Divine intervention. Pope Francis tweeted, “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints.” Saints won. Nothing but crickets from the Vatican about the Pope’s Cardinals.

Nationals are in control of the NLCS after taking two in St. Louis. Card’s Miles Mikolas and Adam Wainwright pitched well. Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer were better. Both threw one-hitters at the Birds after they scored 10 runs in one inning to clinch against the Braves. Jack Flaherty was the beneficiary of those runs, but now his team can’t buy one. Expecting Flaherty to throw quality innings at the Nats. Stephen Strasburg, however, may not be the guy the dead Birds need right now. Nats put the ball and season in his hands and he kept his team in the game after allowing the Dodgers an early lead in Game 5 of the NLDS. Strasburg is 2-0 this postseason and has a 1.32 ERA in six career playoff starts. Thought the Cards would win this series. They still may. But how can you bet them here? Play 10 units on the Nats.

Unlike the Cards, the Astros responded. Carlos Correa hit a home run off J.A. Happ in the 11th inning and Houston won a nail-biter 3-2. W returns us to -468 bagwells.