Bryce Harper has a triple and a home run in his first two at-bats and the St. Louis Cardinals trail the Washington Nationals 6-0, with a trip to the NLCS on the line. That means Nationals fans are still on their seat-edges hoping for yet more runs, Cardinals fans probably have the game muted and are hoping for at least something, and the national press is prewriting their Bryce Harper cycle columns.
Adam Wainwright's weird season reached its pinnacle during his abbreviated start, with home runs and strikeouts coming in equal measures. The narrative about his sudden propensity for home runs—dormant since April or May—is back just in time to worry us for the entirety of the offseason, whether the Cardinals come back to win or not.
The Cardinals added a run in the top of the fourth inning to cut the deficit, but it's still pretty significant—they trail 6-1 after Matt Holliday's double plated Carlos Beltran. Joe Kelly entered the game to replace Wainwright, and he's likely to go multiple innings; if Bryce Harper's going to get his cycle, it'll have to come through him.