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After a tough loss last night, the magic number is still 3. Today's game is a "nationally televised" game, but I'm using that term loosely because I'd venture to say if you're not already getting the game in your market, today won't be much different. You can see the coverage map for today's game here.
Today's game features rookie Travis Wood taking on Jon Garland. Despite not getting as many innings lately as required for quality starts, Wood comes into this game with 3 or less runs given up in each of his last 5 starts. On the other side, Garland's had a solid season so far, but his ERA in September is 5.32 going into today. Let's take advantage of that.
When it comes to our guys on offense, a few changes to report. Joey Votto starts his first game since going down with a sinus infection, Drew Stubbs is back in the leadoff spot for today (!) and the slumping Brandon Phillips has been moved down to 7th in the batting order (!!), the lowest he's hit since '06.
The Cardinals are playing the Cubs at Wrigley right now, so we need the Baby Bears to come through if we want to get this magic number down to 1 by the end of today. No matter what the Cards do, if we win today, there's a possibility we can clinch tomorrow. We've got to the point in a Mortal Kombat game where the voice over has instructed to "Finish Him!". Time to land the death blow to this division and get ready for the big time.
Go Reds! They're my favorite team that's close to winning their division!