The Cardinals, returning back home after completing their first sweep of the season, experienced another set of firsts this weekend, of the less positive variety. After taking the opening game of the series and reaching a season-high five game winning streak, they dropped the final two games of weekend series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates and in the course also surrendered their lead atop the NL Central.

The team will now move into a second consecutive series with a divisional rival that is coming to town a game behind them, in the Cincinnati Reds. But before the Cardinal rebound effort comes to the forefront, here’s a look back at three points to take from the series that was:

1. Picking their spot: The Pirates showed a flare for the big moment in pulling out the series win, which a suddenly anemic Cardinal offense (three runs over the last 18 innings) could not match. Of the 14 runs scored to win the series, they hit five home runs (four of which were solo shots on Sunday) including three from Russell Martin. For the series, the Pittsburgh catcher hit .461 and drove in five runs, with four extra base hits.

Overall, they managed to hang around long enough to win, and for the second time in a week’s time, won a crucial series over their prime contention in the Central so far this year. And did so with Andrew McCutchen both slumping and out of the lineup on Sunday, and second baseman Neil Walker out of the series completely with a lacerated hand.

2. Late Inning Woes Continue: While the Cardinal bullpen received some encouraging news regarding the potential improving situation regarding Jason Motte, in the mean time it continued to struggle to find outs without damage weaved in-between. In 7.1 series innings, the pen surrendered 10 earned runs, with Mitchell Boggs on the hook for three and Marc Rzepczynski another three in two appearances totaling 2/3rds of an inning. Joe Kelly was credited with the four decisive runs in Saturday’s loss, but a Trevor Rosenthal bases loaded walk to Andrew McCutchen is what pulled Pitt ahead for good. The ninth inning is currently looking good, and potentially looking better, but there’s no sign of an upturn ahead of it in sight as of yet.

3.  Miller’s Maturation: Shelby Miller’s streak of 14 scoreless innings in Busch came to an end on Sunday. He didn’t pitch badly, striking out seven over 5.2 innings and allowing three runs. However, he did give up seven hits, including two home runs. Part of Miller’s success this season has been his ability to work at a quick pace, control the zone, limit walks and win with his fastball with regularity. However, as he sees teams repeatedly, he’ll have to start making the adjustments to overcome them. The Pirates waited him out in many situations to get a fastball they could hit, and they did so with success. These are the scenarios that will call for his off-speed repertoire to develop, so that good fastball hitting teams such as Pittsburgh aren’t able to linger for him pitch to their favor.

The season high seven hits he allowed, coupled with the three walks he surrendered (which is the sum of his previous three starts combined), put him in his toughest spot of the season, and produced his second shortest start. However, he has also pitched in rough situations in his two starts versus Pittsburgh this season as well; the Cardinals have been shut out in both of his starts, limited to just three hits in both contests.

KANSAS CITY, MO (November 20, 2012) — The Kansas City Royals announced today that the club has signed right-handed starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie to a three-year Major League contract through the 2015 season.  Consistent with club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Guthrie, 33, went 5-3 with a 3.16 ERA in 14 starts for the Royals after Kansas City acquired him from the Colorado Rockies on July 20 in exchange for pitcher Jonathan Sanchez.  The Royals went 10-4 in his starts, including winning 10 of the final 11.  Guthrie personally ended the campaign on a career-best five-game winning streak.  He was 4-0 with a 2.17 ERA in his final 11 starts, posting the seventh-best ERA in baseball and the third-best in the American League from August 8 to the end of the season.  Guthrie especially enjoyed pitching at Kauffman Stadium where he posted a 4-2 record with a 2.40 ERA in nine outings.

A workhorse throughout his career, Guthrie last season fell just 18.1 innings shy of recording his fourth-consecutive 200-inning season and he has averaged 198.0 innings over his last five seasons.  Jeremy is 55-77 with a 4.28 ERA in 210 career appearances, including 183 starts, for the Indians (2004-06), Orioles (2007-11), Rockies (2012) and Royals (2012).

Guthrie and his wife, Jenny, reside in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with their daughter, Avery, and sons, Hudson and Dash Steven.

With the Kansas City Royals missing another postseason, fans wonder when the team will make the playoffs, even with the expanded Wild Card. How about a playoff format where every team in the Majors is in a playoff tournament for a chance at the World Series? Think it sounds crazy? Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones doesn’t think so.

