A year ago the Atlanta Braves entered the month of September with a comfortable 8 ½ game lead in the wild card race before collapsing and missing the playoffs on the final day of the season.
The team went just 9-18 during the month, allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to catch the team and take the wild-card for themselves. The Cardinals went on to win the World Seroes and the Braves were left wondering what might have been.
A year later the team will find out, as they host those very same Cardinals that caught them last year in baseball's first ever one-game wild-card playoff.
The Braves will start pitcher Kris Medlen on Friday against Kyle Lohse for the Cardinals.
Medlen has been stellar this season, going 10-1 as the Braves have won the last 23 games he has started. According to ESPN.com, that streak is a modern major league record.
"It's not me by myself," said Medlen to the Associated Press. "I've given up four or five runs in a start, and guys pull it out for me. My name is in the books or whatever, but it's a team thing. I didn't do it all by myself, that's for sure."
Lohse was impressed with Medlen and the streak the team has gone on during his starts.
"You can't help but notice when someone's having the amount of success that he's had," said Kyle Lohse, who will start for the Cardinals. "It's impressive what he's done. Obviously, the team plays very well behind him, and to be that consistently good to keep your team in games or win games says a lot about what kind of pitcher he is."
Atlanta hasn't won a playoff series since 2001, but the new playoff format offers a chance for the team to change that in just one game. The Cardinals are fortunate for the new format, considering that under the old rules they would be on the outside of the playoffs looking in.
"We know the necessity to make it like a Game 7," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "You do things differently. We've been anticipating it, but I also want these guys to know we just want to go out and play the game we've been playing."
St. Louis made one of the most improbable postseason runs last year after erasing a 10 ½ game lead by the Braves from late August. The team rode a hot streak all the way to the World Series, beating the Texas Rangers in seven games.
The Cardinals lost franchise superstar Albert Pujols in the offseason and hired first-time manager Mike Matheny to replace the legendary Tony La Russa.
"A lot of guys with me in that clubhouse, they experienced last year from being 10 1/2 back and a lot of people kind of saying, 'Go get 'em next year," Matheny said. "It helped us mature a lot and grow a lot as individuals and learn how to handle big situations like the one that's coming up."
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones is retiring after this season and gets a chance to play one more postseason before his career is over. The 40-year-old Jones has played his entire 19 year career with the Braves.
"You don't have that many opportunities in your career to play in the playoffs or to play in whatever this is called," Medlen said. "But especially for him. It's his last year. It inspires you to want to get a few more games under his belt and let him go out on top, which is where he belongs."
The Braves announced on Thursday that they will start backup catcher David Ross on Friday night instead of starter Brian McCann. Manager Fredi Gonzalez said Ross gives the team: "(a) good chance to win a ballgame."
"It's been hard," Gonzalez said. "I've been thinking about this for three or four days. (McCann) is a very important part of our team and he's a warrior."
McCann has dealt with numerous injuries this season and has only hit .230.
"I think going forward Mac will catch, obviously, in a longer series, a five-game series or even a seven-game series if we get that far," Gonzalez said. "We'll play the matchups."
The winner of this game will advance to face the Washington Nationals, who have the best record in the National League.
The first game will be on Sunday with the wild-card team hosting the number one seed due to the new format. For this year only, due to already set TV schedules, the wild card team will open with two games at home before playing three straight on the road.
While the new 2-3 format is different than what teams are used to, it gives the road team a chance to take a fast advantage by taking one of the first two games.
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