Game Picks - Thursday: October 13, 2011

Wednesday was another thrilling championship series day of baseball. Unsung hero, Scott Feldman pitched another scoreless inning and got a win. Nelson Cruz gunned Miguel Cabrera out at the plate and then hit a three-run homer off of Jose Valverde and Mike Napoli was a hero at the plate and behind it. The Tigers are now down three games to one but have their best pitcher on the mound for Game Five.

Meanwhile, in the NLCS, the Cardinals struck early on Yovani Gallardo for four runs in the first inning. Gallardo did not give up another run after that. The Cardinals made those four runs stand up though as Chris Carpenter held the Brewers to three runs and then a suddenly stingy Cardinal bullpen put the game away with out after out all the way to the house. The Cardinals now lead the Brewers in the series, two games to one and the Brewers are in serious trouble as the next two games are in St. Louis. Tony LaRussa hasn't made a bad move this entire series.

Both the ALCS and the NLCS have games today. How cool is that? The picks for today are:

• The Tigers over the Rangers: Justin Verlander will be a force of nature. The guy is the guts and glory guy for the Tigers and he gets the ball in his home ballpark. The win will force the series back to Texas and forestall a series victory by the Rangers for at least another day. C.J. Wilson goes for the Rangers but will not be as effective as Verlander.

• The Cardinals over the Brewers: Not a good situation for the Brewers. Randy Wolf has been abysmal (Chris Narveson should have been the fourth starter) and the Brewers get to face Kyle Lohse at home. You have to like Lohse over Wolf on pretty much any occasion. The only hope the Brewers have is to get to Lohse early and often. It could happen but the odds are against it. To be sure, the Cards better get a decently long outing from Lohse as they can't keep expecting the bullpen to get that many outs each game.

Yesterday: 1-1

Week: 3-3

Month: 15-10

Season: 1378-1075