In a October 5 article in USA Today, the future Hall of Famer said, “Quite honestly, I think if we’re going to continue to let teams in year after year, we might as well just say, screw it; let’s have everybody in. Let’s play 162 games to seed yourselves and then we’ll let the Astros (55-107) have a shot at it and whoever else wants a shot at it, six or seven game winning streak and you’re the world champions.

“We’ll just have a 32-team, single-elimination March Madness tournament. That’s the way I think we ought to do it.”

Ok, Chipper isn’t being serious, but I think he’s overlooking the genius of a “October Madness” type baseball playoff. And someone needs to remind him there’s 30 teams in the Major Leagues, not 32.

With the Astros moving to the American League next year, making each league 15 teams, a 30 team playoff is possible.

Major League Baseball would eliminate the divisions and have a 15 team American and National League. The schedule would be balanced and have Interleague play. All the rounds to the World Series would be a single game elimination tournament, the brackets split between the American and National League. The bracket for each league would be seven first round games, four second round games, two third round games and one fourth round game, the winner of which would claim the league pennant. Then have a traditional seven game World Series.

The A.L. and N.L. team with the best record gets a first round bye and home field advantage through the tournament. The remaining 14 teams would be seeded in the tournament by their record, from 1-14, with the higher seed being the home team. I would seed the teams like this: 7-14, 6-13, 5-12, 4-11, 3-10, 2-9, 1-8, with the winner of the 7-14 game facing the top league bye team in the second round. This makes the teams more evenly matched and “easier” for the top league bye team to advance.

The logistics and travel would be difficult, but it’s possible. Have a day or two off between rounds and the tournament could be done in seven to ten days. Then play the World Series over nine days.

So what are the advantages of this type of playoff format? Well, every team is in the playoffs, which keeps fans and players interested through the season. If you’re Houston, your season isn’t over by Memorial Day. Heck, this even gives the Cubs a chance to make the World Series. Maybe.

What makes NCAA Basketball March Madness so exciting? It’s the Cinderella teams having a shot of knocking out the top seeded teams and playing deep into the tournament. A single game elimination tournament to get in the World Series gives the low revenue teams like the Royals a chance. Yes, a mediocre team could get hot and win four in a row, making it to the World Series. But they still have to win four out of seven games to be champions. And like most tournaments, the best teams are usually in the final rounds anyway.

Think about the story lines and drama of a single game elimination tournament with 30 teams. The pressure of teams deciding who starts their games. Where every move is scrutinized by the fans and media if the team loses, or wins. A one game playoff between the Cardinals and Cubs or Royals and Yankees to make it to the World Series. As a fan of those teams, that has to make you excited if you win and crushed if you lose.

I’m sure there’s some baseball purists out there who believe a single game elimination tournament might ruin the integrity of the game or some other nonsense. They might say, “Won’t it make the 162 game season meaningless?” Let’s be honest. If your team doesn’t win the World Series, isn’t the season technically meaningless anyway? If baseball can survive the Black Sox Scandal, Pete Rose betting on baseball, the designated hitter, interleague play and the expanded Wild Card, it will survive a tournament where every team is in the playoffs.

There is a danger some teams might aim for mediocrity and figure, “hey, we have as good a shot as anyone else to win the World Series, why invest in top players?” That sounds like something Royals owner David Glass might do. Major League Baseball could have a salary floor to force each team to spend X amount of dollars on team payroll so teams wouldn’t stock their roster with lousy, low cost players. Instead, they would have stock their roster with better quality players. Or in the case of recent Royals history, stock the team with lousy, high cost players.

Of course what I’m suggesting is unlikely to happen. No major sport or league has every team in their playoffs and it would be hard to have ownership, the players union and the Commissioner’s office to agree on a radical playoff format like this. But when your team misses the playoffs year after year and you see the team across the state in the playoffs again, the tongue in cheek thoughts of Chipper Jones start making a lot of sense.

The St. Louis Cardinals dropped a heartbreaker to the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Chris Carpenter’s return and a late lead were both spoiled when the bullpen coughed up a game-tying home run in the 9th inning followed by a walk-off base hit in the 11th inning. The Cards’ four-game winning streak was snapped, and they failed to keep added pressure on the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers before their games even started.

It was a brutal loss. But it is far from the worst Cardinals performance of the 2012 season.

