VEB Podcast: Wild Card Series Preview

Happy playoffs, Viva El Birdos!

The Cardinals have concluded the regular season and are heading to the new 3-game Wild Card round against the Phillies.

Here are the game times:

Game 1: Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, 1:07 pm CST on ABC.
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, 7:37 pm CST on ESPN2.
Game 3 (if necessary): Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022, 7:37 pm CST on ESPN2

Here is the full Wild Card round schedule in Tweet form.

The Phillies edged out the Brewers for the 6th spot in the National League. As the third seed and the division winner with the fewest wins, the Cardinals get the entire series at home. That should give the Redbirds a significant advantage.

The problem is that the Phillies can throw Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola in two of those three games. Wheeler had a 2.82 ERA, a 2.89 FIP, and 4.1 fWAR in just 153 innings. Nola had a 3.25 ERA, a 2.58 FIP, and a 6.3 fWAR in 205 innings.

The Phillies seem perfectly built to win a short series.

The Cardinals, with a solid rotation and lineup, are better constructed for regular season success.

That makes this a particularly tough series.

In the latest VEB Podcast, Skyric, Connor, Gabe and I tackle everything Cards vs. Phillies. We hit the pitching matchups, how we would structure the rotation, roster predictions, and make some predictions on how the series will go.

As always, you can listen and watch right here on Viva El Birdos.

Here’s the podcast audio:

And here’s the YouTube video if you prefer watching us stare at our webcams.

We’ll have you covered in content for this series and the rest of the playoffs, as usual! Let us know what you think about the series and post your predictions in the comments section.

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Happy playoffs, Viva El Birdos!