Phillies in the playoffs: What you need to know about the Cardinals, and what’s changed since 2011

The Phillies were 4-3 against the Cardinals this season, including 2-2 in St. Louis where all three games of this wild-card series (if necessary) will be played. First team to win two games advances.

Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols finished the season 6-for-12 with three home runs in his last five games. He went 4-for-10 with a homer against the Phillies in that July series in St. Louis.

Pujols is fourth all-time in regular-season home runs with 703 and tied for fifth (with George Springer) for most postseason bombs with 19. A little tavern trivia: Manny Ramirez (29), Jose Altuve (23), Bernie Williams (22), and Derek Jeter (20) are the top four. Pujols’ first playoff home run came in 2001 off Randy Johnson, who retired 13 years ago.

If the series goes three games, Sunday will be the first time in 39 years the Phillies and Eagles will each play the Cardinals on the same day. It also happened in 1983, 1974, 1962, and 1961. The Phillies were 2-2 against the baseball Cardinals on those days, while the Eagles were 0-4 against the football Cardinals, who also were based in St. Louis during those years.

The Cardinals committed the fewest errors in team history (66) and turned the most double plays (178) in baseball this season.

Oliver Marmol and the Phillies’ Rob Thomson are first-year managers who never played in the big leagues. When the Phillies and Cards met in the 2011 postseason, St. Louis’ Tony La Russa was in his 35th season as manager and the Phillies’ Charlie Manuel was in his 10th season.

Marmol, 36, is the youngest skipper in baseball and 23 years younger than Thomson. He and his wife, Amber, do charity work in the offseason, including baseball clinics and visits to orphanages in Nicaragua and Guatemala. “God has given us an incredible platform,” Marmol told the South Carolina Post and Courier, “and for us to not use it properly would be a waste.”

The Cardinals had no answers for Zack Wheeler this season. The Phillies’ Game 1 starter on Friday beat St. Louis twice, pitching seven scoreless innings both times. In his only start against the Cards last season, Wheeler allowed just one run in eight innings.

St. Louis activated reliever Jordan Hicks (arm/neck) from the injured list on Wednesday. He finished with a 4.84 ERA this season but led the league with nine pitches over 103 mph.

Hicks and All-Star Ryan Helsley are in the top five of most pitches over 100 mph this season. Helsley pitched for the Cardinals in the 2019 and 2020 postseasons, but this will be the first time he’s the closer.

First baseman Paul Goldschmidt almost surely will become the first Cardinal to win National League MVP since Pujols picked up his third award in 2009. Chicago’s Kris Bryant (2016) and San Francisco’s Buster Posey (2012) are the only National League players to win a World Series and league MVP in the same season this century.

Goldschmidt is 5-for-23 (.217) in his career against Wheeler, and 3-for-20 (.150) off Game 2 starter Aaron Nola. He has not homered in 47 plate appearances against the Phillies’ top two starters.

Third baseman Nolan Arenado, a top-five MVP candidate, is 5-for-14 off Wheeler (.357) and 3-for-15 off Nola (.200) with no homers off either pitcher.

Goldschmidt was raised Catholic but has Jewish ancestors. The 35-year-old was born in Wilmington, Del., but grew up near Houston. His great grandparents escaped the Nazis in 1938. “They were living in Germany and they figured out what was going to happen to them,” he told MLB.com several years ago. “Lucky they got over here.”