The St. Louis Cardinals are batting .148 in the National League Championship Series. They've outscored the Los Angeles Dodgers by a whopping 8-7 over four games. They're actually hitting worse than the Dodgers with runners in scoring position, if that's conceivable.
Team Fredbird might not be dominating, yet they're a victory in Game 5 away from closing out the Dodgers and advancing to the World Series. Why? How? Where?
Double plays. Not entirely, but a partial answer is double plays. The Cardinals have turned seven in the NLCS after leading the NL during the regular season. The Dodgers hit into three Tuesday night in Game 4, and it's pretty much why they didn't win, and why the series isn't even 2-all.
The biggest one came in the fourth inning when the Dodgers rallied and put the tying run at third. Skip Schumaker, hitting for the pitcher, grounded into a 6-3 DP.
The Cardinals deserve more credit than the Dodgers scorn for the second one, which came in the sixth: Juan Uribe hit a ball hard against Seth Maness in the hole at shortstop, where Pete Kozma made a nifty catch and quick throw to second. With Yasiel Puig bearing down on him at the bag, Matt Carpenter made a terrific pivot to get out of the way (the best he could) and complete the double play with a throw to first.
Finally, Puig grounded into a double play in the ninth, with Andre Ethier unable (because of a leg injury) to either break up the play or get into a rundown to stall. That was essentially the Dodgers last gasp.

The Cardinals defense had been shaky the entire series, though the mistakes haven't always shown up in the form of errors. They played tightly around the second-base bag in Game 4. It's a big "little thing," and it's a big reason why they're up 3-1 in the series.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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