Cards keep rolling -- even without Rolen's usual big hits
LOS ANGELES -- No doubt, more will be expected in coming days out of Scott Rolen. By the St. Louis Cardinals, by their fans and, certainly, from Rolen himself.
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| Scott Rolen admits his high-maintenance swing requires a lot of at-bats before it comes through.(Getty Images) |
Whether it's Houston or Atlanta they face in the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals, through champagne, shrieks and hugs, said they didn't care. Maybe by Monday they will. But not Sunday.
The worst thought in the world to any team that wins 105 regular season games and blows through its division like a John Deere through a weed field is the thought of what might not come next. To win 105 games and then wilt in the playoffs like spaghetti noodle dropped into boiling water is more than embarrassing. It is damaging to an organization's credibility and morale.
"I don't think it's relief because our guys, now that we're in the postseason, know we need 11 wins," said manager Tony La Russa during as raucous of a champagne celebration as you'll see. "But there is no doubt that that's part of it.
"If you get beat in the first round, sometimes the regular season is forgotten. That's an unfortunate part of postseason baseball."
Center fielder Jim Edmonds was talking about the fear factor shortly after the Cardinals arrived here the other day. Any danger of St. Louis clicking the cruise control button -- even up two games to none -- was allayed, Edmonds said, by the fear of all the bad stuff that could happen. A poor at-bat here, shoddy defense there, and suddenly the Cardinals season becomes as innocuous as the fate of a crash test dummy.
So when NL MVP candidate Albert Pujols whipped his bat around with two runners aboard in the fourth inning to drive a Wilson Alvarez fastball far into the left-field seats to snap a 2-2 tie en route to a 6-2 final score, it not only moved the Cardinals onward and upward.
It also demoted Rolen's struggles to nothing more than an afterthought.
If you had told the Los Angeles Dodgers going into this NL division series that Rolen would not get one hit the entire way through, you have to believe that they would have taken those chances.
"That's how deep their lineup is," Dodgers third baseman and MVP candidate Adrian Beltre said. "If this guy doesn't do it, others do. I believe it's the best lineup, two through seven, in the big leagues."
As things turned out, Rolen, nursing a strained left calf, became the only Cardinals regular to go hitless through the entire series. He was issued six walks, scored just once in four games and, because their lineup is so potent, the Cardinals barely missed him.
