Hallelujah! It's a Matt Holliday Miracle!

Unbelieveable! Is it Scenario #3? Is the impossible happening? I mean, first we beat Chris Carpenter the other night, granted he wasn't himself, but that's exactly what we hoped for. Weaver, Belli-sorry-o, Kuo, Sherrill and Broxton did the trick and the Blue's bats did just enough damage. What a game by Furcal!

Then, last night, as Saddam Hussin would day, was the Mother of All Games. I still believe, deep down, we don't belong on the same field with St. Louis. Why? We have no Chris Carpenter. Nothing close. We have no Adam Wainwright. Nothing near. (Kershaw will be better than both, I think, but not yet) We have no Albert Pujols or Matt Holliday. The closest thing being the memories of what Manny was and the futures, perhaps, of Ethier and Kemp. But what we do have, it seems, is a bullpen and a lot of luck. Wainwright pitches a gem, his only mistake, one fat pitch to Andre. Kershaw pitched just fine, but not good enough to win, it seemed, until 2 outs, no one on, down 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, when Matt Holliday loses a low Loney fly ball in the lights in the dusk and has it hit him in the belt and bounce away from him. Suddenly, the tough got going and if there's one thing this Dodger team can do, it's take advantage of a team's mistakes. An AMAZING at bat by Casey Blake in which he drew a hard earned walk, kept it going, then enter superstars Ronnie Belliard and Mark Loretta out of Santa Monica High. Bellyache hits a shot scoring pinch hitter Juan Pierre and Mark Loretta, the Samohi Viking, drives in the winner having us all sing Holliday carols.

Questions, questions, some second guesses and more questions: The main one being, should LaRussa have allowed Wainwright to go the distance even though he'd tossed the ball to home 114 times and lefty Andre Ethier was leading off the 9th? Many think he should've. Instead, however, he decided to have lefty Trever Miller face lefty Ethier and it worked. Then he brought in his shaky ZZ Top closer, Ryan Franklin, who eventually coughed it up, thanks in part to his left fielder.

Worries: Matt Kemp's first at bat Wednesday night was a huge 2-run blast that put the Dodgers ahead for good. Since then, he's looked like crap, both at the plate and in the field. His ABs last night were atrocious, particularly the one in the bottom of the 8th with the bases juiced. Is he gonna get it together?

Is Manny done? He sure looks like it. A Manny revival would be major right now.

Even though we've guaranteed home field advantage and a trip back to LA for Game 5 if necessary, I feel like the Cards are still very much in this. If they can win the 2 games at home, which is viable considering how weak the Blue's bats looked last night, (albeit against a high caliber ace) behind the reliable Joel PinIero and then Smoltz or Lohse, they get to come back to the Ravine for Game 5. But does anyone really think the great Chris Carpenter will have another offday in the NLDS? Highly doubtful. He'll come with his A game and if the Dodgers are down, they could likely stay down. They really need to find it in their hearts to win tomorrow behind Padilla and call this thing done. Should be very, very, very, very interesting.

It was nice to see Phhilly drop a game at Citizens Bank Park to the undedog Rockies. Can you imagine if we can hold on and eliminate the Redbirds and if somehow the Mountains can upset the Phils, we'd be playing a team we beat 14 times this year for a trip to the Fall Classic? The Yankees, meanwhile, are LOSING TO MINNESOTA IN THE 8TH as I write this. If I'm a Yankee fan, I'm still not too worried. The Angels dominated the hated Bosox in Anaheim last night and it was a pleasure to see. I'm still thinking it's gonna be a Cards/Yanks series. I know I'm wrong, though, and that's a good thing. Just trying not to get my hopes up too high. It's been wayyy too many years of disappointment.