The postseason bracket is officially set.
The St. Louis Cardinals, who won the NL Central a week ago, will open up at home on Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies in a rematch of the 2011 NLDS that featured the famous “rally squirrel.”
In all likelihood, the Cardinals will be forced to deal with Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler in the first two games of the series.
At the very least, they’ll be at home.
But if they advance past the Phillies, they’ll have the Atlanta Braves waiting for them in the NLDS, which will be a best-of-five series.
In that series, the Cards will have to deal with Max Fried, Spencer Strider, and Kyle Wright.
#stlcards path back to the #NLCS for the first time since 2019 is:
— at home vs. #Phillies (best of three)
— off to Atlanta vs. Braves (best of five) https://t.co/sP4KkvbbF1— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) October 5, 2022
Cards Path To NLCS
This is what the Cardinals will have to deal with if they’re going to make a run back to the NLCS for the first time since 2019.
That year, they were swept by the Washington Nationals.
It’s certainly going to be a tough road, but it’s not impossible.
If the Cardinals have proven anything over the past few decades, it’s that you can never count them out.
Sure, they’ll have some tough pitching to deal with, which might lead to them being labeled as the underdogs for each matchup.
But that’s never stopped them before.
Still, it’s going to be a tough road.
Having to deal with Wheeler and Nola back-to-back in the first two games of the Wild Card series is somewhat of a daunting task.
Then, they’ll have three aces waiting for them if they advance to the NLDS against the Braves.
The great thing about the postseason though is that anything can happen.
We’ll see how the Cards respond to this challenge.
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