Nothing Doing

Boy, if you left the game after four batters, you were just sure the Cardinals were on their way to a romp.  Apparently, that's just what the rest of the offense did--left.

I hate to give the Goat tag to Kyle Lohse, what with the offense as impotent as it was last night, but he did give up four runs in just over four innings.  Whether he could have righted himself without the rain delay, I don't know.  He does have an ERA of 5.94 this month and 7.48 over his last four starts.  It could be a course correction--he had a 5.66 ERA in May before turning it around--but it could be that the Cardinals are glad they've not talked contract extension with him yet. 

I noted yesterday that Pineiro had blown 13 leads this year.  I did the same analysis with Lohse and found that he's given up 8 leads in 26 starts.  Last night was the second time this year--but also the second time in five starts--that he's given up a three run cushion.  (I realize this isn't all that significant and I'm trying to think of a way to weight it for how long the lead lasted, etc.)

Besides, I've made a policy to name a player and not a group for the Goat (and Hero) labels, so the general offense gets off the hook.

Heroically, we'll go with Ryan Ludwick, since we can't give it to the bullpen as a whole.  Without his three run double, the Cards might have been shut out.

And we had another instance of Izzy being Izzy.  I watch the sixth and see him get two outs.  I flip the channel.  I come back, the bases are loaded before he strikes out the last out of the inning.  Always keeping it exciting......

Looks like Chris Carpenter's injury is going to keep him out a little bit--not surprising--and that it's finally gotten the front office to plan for the potential of Wainwright coming back to the rotation.  At least Wainwright now knows what players like Felipe Lopez feel like on a TLR team.  You never can be sure where you are going to play.

Remember, for all Cardinal information, ride the Joe Strauss Live! tsunami this afternoon at 1:00.  One of these days I will do a breakdown of his answers as a blog post.  Who knows, maybe today!

Cards look to get back on track today behind former Marlin Braden Looper.  It's a homecoming of sorts for Looper, who was traded by the Cardinals to the Marlins in the Edgar Renteria deal.  Even though he spent some time on a divisional rival, Looper doesn't have a large body of work against these young players.  It'll be interesting to see if Luis Gonzalez gets a start tonight.  The Cardinals were thought to be a team that had contacted Gonzalez in the offseason.

The Redbird hitters, hopefully fully rested from their night off, take on Ricky Nolasco.  The few Cardinal hitters that have seen Nolasco haven't fared well.  Felipe Lopez has the most ABs, but he'll almost assuredly get the night off with that ugly 1 for 14 against the Marlin hurler.

Cardinals really need a win to stay in this thing.  Losing today means at best a series split, which isn't exactly helpful to the cause.


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