The St. Louis Cardinals are up 3-1 in the National League Championship Series and one of the main reason for the win in Game 4 on Tuesday night was due to the decisions made by manager Mike Matheny, as he went on a stretch where he seemingly could do no wrong.
To start, he put Daniel Descalso in the lineup at shortstop over Pete Kozma to start the game and that worked out quickly, as Descalso got a hit and ended up scoring the first run of the game for the Cardinals. Decision 1 of putting in Descalso over Kozma to start the game against Ricky Nolasco: Worked!
Descalso was driven in by Matt Carpenter and then later the team took a 3-0 lead after a mammoth home run by Matt Holliday, who blasted the ball into the parking lot at Dodger Stadium in the third inning. The Dodgers crawled back with runs in the fourth to get closer at 3-2, but Matheny wasn't finished yet. In the seventh inning Matheny brought in Shane Robinson as a pinch hitter for a pitcher and he came through right away, blasting a pinch hit home run to put the team up 4-2. Decision 2 of putting Robinson in the game: Worked!
Another move that also paid off for Matheny was bringing Kozma into the game later on for David Freese and then made the switch of him and Descalso at shortstop and that immediately paid off. Kozma was able to turn a clutch double play at one point and he also was at second base when Nick Punto was picked off trying to steal in the seventh and that was a huge turning point in the game for the Dodgers. Decision 3 of bringing in Kozma: Worked!
Okay, so not every move in every game works, but Matheny was magic on Tuesday night and now the team has the chance to get back to the World Series with a win for the second time in three seasons. Matheny came in as a young manager and took over for Tony La Russa and so far he has done a very good job and the game on Tuesday shows exactly why. Zack Greinke will be on the mound against Joe Kelly to try and keep the Dodgers alive in Game 5.
