Slipping

When you are faltering, even the teams that you should beat wind up beating you.  Which doesn't really bode well for the future of this team.  Four runs is nice, but you'd like to see more than that when all four score in the first inning.

You knew that Wellemeyer was playing with fire last night.  The first seven outs were in the air, and that's just asking for trouble in a ballpark that's not known to be a pitcher's paradise.  Wellemeyer only got 2 outs on the ground, 11 by fly ball and 5 by strikeout.  That probably means that he was lucky to get away giving up only the one home run.

I don't think it's too much of a debate to anoint Anthony Reyes as the Goat of last night's game.  If he hits Miles with that double-play throw, it's two outs, none on and the .115 hitting Adam LaRoche coming up.  Instead, the winning run is at second with one out.  Allowing two extra runs just put the icing on the cake, unfortunately.

Kudos to Kennedy for not only backing up the play but having the presence of mind to throw it to first to get at least one out on the play.  Ironically, that's something I'd never seen before until my softball game Tuesday night, where the same thing happened (though no throw to first was made).  For that and the 2-4, 2 RBI game, Adam Kennedy is the Hero of the game.

It'd been nice if Albert could have come through in the sixth with a couple of runners on, but he was 2-2 with a HBP at that point.  While another hit wasn't unlikely, it's still tough to get three hits in a game.  And I guess you could say it was about time for Snell to get him out.

If not for Reyes, Chris Duncan might have gotten the goat.  Grounding into a big double play didn't help, but it seemed possible that, if he'd taken a better route to Bay's home run ball, he'd have been able to catch it at the wall.  Maybe not, but that's the way it looked to the untrained eye.

So now the Cardinals have slipped into third place, 2.5 games behind the apparently-never-losing Cubs.  Their 13-9 record, though, would lead the AL Central and West and have them a half game out in the NL East.  That said, four of the last five have gone the wrong way and that's a trend that needs reversing.

It might be a tough chore to do that today.  Tom Gorzelanny takes the mound, and the Cardinals have traditionally had some struggles against left-handers.  Gorzelanny sports a terrible ERA, but it's all based on two games against the Cubs, where he gave up 14 earned runs in 5 innings.  In his other two starts, he has an ERA under three.  Pujols hasn't hit him all that well, but Aaron Miles has.  Most of the other Cardinals haven't faced him much, though it is interesting to see that Ankiel is 3-3 with a HR against him.  Being that Gorzelanny is a lefty, I was going to say Ank sits today, but with those numbers, probably not.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cards this evening.  The Pirates that have faced him the most were former American Leaguers, though both Xavier Nady and Jason Bay have home runs off of him in limited action.

This could be a tough one for the Cards, but they really need to get a victory before going back home for a key homestand against the Astros, Reds and Cubs.

Speaking of that Cub series, later today I'll release the lineup for the UCB Game Blog project.


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