In fact, it wasn’t even the worst loss the Cardinals have endured at Wrigley Field this year. For some reason, the Cubs have absolutely owned the Cards when the two teams play in the Friendly Confines in 2012. The Cardinals are now just 2-5 on the season at Wrigley, and four of those Cubs wins have been of the walk-off variety. Maddening? Yes. Shocking? No, unfortunately, it is not.

Frankly, this type of loss has been the hallmark of the 2012 Cardinals. They have dropped a lot of games in their opponents’ final at bat this season. Plenty of arguments can be made about where the blame lies—ineffective bullpen, impotent offense, iffy managing. Maybe a combination of the three is the best answer. Fortunately, these inadequacies don’t surface in every close game. But they’ve shown up enough that we shouldn’t be surprised when the Cards lay the occasional egg at the end of a tight game. The real gut-punch is that this happened with a week and a half left in a season which finds the Cards being chased by a number of teams for their playoff spot.

Every loss this time of year is magnified by about a million, whether it’s a squeaker or a 10-0 drubbing. But finish off one or two of those previous Cubs walk-offs and Friday doesn’t have nearly as much dread attached to it for the Cardinals. They also got no help later Friday night, as the Brewers beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 and the Dodgers downed the Cincinnnati Reds 3-1 in extra innings. Regardless, a number of “heartbreakers” this year put the Cardinals in the position they’re in…not just the events of Friday.

The best thing they can do is get back up to take care of business in the remaining two games this weekend in Chicago, then do the same in Houston next week. A 10-game winning streak is probably a little much to ask from any team, much less these Cardinals. But winning 9 of 10 is in no way shameful, and could be enough to add a game or two to their Wild Card lead.

The bottom line is there’s no reason to get super worked up about Friday’s loss in Chicago, because it happens to this Cardinals team. A lot. They aren’t going to morph into some close game-winning juggernaut at this point in the season. And that may say something about their chances in the postseason—if they make it.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-6 Friday afternoon. It was the Cards’ fourth victory over the Cubs in the last eight days, and their seventh win in eight games. But as far as their position in the National League Central standings is concerned, the Cardinals have gone nowhere.

The Cincinnati Reds have a two game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Central, and the Cards find themselves five and a half games out of first place. In spite of the Cardinals’ stellar week-plus against the Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers, the “Last 10 Games” record of the top three teams in the division says it all: The Cards are 7-3, the Pirates are 8-2, and the Reds—in the midst of an eight-game winning streak—are 9-1. Now that’s stiff competition.

It also doesn’t help that while the Cardinals are playing the lowly Cubs this weekend, the Pirates are playing the even more lowly Houston Astros and the Reds are playing the equally lowly Colorado Rockies. So while the Cards do have to find a way to win at Wrigley Field no matter what—which isn’t an easy task, no matter how bad the Cubs are—they can expect little to no help from the teams playing their competition. The Cards are not likely to make up any ground this weekend…they just need to keep pace with the Pirates and Reds and hope for some luck.

But the Cardinals have been making their own luck lately as well. They still lead the National League in team batting, OPS, and runs scored. And the pitching has come back to the party with a vengeance. Lance Lynn’s five innings Friday marked the first time this month a Cardinals started failed to pitch at least six frames. And the bullpen was strong for the remaining four innings, highlighted by the Redbird debut of lefty Brian Fuentes—the newest Cardinal struck out two in his debut. The biggest pieces of the bullpen puzzle this year, however, have to be Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte. Boggs has 15 holds and an ERA under two; Motte has 23 saves and an ERA under three. It would seem the eighth and ninth innings are all but a lock when the Cards have a lead. The trick is, of course, getting there.

So what does all this mean? The Cardinals are playing great baseball but not moving up in the standings, and the non-waiver trade deadline is Tuesday. It’s a rough spot to be in. Winning without gaining ground can be frustrating, and the Cardinals obviously cannot afford to lose many games right now. But they don’t seem to have any glaring needs at the moment either. Players are moving, despite the new draft pick compensation rules. Where would a new acquisition fit? The bullpen is getting stronger…the rotation is getting stronger…the lineup is among the best in the league…and many of the bench players are starters on a lot of teams. The Cardinals could perhaps use a “presence” bat on the bench—someone always lurking should a big pinch hit spot come up late in the game. A team can never have too much pitching…but who gets displaced in the event of a trade? And Jaime Garcia is close to starting rehab; he could be back with the Cards in less than a month. Is that like making a trade?

