St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny has posted his lineup for Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, and -- with right-hander Ryan Vogelsong starting for the Giants -- it looks a lot like Matheny's Game 5 lineup ... and his Game 4 lineup, and all the lineups before that ...
1. Jon Jay* - CF
2. Carlos Beltran# - RF
3. Matt Holliday - LF
4. Allen Craig - 1B
5. Yadier Molina - C
6. David Freese - 3B
7. Daniel Descalso* - 2B
8. Pete Kozma - SS
9. Chris Carpenter - P
It's probably safe to say that Mike Matheny doesn't put a great deal of thought into his lineups. With the exception of Game 4 last Thursday night -- when Matt Carpenter subbed for the injured Carlos Beltrán -- Matheny has deployed the same eight position players in the same lineup slots in all 11 of the Cardinals' postseason contests.
The Cardinals are hoping Game 6 is not a repeat of Game 2, when Carpenter lasted only four innings, while the Cards managed to score just one against Vogelsong in seven innings, and lost 7-1.