Has the starting pitching been great? Not necessarily. You will see the untimely and costly defensive mistakes from normally sure-handed fielders, the back-breaking home runs off pitchers that don’t normally surrender homers, and bloop singles and wild pitches sequenced perfectly to score runs against them. When you watch them play this series, you will see it. The impact flung him back with huge force and the room darkened around him before he too, lost consciousness. The light shot back towards the spot on the floor, a little brighter, a little more wicked-looking. Goldschmidt looked on in horror as his teammates collapsed in their beds. The usually dexterous Edman fell from the top bunk, the normally quick Tyler O’Neill seemed to move at half-speed trying to push Lars Nootbaar out of the way. It shot above him, hitting each person in the bunkbeds one after the other. “Get down!” Goldy shouted out, hitting the deck. “See, there’s nothing there” he started to say, but before he could finish his sentence a light, furious and red, surrounded by foreboding black smoke began to shoot forth from the place of impact. Goldschmidt rolled his eyes, but complied, slowly approaching the spot where the lightning struck. “Here,” Edman said handing him a Louisville Slugger, “Take this with you.” Paul Goldschmidt always gets his full eight. “Look at what? There’s nothing there, Tommy,” he replied, closing his eyes to attempt to get back to sleep. Tommy Edman leaned over the top bunk to look at Paul Goldschmidt. As quick as the lightning struck it had vanished without a trace. The players looked around the room in confusion and disbelief. Those on the top bunk did all they could just to keep from falling out. It was a powerful blast in the middle of the room, illuminating all thirteen bunkbeds. They of course missed Yadier Molina, but he also snored, so it was nice to have the quiet.

Visions of home runs and Clydesdales and swing and miss curveballs danced in their heads. Louis Cardinals were all tucked neatly into their bunk beds in the room that all of them share. It was a dark and stormy night, the night of March 29, 2023. Without further ado, here are the words of Heather Simon, manager of our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.

Today, I present perhaps the best thing you will have ever read among those sent to me by Cubs opponents’ SB Nation site managers. Friends, as you know, in these series previews I bring you some thoughts on the Cubs’ opponent from the site manager of that team’s SB Nation site.

Among the wicked castillo