Perhaps the best move is evaluating what happens over the next couple days with not only the Cards but the Reds and Pirates—both on the field and off. Reactionary moves are not necessarily a good idea, but if the other teams make major deals the Cards may have to think about keeping pace. But standing pat would not necessarily be a bad thing either. Continuing to win at a .700 clip will almost certainly get them to the postseason. And with an extra Wild Card berth, the likelihood goes up even more. But the Reds and Pirates don’t seem to be going away anytime soon, so the Cards have their work cut out for them…again.

The 2012 ride is just beginning.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter at @birdbrained.

The Kansas City Royals awarded Bruce Chen with the Bruce Rice Pitcher Of The Year Award for 2011.

Bruce Chen was a floundering pitcher who seemed to have lost his way. The Royals felt that he had something left to offer and brought him to the organization in 2009. Now, with a youth movement brewing in Kansas City, Chen finds himself as a defacto leader of the pitching staff, and he is saying all the right things.

From the Royals Awards information: Chen, 34, was 12-8 with a career best 3.77 ERA in 25 starts, leading the club in victories for the second straight season. Last year’s Joe Burke Special Achievement Award winner was 8-3 with a 2.47 ERA in 14 starts against AL Central opponents. He closed the season by posting a 6-3 mark in hi final 10 starts with a 2.93 ERA and recorded a career long five-game winning streak from August 7-28. Chen became the first Royals southpaw to win 12 or more games in back-to-back season since Charlie Leibrandt (1985-88).

It is no secret that the Royals are young, in fact, they are the youngest team in Major League Baseball currently. That makes players like Chen, Jeff Francoeur and Joakim Soria all that more important to the franchise. But it is not a role that Chen takes lightly or feels he needs to actively pursue. During a conversation with i70 at the awards luncheon, Chen stated a desire to lead by example for the younger players and not force himself on them as a “leader” by title.

I like it (being the veteran)…these guys are young, full of energy, fun to be around…I feel like I’m a 27 or 25 year old pitcher. I don’t consider myself the leader, but I try to lead by example. It is an honor and a priveledge to be in the big leagues.

One of the keys to the Royals are the young players coming through the system. Chen stated that he is excited to play with guys like Wil Meyers, who he is not sure will arrive in Kansas City in 2012, and pitchers like Mike Montgomery. His true excitement lies with catcher Salvador Perez, however.

Perez is an exciting young catching prospect and Chen is excited to get to Arizona for Spring Training and start working with Perez. Developing that chemistry with his catcher is important to him as he knows he is not the easiest guy to catch.

It’s hard (working with a new catcher), you roll with the punches, you want to see who the guy is so you can develop chemistry. I’m not an easy guy to catch. I have like seven different pitches and I’m picky as to where I want them. Salvador is a very good catcher, defensively, throws guys out and blocks balls in the dirt.

With a variety of different pitches, Chen took some time to poke fun at his reputation as a breaking ball pitcher when he unveiled his work on a new pitch this off season.

I have my secret weapon, a new pitch for this year, it’s called a fastball. I plan to throw two or three a game. I still don’t have the hang of it.

Chen, who recently resigned with the Royals, thinks that returning to the organization was important to him personally. Not only does he believe that this organization took a chance on him when no one else would, making him feel some loyalty to the team, he also feels that there is “unfinished business” in Kansas City. “This town and fans want a championship”, and Chen feels that he is a vital part to this team being able to bring one home.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

STARTER BRUCE CHEN NAMED

2011 BRUCE RICE ROYALS PITCHER OF THE YEAR

Kansas City, MO (November 3, 2011) – The Kansas City Royals have announced that left-hander Bruce Chen has been named the 2011 Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year. The award was voted on by the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

Chen, 34, was 12-8 with a career-best 3.77 ERA in 25 starts for the Royals, leading the club in victories for the second straight season. Last year’s Joe Burke Special Achievement Award winner went 6-3 at Kauffman Stadium in 2011 and 8-3 with a 2.47 ERA in 14 starts against A.L. Central opponents. He closed the season posting a 6-3 mark in his final 10 starts with a 2.93 ERA, including recording a career-long five-game winning streak from August 7-28. Chen became the first Royals southpaw to win 12 or more games in back-to-back seasons since Charlie Leibrandt did so in four straight campaigns from 1985-1988.

