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The only brew of baseball on tap for today is the inferior kind where pitchers have to bat. Still, it's preferable to no baseball. The good news is that the two more interesting teams - the Mets and the Cubs - both enter the day with a chance to finish off their opponents at home. The bad news is that's what I said yesterday about the Astros and the Rangers and both of those teams completely blew that opportunity in different ways.
A former Oriole will be in action for the Cubs for the second straight day. Our old pal Jason Hammel gets the ball in Game 4. Hopefully for the Cubs sake, he looks more like the 2012 version of Hammel than the 2013 one. The North Side Church of McFly yet lives.
The schedule for today is as follows, with both games appearing on the TBS network:
4:37pm Eastern: Cardinals @ Cubs (Chicago leads, 2-1)
Starters: John Lackey (STL), Jason Hammel (CHI)
8:07pm Eastern: Dodgers @ Mets (New York leads, 2-1)
Starters: Clayton Kershaw (LA), Steven Matz (NY)
If I was the Mets, I wouldn't care for my chances going up against Kershaw. Then again, anything can happen in a postseason game, and sometimes it's bad for the team that appears to be heavily favored.