NL Wild Card 2022: Phillies vs. Cardinals Hot Takes from MLB Twitter

The Philadelphia Phillies will be greeted on their return to the Major League Baseball postseason by the franchise that ended their last foray into the playoffs.

The St. Louis Cardinals will host the Phillies in the National League Wild Card series 11 years after the two sides met in the NLDS, a series that marked the end of Philadelphia's last championship window.

Philadelphia comes into Busch Stadium as the No. 6 seed in the NL, but it can pose a challenge with its pitching through Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola.

St. Louis has been sputtering a bit on the offensive side of the ball, and it could be the most susceptible team of the four wild-card round hosts to an upset.

The Phillies' path to an upset lies behind the starting pitcher duo of Wheeler and Nola.

Nola produced one of the more underrated seasons in the majors, as Sports Illustrated's Alex Carr and MLB.com's Jason Catania noted.

Nola will likely take the mound in Game 2 after Wheeler faces the Cardinals in Game 1. He and Wheeler have strong numbers against St. Louis' two best hitters, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, as Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia pointed out:

St. Louis has more questions regarding its rotation. Miles Mikolas should start Game 1, but the other starters are up for debate.

Jack Flaherty may be taken out of the starter discussion and work out of the bullpen. The Athletic's Katie Woo called Flaherty "a pivotal weapon," no matter which role he features in during the postseason.

The NL Central champion may need more bullpen help if Ryan Helsley is unable to start the series. Helsley suffered a jammed finger on Tuesday. The Cardinals noted they removed him as a precaution from that game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

MLB.com's John Denton commended the Cardinals for their usage of Helsley and also noted the awful timing of the injury.

St. Louis also has one of the bigger narratives surrounding it in the postseason. Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols will be participating in their last playoff runs.

Pujols comes into the series with more regular-season home runs than Bryce Harper, as well as a few younger stars of the game, as CBS Sports noted.

St. Louis may need its offense to come up with big hits more than Philadelphia if its hitters are at a disadvantage. Goldschmidt, Arenado and Pujols, as well as the small ball of Tommy Edman, could be called on to counter whatever Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and the Phillies produce.

Philadelphia won the season series 4-3, and five of those games had fewer than eight runs. That could mean one big hit may alter the direction of the series.