When I noticed the Dodgers opened their post-All Star Game schedule next week with four games at St. Louis, I thought, “Not again.” It seemed like every year the Dodgers were going to the sweltering summer heat right after the midseason break for a strength-sapping sweep by St. Louis.

That doesn’t happen to be the case, but it’s true that the Dodgers really haven’t had much success there. The team hasn’t won a road series in St. Louis since July 9-10, 2003, and hasn’t won a road series there after the All-Star break since September 15-16, 1997. Roughly, the Dodgers have won about 25 percent of the games they have played in St. Louis since that two-game sweep.

Thank goodness for last year’s National League Division Series. With the Dodgers’ Game 3 victory there, Los Angeles has won a whopping two games in a row in the Cardinals’ home park.