Playoffs begin with a couple of old fashioned beat downs

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers certain showed why some consider them to be the two best teams in baseball.

Cardinals vs. Pirates (Game 1)

David Freese and Carlos Beltran had huge nights for the St. Louis Cardinals as they beat up on the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1. Freese went 2 for 4 at the plate with 4 RBI's and made a number of stellar defensive plays, while Beltran smacked a bomb into the third deck which was good for three runs. John Jay also had an RBI for the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates big guns were held at bay for the entire night for the most part. Starling Marte went 0 for 4, and Marlon Byrd went 0 for 3. Andrew McCutchen was the only Pirate who had a good day at the plate going 2 for 4. Which accounted for 50% of the Pirates hits.

To be fair to the Pirates, they were facing one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Adam Wainwright (1-0) picked up the win pitching seven innings giving up only three hits. One of which was a solo homerun by Pedro Alvarez.

It wasn't such a good night for AJ Burnett (0-1) who took the loss giving up seven runs on six hits in just two innings pitched.

Game two is scheduled for tomorrow night in St. Louis. (St. Louis leads series 1-0). 

Dodgers vs. Braves (Game 1)

Meanwhile, the LA Dodgers pounded on the Atlanta Braves tonight hammering them 6-1 in Atlanta tonight, taking game one.

Clayton Kershaw (1-0) pitched seven innings giving up just one run and three hits, while striking out twelve, picking up his first win of the post season.

Kris Medlen(0-1) pitched for the Braves giving up fives runs on nine hits though four innings of work. He took the loss.

Adrian Gonzalez led the way offensively for the Dodgers going 2 for 5 with two RBI's. While Hanley Ramirez, Skip Schumaker, Mark Ellis, and AJ Ellis all picked up an RBI each.

It was a tough night at the plate for the Braves as they couldn't figure out a seemingly unhittable Kershaw. The Braves were only able to manage five hits in the ball game, coming off the bats of Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, Evan Gattis, Chris Johnson, and Andrelton Simmons.

The Braves will look to avoid slipping into an 0-2 hole tomorrow night, as the series shifts to LA after game two. (Dodgers lead series 1-0).

Tomorrow night:

Four games are scheduled for the Major League postseason tomorrow. Along with game two in the respective NL series', the American League will get under way as well with the Tampa Bay Rays taking on their bitter AL East rival Boston Red Sox in Boston for game one of their series. And the Central division winning Detroit Tigers will travel to California to take on the West division winning Oakland A's in game one.