Cardinals to rely heavily on pitchers, catcher Yadier Molina in the postseason

The Dodgers cruised into the playoffs, leading the National League West for 106 days and moving into first place to stay with more than two months left in the regular season.

The St. Louis Cardinals clawed their way in, winning 19 of their final 28 games to clinch the NL Central title on the final day of the regular season.

The Dodgers were second in the league in scoring, second in hitting and have a starting rotation that won more games than any other in the majors.

The Cardinals scored only four more runs than the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks, had a higher earned-run average than the New York Mets and hit fewer home runs than the San Diego Padres.

Yet, when the teams open a division series Friday at Dodger Stadium, meeting in the playoffs for the third time in the Dodgers’ last six postseason trips, St. Louis may have the advantage. At least that’s the opinion of Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny, who says his team’s frantic finish could give it an edge.

“I think you see that pretty often,” he said. “Teams that just do get in, they’re playing for their lives every single day. And so when they get to the postseason there is not a different pressure. It’s been pressure for a while.”

But the Cardinals have more going for them than momentum and an ability to perform under pressure. They also have Game 1 starter Adam Wainwright (20-9 record, 2.38 ERA), arguably the best pitcher in baseball after Clayton Kershaw, and catcher Yadier Molina, who is undoubtedly baseball’s best catcher.

“Their young pitching, Yadi kind of gives them a confidence that you don’t necessarily have with somebody else,” Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s part of the preparation if you have to play them.”

With a catcher’s ERA of 3.20 and a 48% caught-stealing percentage, both the best figures in the league for a player with at least 90 games, Molina is also part of the reason the Cardinals led the majors with 23 shutouts, or about one out of every four victories they had this season. And without that pitching and catching the Cardinals wouldn’t have reached the postseason after averaging 3.8 runs per game, hitting a league-low 105 home runs and batting .253, better only than the Oakland Athletics among playoff teams.

St. Louis had only one .300 hitter in outfielder Jon Jay (.303), one player with more than 20 home runs in shortstop Jhonny Peralta (21) and no one with more than 90 runs batted in. Dodgers second baseman Dee Gordon stole more bases (64) than the Cardinals (57). And despite all that late-season momentum, seven of the last 14 runs the Cardinals scored were on an out or an error.

That’s a big turnaround from 2013, when the Cardinals led the league in runs and were second in hitting in the regular season before beating the Dodgers and Kershaw in the Championship Series.

So they found a different way to win with five pitchers with ERAs under 3.00 and a bullpen that led the majors with 55 saves.

“Last year we had the best offense in the league. This year we had a bunch of shutouts by the pitching staff,” infielder Daniel Descalso said. “There were ups and downs. We were able to win the division when a lot of people didn’t think we could in the middle of the season.

“We in the clubhouse always thought that we had the team that would win the division and go deep in the playoffs. When it came down to crunch time in September, people stepped up and we won the games we had to, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Matheny, who took St. Louis to the Championship Series in each of his first two seasons as manager, agrees. And if this year’s path to the playoffs has been tougher, proving the doubters wrong, he said it has made it sweeter too.

“We had high expectations early. There were eyes on this team,” he said. “And then a whole bunch of people jumped off our ship and I think that united everybody. We trusted each other [when] nobody else believed in us.

“It caused an edge to this club that they’ve kept the whole season.”