win," said Jason Motte, the closer who will have a significant role to play in the coming days as far as the bullpen is concerned.
Motte addded, "You see the scoreboard before the game ... you know where everybody is. It's not too early to be scoreboard watching. But we need to go out there and take care of our business. Similar to last year, if we don't win then nothing else matters. Today our guys went out there and battled their butts off and were able to get us a win."
With a game lead over the Dodgers and a two and a half game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cardinals need to capitalise on the lead they currently have. The team manager Mike Matheny believes there is a lot of baseball to play.
"There's still a lot of baseball to play," said he. "I think we're playing like this is the very last one every game."
The series against the Houston Astros will be crucial in bolstering the chances of the Cardinals to make it to the playoffs.
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