Doing What Needs To Be Done

Twice this weekend I started on an entry, only to be interrupted by the family life.  So, our typical catchup entry:

Thursday
Hero: Tough call.  You either go with Ryan Ludwick, who drove in all three runs and had a home run, or Todd Wellemeyer, who pitched 7.2 scoreless innings.  I think I'm going to go with Wellemeyer, because he kept the bullpen out of the game and that's always a positive.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  Pujols seems to have been off lately, or was until he hit Cincinnati.  An 0-4 with two left on didn't hurt as much with Ludwick picking him up.
Notes: The Cards took three of four from a contending Marlins team, giving them a little momentum.

Friday
Hero: Rick Ankiel.  Very good to see him going yard and it gave the Cardinals an early lead, which was a help to Brad Thompson, I'm sure.
Goat: Tough one to pick, as everyone but Jason LaRue had a hit and LaRue drove in two runs.  I guess I'd say Ryan Ludwick for striking out twice and leaving two runners on, but it just shows that not all Goats are created equal.
Notes: The Cardinals put Chris Carpenter on the DL before the game, which was the easy way to get Brian Barton back on the active roster.  That said, unless they are about 110% sure that Carpenter is going to be OK, it'd probably be best to shut him down for the season.  Even the wild card isn't worth risking his long-term use.

Saturday
Hero: Pretty easy this time.  When Pujols hits two home runs, he gets the nod.  Though there were plenty of others in the mix (Schumaker, Ludwick, even Miles).
Goat: Felipe Lopez, though he did walk twice, still put up an 0-3.
Notes: Nice to see the bats come through.  There's not been a lot of power games this year (at least in a while) so it was good to see them break out.

Sunday
Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Two for four with an RBI in a game where there wasn't just a lot of offense.  Apparently, it all got used up on Saturday.  Doesn't help that they were facing an All-Star pitcher.
Goat: Jamie Garcia.  Garcia's done well out of the pen for the most part, but apparently Cincinnati figured him out, as he allowed three runs in less than an inning.
Notes: The Cards haven't won on Sunday since the Sunday after the All-Star Break.  It would have been very helpful to have won this one, but you knew facing Volquez it'd be a challenge.

So, after all that, the Cards are still 7.5 games behind the Cubs, who have looked like the class of the NL Central lately (as much as it is terrible to say).  They did cut into Milwaukee's lead, though, and trail the wild-card by two games.

Can the Cardinals catch the Brewers?  Sure, they can.  If nothing else, they have two games left with the Brew Crew.  But the schedule the rest of the way isn't all that kind to the Cardinals.  Adding up the current W/L records for the teams coming up (and counting them each time they play), the rest of the St. Louis schedule is playing .505 ball.  That's a little skewed by the fact they have two more series with the Cubs, but 7 of the remaining 12 series are against teams over .500.

The Brewers, on the other hand, have a schedule that is playing .501 right now, skewed also by two series with the Cubs.  Of their 10 series left, five of them are with teams over .500.  They also get games with San Diego, which will be helpful to them.

The Cardinals do have a 2.5 game lead on the Phillies in the wild-card standings, so at the moment, they can just focus on the Brewers.  Winning four of five this week against Pittsburgh and Atlanta at home would be helpful because the Brewers have three with Houston and three with Pittsburgh at home.

Good to see Adam Wainwright have a very strong rehab start.  It seems like we've watched a lot of these this year, from Mark Mulder to Matt Clement to Chris Carpenter to the Wagonmaker, but Saturday's game for Springfield was the best of the bunch.  The organization, though, really needs to stop pulling him in various directions.  (That's a good way to keep him on the DL!)  Why you don't want him in the same rotation as Carpenter is beyond me.  Especially with the off days and the potential for a four man rotation (though I don't think they'll ever go to that) why not have your best pitchers take the lion's share of the innings?  That seems like winning baseball to me.

The bullpen really seems to have stablized somewhat.  Until Garcia's flareup yesterday, they were just rolling along, getting outs.  Having McClellan and Perez in their roles seems to be working.  So why toss Wainwright into that?  Let him start, I say!

Off day today, so we'll come back tomorrow and take a look at the Pittsburgh series.


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