The Cardinals came away with a split this weekend in San Francisco. You knew that it'd be tough to deal with Lincecum and he proved that, striking out 11. I was pretty impressed to turn on the game in the fourth and hear the Cards up 2-1, but that didn't last long. And I knew once they got behind to a guy like that, well, you just had to hope his pitch count forced the bullpen into action.
For a team down 7-2, though, the Cardinals did make it interesting. Two in the eighth and the tying run comes to the plate in the form of Albert Pujols. If you are going to be in the situation, that's about the best you can ask for. Ironic that something generally positive (a wild pitch, moving the runners up) became very negative (intentional walk, double play, out of the inning). That's baseball, I guess.
And the team didn't give up in the ninth, either, having two on with
Chris Duncan at the bat. Down 0-2, he worked the count back even
before being called out on a pitch that was obviously a ball. Benjie
Molina yanked it back into the strike zone, but that only added to the
obviousness. I don't know that the game would have come out any
differently, but that was a terrible call.
Heroes and Goats time. The Goat's pretty obvious: I know it was his first time back, but
Joel Pineiro
has to pitch better than that. Six runs in less than four innings is
tough to take. In his defense, he did have some bad luck (kicked a
ball right back to him, bloop single by the pitcher) and hopefully
after shaking the rust off, he'll be better when he faces these guys in
Busch this weekened. Hero will go to
Ryan Ludwick, with his 2-5 and a HR. He must enjoy San Fran, since he got homers and Heroes in back to back games.
Cardinals get a day off to rest up before taking on the second-place Milwaukee Brewers. The
CardsClubhouse preview is up, as well as the
YNOT
if you are interested. The Cards get the back end of the Brewer
rotation and should be able to put some runs up this series. They've
still not lost a series this year. If they are able to say that next
week, it'll put them in good position for a run through the NL Central,
who will be their opponent for 13 games from April 21 to May 4.
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