Riding the Wave

Hey, look who has the best record in baseball!

OK, so the Cardinals are tied with the Brewers at 5-1, but still, for a team that was supposed to go nowhere and get there very rapidly, the Cardinals have come out of the gate looking strong.  Of course, I was feeling a little better about the quick start until I read VEB this morning.  Hot starts are nice and definitely preferable to the alternative, but it doesn't have much predictive value.

Then again, none of those teams had Rick Ankiel on them.

I really wanted to give the Hero award to someone else for a change.  Kyle Lohse's pitching I thought was going to be able to get the award away from our latest phenom.  But when you factor in the fact that he drove in two of the three runs with two extra base hits plus had a spectacular catch, how do you go anywhere else?

Lohse, though, has definitely been a shot in the arm for the Cards.  I wasn't big on his signing, but so far it's definitely paid dividends.  12 scoreless innings now isn't anything to laugh at, even if the Rockies have started in a slump and Washington isn't necessarily a powerhouse.

Very tough to single out a Goat in this game.  The only error was Molina on a stolen base, but that didn't hurt the Cards and Yadi also went 1-3.  In fact, almost everyone had a hit or reached base save Adam Kennedy, so by default, he'll get the Goat.   Just proves that all Goats are not created equal.

The Cards have a nice record, but they have been playing on some thin margins.  When you go 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position, you aren't going to win a lot of the time.  The starters have an ERA under 1.00--that's not going to hold.  After six games, their run differential is +12--nice, but it could be stronger.

We'll see how this team looks when they are on the road.  They still aren't facing the cream of the NL--Houston's pitching is weak and the Cards miss Oswalt, then they go play the train wreck that is San Francisco--but it should give a little better indication of how they are going to look in a month or so.

What is positive is the way the Cardinals have been dealing with left-handers.  In the past, about all a team had to do was throw someone that threw from the port side on the mound and St. Louis would struggle.  I think my three-year-old would baffle them, if he threw southpaw.  You'd expect that to get worse with all the lefthanded batters that are in the lineup this year.  But the Cardinals haven't really had problems of that sort so far.  Tonight will be the fourth consecutive lefty that they'll face, and they've beaten the other three.

Todd Wellemeyer makes his second start of the year against Houston.  They've not seen a lot of him, with Carlos Lee doing the most damage off of him.  He's not allowed any extra-base hits to the Houston batters, though.

Wandy Rodriguez takes the mound for the Astros.  The Cardinals have seen him a little more than the Astros have seen Wellemeyer, but not much.  Here's something you won't see often: Albert Pujols is 0-9 against Rodriguez.  In fact, the Cards have had trouble with him in the past.  You know, that whole lefty thing.

Should be a good, low-scoring game.  And there's still time to get in on the Houston YNOT, if you want!


Leave a comment