The Los Angeles Dodgers won 106 games during the regular season, and their reward is a one-game wild-card showdown with a St. Louis Cardinals team that was on a 17-game winning streak a week ago.
Two veteran pitchers will start the game in Los Angeles. The Cardinals have won 13 of Adam Wainwright’s last 14 starts. The 40-year-old right-hander has posted a 2.28 ERA with six home runs allowed in 94 ²/₃ innings in this span with just over 1.7 walks per nine innings allowed.
The Dodgers counter with Max Scherzer, 37, who has been the contributor the team was hoping for since acquiring him from the Washington Nationals. The Dodgers are 11-0 in his starts with Scherzer posting a 1.98 ERA with 1.1 walks per nine innings allowed.
Scherzer has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his 11 starts with Los Angeles, but the outliers are his most recent two starts, when he allowed 10 earned runs across 10 ¹/₃ innings.
With St. Louis having allowed four runs or fewer in 19 of its last 25 games, Wainwright and the Cardinals will continue their hot streak and advance to face the San Francisco Giants in the National League Division Series.
The Play: Cardinals, +180.