The St. Louis Cardinals' fanbase has a complicated relationship with Matt Holliday—talk-radio-call-in types seem desperate to believe he's an unclutch malingerer who counts his megabucks and doesn't hit when it counts. In their Wild Card play-in game against the Atlanta Braves, Holliday hit a booming line drive out of Turner Field to put the Cardinals up 4-2 in the top of the sixth inning.
So there's that. Holliday's NLDS drop against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first postseason as a redbird has colored his entire tenure here—despite him winning a World Series with the team in 2011 and putting together seasons even better than we might have expected based on his career in Coors Field. Last year's injury-colored postseason, overshadowed by David Freese and Lance Berkman, wasn't much help either.
But if the Cardinals hold on against the Braves and win this Wild Card play-in, Matt Holliday might finally have an obvious, "clutch" moment those pseudo-fans can hold onto. And then—maybe then—they can finally shut up about it while Matt Holliday continues to have a brilliant Cardinals career.