The St. Louis Cardinals, who own the best record in the MLB, are prepared to face the winner of tonight's NL Wild Card Game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. They've already announced their starter for Game 1 and they're optimistic one of their top players can return from an injury.

John Lackey will start Game 1 of the NLDS on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in St. Louis, manager Mike Matheny told reporters on Wednesday. The right-hander will get the nod due to the injuries to Carlos Martinez, who is out for the postseason, and Adam Wainwright, who will work out of the bullpen since he hasn't had enough time to build up strength to return to the rotation.

Lackey, 36, is set to appear in his 22nd career postseason game (19th start) on Friday. He finished the regular season 13-10 with a 2.77 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 175 strikeouts in 33 starts (218 innings) and owns a career 3.08 ERA in the postseason.

He'll start against either the Cubs or Pirates, both of whom Lackey has had success against this year. In three starts (21 2/3 innings) against Chicago he's 2-0 with a 1.25 ERA and in three starts (20 innings) against Pittsburgh he's 0-1 with a 2.25 ERA.

As for another one of their veterans, catcher Yadier Molina could be back for the NLDS after missing the last couple weeks of the season with a torn ligament in his thumb. Matheny told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com that he's "even more optimistic now" that Molina will be on the NLDS roster.

The 33-year-old caught, hit, blocked balls and conducted other drills on Tuesday and the Cardinals also posted a tweet of him hitting today.

Molina injured his thumb during a play at the plate on Sept. 20 and St. Louis ruled him out for the rest of the regular season after an MRI revealed a partially torn ligament. However, the team said they expected him to be back for the postseason, which now seems to be the case.

Stay tuned for the Cardinals to announce their NLDS roster in the coming days.

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