pick to click

St. Louis runs out a lineup that includes Albert Pujols, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, but it would be way too obvious, way too boring, to pick one of them to be the hero in today’s Wild Card Series opener against Philadelphia. The Mississippi baseball aficionado might go with Corey Dickerson, the McComb native and Meridian Community College alum who’ll be playing left field and batting seventh at Busch Stadium. It’s hard to know what to expect from the 33-year-old Dickerson. He had an uneven season, batting .267 (career average: .281) with six homers and 36 RBIs in 97 games. He had an incredible August, batting .411 for the month and getting hits in 10 consecutive at-bats. But he endured an 0-for-26 slump in September, then began October with a grand slam on his son Davis’ eighth birthday. (He also homered on Davis’ seventh birthday. As Dickerson remarked in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, his son “needs to have more birthdays.”) Dickerson does have postseason experience, having gone 4-for-19 for Miami in 2020. He hit much better on the road (.321) than at Busch Stadium (.220) this season, but he is in the lineup as a lefty bat against Phillies righty Zack Wheeler. Unlikely heroes are not uncommon in baseball’s postseason. So, why not Dickerson? P.S. Neither Chris Stratton nor Dakota Hudson, both Mississippi State products and right-handed pitchers, made St. Louis’ initial postseason roster.