NLDS – All Matt all the time

I don’t want to focus on the Dodgers being down two games to one as they approach an elimination game today. Instead I’m fascinated about how the Matt’s have dominated this series.

Game One:

• With two out in the 6th inning, Clayton Kershaw had given up one hit, a home run. Matt Carpenter hit what appeared at the time to be an innocuous home run to change the score from 6 – 1 to 6 – 2 and nobody really cared.  It would be the beginning of an hour of onslaught by the Cardinal Matt’s.
• The Dodgers entered the 7th with a 6 – 2 lead but a trio of Matt’s would prove the Dodger undoing.  Matt Adams started the Matt carnage by collecting the fourth straight single off of Clayton, driving in the 3rd run of the game for the Cardinals and making Dodger fans nervous.
• By the time Matt Carpenter came up in the same innings, the score was now 6-4 the sacks were loaded, and Don Mattingly had visited the mound. Whatever transpired, Don left the best pitcher in baseball in to face his nemeses Matt Carpenter. It did not go well. Matt Carpenter delivered a three run double that many Dodger fans will never recover from. It might have been the most important at bat of the series, possibly of Clayton’s career and it shockingly ended with Clayton on the Matt.
• Far from done, the next Matt came up, and in typical Cardinal Matt fashion Matt Holiday planted a Pedro Baez pitch into the left field pavilion putting the game out of reach.
• Matt Kemp did his best, collecting three hits of his own but one Matt on this day could not offset a trio of Cardinal Matt’s

Game Two:

• With the Dodgers leading 1 – 0 in the top of the eight inning, Dodger killer Matt Carpenter slugs a two run home run off of JP Howell. Not only does this put the Cardinals up 2 – 1, it increases the debate from Friday when many fans felt JP Howell should have faced Matt Carpenter instead of letting the best pitcher in baseball try to work his way out of a nasty situation.  I’m not sure even Sandy Koufax could get Matt Carpenter out at this point.
• This time the Dodgers had the right Matt at the right time. Answering the home run by Matt Carpenter, Matt Kemp takes Neshek deep for a two run blast, giving the Dodgers a 3 – 2 lead that they would hold to even the series at a game a piece.

Game Three:

• In the 3rd inning of a scoreless game, that guy hits another home run. Matt Carpenter in three games has now homered against Clayton Kershaw, JP Howell, and Ryu. This from a man who hit all of eight home runs during the regular season.  Only two from the left side. In three three games he has three home runs against three of the toughest left hand pitchers in baseball.  It has been a mind boggling run by Matt Carpenter.
• With three games in the book Matt Carpenter has three home runs, a bases loaded double, and for some reason the key to Kershaws lock.