The Cardinals and Reds start a three-game series in Cincinnati, the Reds leading St. Louis by two games, but only one in the AFILC. The teams are pulling out their big guns as Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Adam Wainwright pitch against Mike Leake, Johnny Cueto and Bronson Arroyo.

The Reds currently own the best offense in the National League, scoring 4.95 runs per game. The Cardinals are 0.4 runs back in fifth place at 4.55 runs per game. Part of that scoring difference come from their play away. The Reds have place the same number of games home and road, averaging 5.20 runs at home, 4.70 on the road. The Cardinals are at 5.04 runs per game at home, 4.04 on the road. Busch Stadium usually cuts down on runs by reducing home runs, so this is an unusual result for the Cardinals hitters.

You see a more normal change in the Cardinals pitchers where they’ve allowed 20 more homers on the road, and their ERA goes up over a run, while the Reds see their ERA go down almost a run on the road. This gives the Reds a perfect opportunity to extend their lead, as the road weakens the Cardinals both offensively and defensively.

The Nationals League is down to six teams vying for four playoff spots, those six team separated by just three games in the standings. All three division winners won 64 games and have different loss totals, while all three second place team lost 49 games but have different win totals. A six way massive tie with these teams would bring about three one game playoffs to determine the division winner, then the losers play a two day single elimination to determine the wild card.