There were parallels in both fifth games wednesday and thursday, which contrasted with GAme 1 of the NLCS. The Pirates and A's made the gutsy move to start rookie pitchers over solid veterans against aces, Wainwright and Verlander, respectively.

Cole couldn't put Freese away in one at bat and served up a homer after the batter saw quite a few pitches in his at bat. He lost his stuff by the fifth. Gray struggled with command, frequently overthrowing pitches, battled with base runners, and had to challenge Cabrera after falling behind the previous hitter, who led off with a single.

Meanwhile the experieaced aces were predictably able to elevate their performances and safely guided their teams to vicytory.

For the third consecutive night we saw a duel between a rookie (Kelly)with a promising arm and little experience and an experienced ace (Greinke). Like the previous games, Kelly was wild, unable to locate his pitches consistently, running dangerous counts, and allowing too many base runners while Greinke was consistent, solid, and able to strike out ten.

Yet the Cardinals were able to stay even against a better pitcher and perhaps lineup until finally pushing past the Dodgers in extra innings. This is why I picked St. Louis to win the world series. While anything can happen in a 7 game series, the Cardinals have shown over the past few years that they are very good at winning the games they're not supposed to win.

By the way Carlos Beltran is the best postseason hitter of our lifetime. In 40 games he is hitting .345 with 16 homers and 12 doubles. If you spread these numbers over a full season for reference, he has about 55 homers and 42 doubles, Ruthian numbers. His performance last night at the plate and in the field stood out.