Earlier this week, the Royals announced that first baseman Eric Hosmer won the 2011 Joe Burke Special Achievement award and that outfielderAlex Gordon was named the 2011 Les Milgram Player of the Year.

Remember when the Cardinals’ front office was toying with the idea of trading away outfielder, Lance Berkman, to the playoff-bound Texas Rangers? They even went so far as to put him on waivers, but never pulled the trigger on the deal.

That, believe it or not, was August 31^st… exactly 3 weeks ago. The Cardinals, who were as many as 10.5 games back of the wild card leading Atlanta Braves just days earlier, were still 9.5 games back and seemingly had nothing to play for but pride. At the time, many baseball analysts in St. Louis suggested the Cardinals had only kept Berkman on the team to ensure they could negotiate with him over the next couple months and perhaps lock him in for a contract extension. Few thought Lance would be a driving force behind a desperate surge towards post season play in the season’s final month.

But here we are, exactly 3 weeks later, and the Cardinals are now just 2.5 games behind the Braves in the wild card race. Berkman has hit a mere .385 this month, and the Cardinals have gone 12-5 including the team’s first 5 game winning streak of the season. Atlanta, meanwhile, has gone 5-12 and can’t seem to be able to buy a win, including Monday night’s giveaway in Florida where they were one out away from a win only to have it slip away.

Breaking Down the Next 9 Days
With 9 days to go in the regular season, a lot still has to go right for the Cardinals to make the playoffs… but the schedule does line up in their favor.

Tuesday through Thursday
The Cardinals will take on the New York Mets. They come in with a record of 73-80, good for 8^th in the National League, and have dropped 9 of their past 12 games. The Braves, meanwhile, are in Florida for two more games before an off day on Thursday. The Marlins (70-84) have won 7 of their last 12.

Friday through Sunday
The Cardinals host the National League’s 3^rd worst team, Chicago Cubs. The Cubs currently hold a record of (68-86) and have won 7 of their past 12, but should cool off in Milwaukee, where the Brewers are closing in on the Central Division title. Atlanta will jet off to the Nation’s Capital, where they’ll be greeted by the untouchable Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals currently sit at 72-79 and have won 6 of their past 8 games.

*Important note: If the Cardinals can at least keep pace with the Braves over these six games and stay within 3 games, then it’s anyone’s race at that point, because…

Monday through Wednesday, September 26-28
The Cardinals travel to Houston for a 3-game series vs the bottom-feeders of Major League Baseball, the Astros, while the Braves host baseball’s best team and division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. Houston is 53-100, and will be looking to be put out of their misery once and for all. And while the Phillies (98-54) won’t be sending Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee to the hill vs the Braves with their playoff destiny already wrapped up, their lineup can still out-slug anyone (and need I remind you, the “bottom” of their rotation features Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt).

What it All Comes Down to
Weighing the Braves’ recent struggles with their schedule, I’d say it’s fair to assume they’ll split their final 8 games and finish with a record of 91-71. That would mean the Cardinals would have to go 7-2 down the stretch just to force a 1-game playoff vs the Braves. That’s a tall order, but given their opponents, it’s not an impossible one. Also helping matters, the Cardinals top-3 starting pitchers – Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, and Edwin Jackson – will take the hill 6 of those 9 games.

It will be fun to see if the Cardinals can find a way to pull off the unthinkable. Regardless of the outcome, you have to give the team credit for making this interesting considering all they’ve been through this season (raise your hand if you thought the season was a complete loss the moment Adam Wainwright went down in Spring Training). But forget the injuries, blown saves, costly errors, and questionable managing decisions. There are 9 games left… and only 2.5 separating the Cardinals from a chance at ending the franchise’s 5 year playoff winless drought.

Play ball.

Playoff Preview: First-Round In-State Showdown
Naturals, Travs meet in postseason for first time since 2008

SPRINGDALE, AR – After more than five months and a rain-shortened 137-game schedule, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals and Arkansas Travelers prepare to open the Texas League Division Series on Wednesday night at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. The teams will meet in the postseason for the second time – and first in three years – after a hotly-contested season series between the two teams.

