rayonsports.com

Perhaps the most interesting divisional race in major league baseball just completed its’  latest chapter as the St. Louis Cardinals completed a three game sweep of the upstart Cincinnati Reds, re-establishing their place, for now, as the dominant team in the NL Central. The series was highlighted by a huge brawl in the second game that will likely result in suspensions. The brawl got ugly, but it might be the spark that ignites a new rivalry in the division. The Cards, one of baseball’s best and most storied franchises, have long dominated this division and have had a long-standing rivalry with the Chicago Cubs. In recent years the Cubbies have been the strongest challenger to manager Tony LaRussa’s team but the Cubs once again have drifted completely out of the race as manager Lou Piniella’s career winds down toward his retirement at the end of the season. The Reds have hung tough all year, holding onto first place until being knocked off that perch by the Cards. Cincinnati still has the horses to recover, but it had to be deflating to get swept by the team they’ve described as “complainers and whiners”, one of the comments that helped ignite the brawl. The Cardinals may be complainers and whiners but they are also winners, something the Reds still have to establish. Brandon Phillips, the trash-talking all-star second baseman for Cincinnati, was in the middle of the tussle. But he was 2 – for- 14 in the series and was basically a non-factor. Phillips has got to find a way to back up the talk with some consistent play if his club is going to somehow climb back ahead of the Cards. St. Louis has the game’s best hitter in Albert Pujols, a tremendous pitching staff anchored by Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, a seasoned manager in LaRussa and most importantly a veteran post-season tested team. The sweep of the Reds should give the Cardinals the boost they need to not only stay on top of the division but start to move away from the pack. I still like Dusty Baker’s Reds to make a run at the post-season, but they may have to start targeting the wild card.