Hi all. Here’s how I see baseball after game 1 tonight, Wednesday, October 9. Thanks to the Cardinals’ booming bats, we’re not talking about something that happened in 1969, but a year earlier.

During much of this year, the subject has been events that happened in 1969–the Jets’ winning the Super Bowl, the Apollo 11 landing, Woodstock, and all year in Queens, the 50th anniversary of the Amazin’ Mets. Tonight in Atlanta, in the visitors’ half of the first inning, the Cardinals put up 10 runs–something that hasn’t happened in a Cardinals’ postseason game since 1968 when they were on the short end against the Tigers. In fact, tonight’s single-inning outburst was only the fourth time a team plated 10 runs in an inning of a postseason game. The first 2 were in the World Series, by the 1929 Philadelphia A’s against the Cubs, and by the ’68 Tigers against the Cardinals. The most recent outburst was a 10-run inning in the ALCS by the 2002 Angels against the Twins. The Red Birds’ rally tonight led the way to a 13–1 win over the Braves to end the NL Division Series and punch their ticket to face the winner of tonight’s second game which probably won’t end until well past Midnight.

It wasn’t all thanks to the Cardinals’ bats. While they collected 5 hits, they received 4 walks, Freddie Freeman made an error and the Braves’ catcher dropped a third strike. That combination will ruin anybody’s day. Mike Foltynewicz in particular had his day ruined. He lasted 1/3 of an inning giving up 7 runs, after which Max Fried gave up 3 more. It began with a leadoff walk, which can kill you in every league from Little League on up. After the sacrifice for the one out Foltynewicz got, there followed 2 singles, Freeman’s error, another walk and the first of 3 2-run doubles before the inning was done. Such a one-inning demolition hadn’t befallen the Braves since 1925 when they played in Boston, and the Brooklyn Robins (not even Dodgers for the time being) dropped 10 on them in a single inning. The Cardinals put up as many runs in this game as they did in the 4 games leading up to it. And for all the talk in the last couple of years about how the home run has come to dominate the game, this is the one postseason 10-run inning in history that hasn’t included a home run. On, St. Louis, to face either the Nationals or the Dodgers. And hats off to Adam Wainwright who will get at least one more turn on the hill. His boys pulled the unlikely comeback I said would be required if his brilliant game on Sunday wasn’t to be his swan song.