The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the St. Louis Cardinals at 8 p.m. ET as they meet for Game 6 of the 2013 NLCS in Busch Stadium. This matchup should be very interesting, not for the pitchers, but for the hitters. Does anybody truly think they can hit either of the guys on the mound today? Check out the radio stream providing free online coverage of Game 6.
So these are the numbers hitters have against Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Michael Wacha of the Cardinals.
Against Kershaw, opponents are hitting .125 in the postseason as the lefty has 23 strikeouts and five walks over 19 innings pitched. He has surrendered one earned run, three unearned runs, good for a 0.47 ERA. Only 19 percent of hitters are getting on base and a slugging percentage practically does not exist against this southpaw as opponents are posting a .172 SLG in the playoffs.
So far in the playoffs, the Cardinals have the worst batting average. It is almost like they have faced a Kershaw every game this series, hitting .178. They do have two home runs in the series, all of which came in the same game. They have struck out 43 times, the second highest total for a team in the 2013 LCS. The Cardinals' 12 runs scored also gives them the lowest total through five games in the second round of the playoffs.
The tricky thing about the Cardinals is that they are capable of stacking runs, but for some reason, though they are the healthy ball club, they cannot produce any runs in this series. They are missing Allen Craig and he was their RBI man, but they still have Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran, who have respectable numbers.
David Freese carries the hype with him from 2011, so whenever he steps up to the plate, ESPN and TBS feel it is necessary to still present him as a threat. However, Freese has been futile for this series, hitting .118 with a run scored and two hits.
The Cardinals' offense and defense in this game will be Wacha. He will have to give his team a chance in this game by holding the suddenly deadly Dodgers' offense. They smacked four solo home runs in Game 5 to stay alive in the series. They have the second highest batting average in the series, hitting .234 with four home runs, the most hit by any team in the LCS.
However, Wacha is on a tear. He has allowed a home run in the postseason, but opponents are only hitting .125 off the young right hander. 18 percent of hitters get on base and they slugging .208 against Wacha in the postseason. It will be a good battle between pitching and offense. We all know pitching usually gets the nod over offense any day.
Click here to listen to the Dodgers vs. Cardinals live stream of Game 6.
