It's Time for October Baseball

The speculation of postseason rosters, pitching rotation and all that rot is over. October baseball has finally arrived for your Los Angeles Dodgers.

The club is feeling confident but ready for a good fight.

“I obviously know that it’s a tough task obviously going against a guy who probably was the frontrunner for the Cy Young,” game one starter Randy Wolf said Tuesday about going against St. Louis Cardinal’s ace Chris Carpenter.

“It’s going to be a battle. If I execute what I want to execute, go out there and throw strikes, I think I’ll give this team a chance to win.”

This sounds great coming from a pitcher who is making his debut in postseason baseball today. Manager Joe Torre isn’t showing too much concern about Wolf’s inexperience in October.

“You’ll see his emotions,” Torre said. “You’ll see him snatch the ball back from Russell Martin, and I think that’s why he is who he is.

“Concern or no concern, I really don’t. He seems excited, and I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of butterflies.”

As for the rest of the Dodgers, he doesn’t have the same concerns most of the rest of the media have.

“The confidence I have is weird,” Torre said. “It’s an unusual group because we could go through a period of time playing teams and you’re wondering what’s going to happen. And all of a sudden we’ll play a series in San Francisco, Colorado, Philadelphia, Chicago, and there they are.

“Talent-wise we have the ability to do a lot of things. I think we’re a pretty versatile club.”

General manager Ned Colletti echoes the sentiment.

“I think we match up with anybody,” Colletti said. “We won 95 games; we had the best record in the National League. We must have matched up all year long with different people. We’ll see.”

Another point of concern of late has been Manny Ramirez and his horrid hitting. But ever the optimist, Torre does feel encouraged.

“Friday night he struck out four times, ad that was certainly uncharacteristic,” Torre said. “Saturday he reeled himself in a little bit.

“He understands his responsibility here, and he tries to get too big and really it affects his balance.

“I think when he’s on his game he’s probably the most balanced hitters there is. And I think he just has to think more in term of smaller, like line drives instead of long way and stuff. Usually the long ball will come when you sort of get yourself back in rhythm.”

As I’m writing this people are starting to filter in the Stadium, and being in the “auxiliary press box” located in the reserve section should be an interest way of covering the game. But everything looks good. Let’s play some ball!

Here are the lineups:

St. Louis Cardinals

1. Skip Schumaker, 2B
2. Brendan Ryan, SS
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Matt Holliday, LF
5. Ryan Ludwick, RF
6. Yadier Molina, C
7. Mark DeRosa, 3B
8. Colby Rasmus, CF
9. Chris Carpenter, P

LA Dodgers

1. Rafael Furcal, SS
2. Matt Kemp, CF
3. Andre Ethier, RF
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. James Loney, 1B
6. Casey Blake, 3B
7. Ronnie Belliard, 2B
8. Russell Martin, C
9. Randy Wolf, P