That one hurt. A lot.

And whether it’s twice being one strike away from winning the game 3-2 while Jason Motte gave up three consecutive hits or the umpire’s bad call on a stolen base by Dee Gordon in the bottom of the ninth (perhaps conveniently not available to watch again online) — the end result remains the same. Dodgers 4, Cardinals 3.

Second wild card slot: tied at the moment. But there are still 16 games remaining. Much can happen — and much positively, we hope, for the Cardinals.

And since last night was so ugly, let’s not even discuss it anymore. It’s over, done, can’t change the outcome.

One positive from the game, however: Jaime Garcia. That was nice to see, even though at times it seemed like Road Jaime threatened to make an appearance. But in the end it was six innings, one earned run, one unearned run (please, Mike Matheny, no Daniel Descalso at shortstop today), three hits, five strikeouts.

Another positive that came before yesterday’s game: Chris Carpenter. He threw 95 pitches yesterday afternoon in a simulated game, and his next outing should be a game start. And it looks like he’s ready for that, as Joe Strauss writes: “He offered the look of vintage Carpenter, loudly scolding himself for poor command while working aggressively to both sides of the plate”

That’s our CC …

As for when he’ll start, Jenifer Langosch reports “he’d likely slot in Thursday in the series finale against Houston or Friday in a series opener at Wrigley Field.”

(If it’s Friday at Wrigley, I have a three-hour road trip coming up …)

One other good news story from last night: the Springfield Cardinals won their first-ever Texas League Championship. It was definitely exciting to be following along on Twitter — thanks to our pal Bob Netherton for all his great tweets to keep us up on the action. Congrats to the Cardinals! There are several back-to-back champs on the squad who won the Midwest League Championship last year, like Kolten Wong, plus there’s back-to-back-to-back champ Oscar Taveras, who also won the Appalachian League Championship in 2010.

Today the Cardinals go for the split against the Dodgers — yes, it really can be called the biggest game of the season — starting at 3:10 p.m. Central Time. Adam Wainwright faces Stephen Fife, who’s taking over for the injured Clayton Kershaw.


Christine Coleman is the senior St. Louis Cardinals reporter for Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @CColeman802, or email aaronmilesfastball@gmail.com. Also follow @AMilesFastball for the latest updates.