This is What Getting the Last Laugh Looks Like

All it took was two consecutive days for the Cardinals to play pay-back ball against foes, both new and old.

On Wednesday night, the Cardinals, sick of seeing a Brewers ball club pound them and still find reasons to complain as they did in the first game of the series, took it upon themselves to play the role of a big brother teaching their little brother a lesson in whining when winning. In a series blessed with a surplus of retaliatory pitches, the final straw occurred when Brewers reliever Seth McClung gave Pujols the old plunker with one out in the eighth inning- unfortunately (for the brewers) after both benches were warned earlier in the game by homeplate umpire Tom Hallion. Brewers manager Ned Yost and Mclung were both ejected, but more importantly, Albert Pujols reached first base to start an eventual 4 run rally that jacked the nail in the Brewers coffin on the game and perhaps their play-off chances. Does it make sense taking an eliminated team's psychological war-fare more seriously than securing a series sweep and gaining on the team ahead of them, who had already lost-mind you, in the Cubs? NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Maybe they don't deserve to win after all. Apparently they're not mentally prepared for this all.

The next night, the Cards carried over their pay-back and bitterness at having to fly to NY for a make-up game of the "rain out" from that late June series in New York when the Mets were playing hotter baseball. That game could've actually been played if the Mets were patient enough to wait out the pathetic hour it took for the weather to clear up. Instead, with a double-header looming for the Mets the following day, the club persuaded some puppet body to postpone the game. The Cards knew all too well what the Mets were playing at and the Mets' errant decision appears to have cost them, as the Cards, behind a strong outing from starter Joel Piniero and timely hits from Pujols and Ludwick, gave Gotham's fans something to cry about for the second year in a row. For the first time since May, the Mets are not in sole possession of first place in their division after Pedro Martinez and the Mets lost to the Cardinals 3-0 Thursday night.

As both playoff hopefuls witnessed first hand, it doesn't pay to play a team vying for a consolation prize. The Cardinals appear to be swearing by the phrase, "If I'm going down, I'm taking every body with me".