The St. Louis Cardinals pursuit of their 12th World Series Championship started with a hard-fought win over Pittsburgh in the National League Division Series.

In his latest edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson explains how it's unusual for the Cards and Pirates to be playing meaningful games against each other so late in the season.

Reading Baseball is a series of original essays and commentaries by Richard "Pete" Peterson, author of Pops: The Willie Stargell Story and Growing up with Clemente.