For the first time in their four-year existence, the Naturals lost the season series to their in-state foe, as the Travelers emerged with a 15-14 record in the clubs’ matchups. But after winning just five of 13 first-half meetings, the Naturals went 9-7 against the Travelers in the second half, including a mid-July sweep in North Little Rock and a 3-1 mark in the crucial final home series at Arvest Ballpark. Having won five of their last six games to clinch their fourth consecutive second-half division title, the Naturals enter the postseason in much the same way that they did in 2008.

In that year, Naturals ripped off an eight-game winning streak in late August to hold off the Springfield Cardinals. That season, the Travelers had won the first-half title courtesy of a tiebreaker before falling off to the tune of a 26-44 record in the second half. This season, the Travelers edged the Naturals by a game in the first half and again finished the second half under .500. The Naturals hope that the parallels between the two seasons stop there, as in 2008, the Travelers blew Northwest Arkansas out of the playoffs with a clean sweep.

As is expected in minor league baseball, the two teams have nearly entirely different compositions from when they met three years ago. But one player who spans the two seasons happens to be one of the Naturals’ hottest bats. Mario Lisson ended the regular season on an eight-game hitting streak that included five doubles and a pair of home runs. That impressive finish allowed him to share the final Texas League Player of the Week award with teammate Tim Smith, who has provided pop since returning from the disabled list. Hitting the shelf with a back injury right around the All-Star Break, Smith is 15-37 (.405) with three doubles and a pair of homers since returning from the disabled list. Smith and Lisson have helped to anchor a lineup that is without a true weak spot, from Derrick Robinson’s league-leading 55 steals to Jamie Romak’s 23 home runs and Wil Myers’ solid finish (.267, eight doubles, five home runs after Aug. 1).

Meanwhile, the Travelers in the post-season will lack their offensive ignitor, Mike Trout, who was promoted to Anaheim. One of the consensus top prospects in baseball, Trout earlier today was named by Baseball America as the 2011 Minor League Player of the Year. They’ve also lost one of the top starters in the league in right-hander Garrett Richards, who is also now with the big club as well as their regular closer for the first three months of the season, Ryan Brasier, who left for Triple-A. Without those cornerstone players, the Travelers struggled offensively and sometimes even on the pitching side in the season’s second half.

The Naturals aren’t unscathed, either as they’ll be without their Pitcher of the Year. After leading the league with 161 1/3 innings pitched, Will Smith has reached his organization-prescribed limit. Still, each of the Naturals’ top three starters enter the postseason with individual momentum. Chris Dwyer pitched into the seventh inning against the Travelers on Sep. 1, allowing just a run on three hits. One day later, Jake Odorizzi held Arkansas hitless until the seventh, yielding a lone base hit in seven scoreless frames. Finally, Mario Santiago battled through six innings of one-run ball – with eight strikeouts – in the Naturals’ division-clinching game at Tulsa on Sep. 3. Supporting these starters is a bullpen led by Blaine Hardy, who has been nothing but dominant since returning to Double-A. In 19 appearances with the Naturals this season, Hardy has a 1.59 ERA and is holding opponents to a .194 batting average. In addition, the southpaw has worked multiple innings in 12 of those 19 games.

The rest of the Naturals’ pitching staff is somewhat in flux, as the club will call on a pair of left-handers who spent the entirety of the season with Advanced-A Wilmington. Justin Marks and Ryan Dennick joined the team in advance of Wednesday’s roster deadline and will provide a pair of fresh arms, replacing Elisaul Pimentel and Kevin Chapman, each of whom left their last outing due to injury. Marks spent most of the year in Wilmington’s rotation, and the 23-year-old is a candidate to start either Game 4 or Game 5. Dennick struck out 51 batters in 53 2/3 innings out of the Blue Rock bullpen.

To this point, the Naturals only announced a starting pitcher for the first three games of the series. Dwyer (8-10, 5.60) takes the mound in Wednesday’s series opener against Texas League Pitcher of the Year Matt Shoemaker (12-5, 2.48). Thursday’s second game features Odorizzi (5-3, 4.72) against Chris Scholl (4-3, 2.32).

The series moves to Arvest Ballpark on Friday, as Santiago (5-1, 2.23) will match up against Traveler right-hander Orangel Arenas (9-10, 4.48). Friday’s game begins at 7:00 p.m. Should they become necessary, Game 4 is slated for 1:00 p.m. Saturday with a decisive fifth game on tap for Sunday at 6:00 p.m.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. Visit our website, nwanaturals.com, for information on season tickets and ticket plans.