The Los Angeles Dodgers renew their rivalry with one of their most-frequent October foils, the St. Louis Cardinals Friday afternoon (3:37 p.m. PT) at Dodger Stadium. To check up on the state of the Redbirds, we enlisted the help of St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Derrick Goold. You can read his fine work, including an exploration of why the Cardinals have handled Clayton Kershaw relatively well, here. Q: Derrick, give us a state of the Cardinals synopsis.