By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today
While being held scoreless for the final 27 innings of the regular season certainly wasn’t the team’s plan headed into Atlanta for the final series of the regular season, the Cardinals were able to stay healthy throughout of the weekend and can now turn their attention toward the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
On Friday, Julio Teheran and four Braves relievers kept the redbirds off the board. After Saturday’s matchup was postponed due to rain, Shelby Miller threw eight shutout innings against his former team to snap a 24-start winless streak dating back to May 17. Finally, in game 162, Braves’ rookie Matt Wisler twirled 8 2/3 scoreless frames in the best start of his big league career. Cardinals starters Jaime Garcia, John Lackey, and Lance Lynn surrendered a combined six earned runs across 13 innings over the weekend.
Despite the end results of those three final regular season games, the Cardinals closed out the 2015 season with 100 wins (100-62) atop a historically strong division. The 2015 NL Central became the first division to feature the top three records in baseball since the beginning of divisional play back in 1969.
The redbirds will have four days to rest as they await the winner of the NL Wild Card Game between those other two top teams, the Pirates and Cubs. The winner-takes-all matchup will be played Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, with aces Gerrit Cole and Jake Arrieta on the mound for their respective teams.
The winning team will then travel to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals at Busch Stadium for the first two games of the National League Divisional Series, which kicks off on Friday.
[Related: MLB announces start times for first two games of NLDS]
NLDS Schedule:
| Game | Date | Time | Matchup | Broadcast |
| Gm 1 | Friday 10/9 | 5:45 pm CT | PIT/CHC @ STL | TBS, KMOX (CRN) |
| Gm 2 | Saturday 10/10 | 4:37 pm CT | PIT/CHC @ STL | TBS, KMOX (CRN) |
| Gm 3 | Monday 10/12 | To Be Announced | STL @ PIT/CHC | TBS, KMOX (CRN) |
| * Gm 4 | Tuesday 10/13 | To Be Announced | STL @ PIT/CHC | TBS, KMOX (CRN) |
| * Gm 5 | Thursday 10/15 | To Be Announced | PIT/CHC @ STL | TBS, KMOX (CRN) |
*if necessary
Quick Hits:
- Yadier Molina will visit a hand specialist on Monday to determine whether his left thumb has healed enough to resume baseball activities, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports. The seven-time Gold Glove Award winner has been sidelined since injuring the thumb on a tag play at the plate on September 20. UPDATE 10/5: Cardinals optimistic Yadier Molina (thumb) will be on postseason roster
- With the four days before the game action, the Cardinals have the chance to structure there rotation as they wish headed into the NLDS. While Matheny wasn’t yet ready to announce his plans on Sunday, Langosch reports that it “looks likely” that John Lackey and Jaime Garcia would start games one and two in some order, with Lance Lynn and Michael Wacha then getting the nod on the road.
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Feature image via Major League Baseball on Twitter.
