Trust The Man

"Mostly the catcher had just a huge game," La Russa concluded. "Star of the game for me."

Obviously, TLR meant to say Hero instead of Star, but there's no denying that Yadier Molina had the big game last night.  The go-ahead home run would have been enough, but then to throw out both runners, plus his explicit guidance of the pitching staff and there's no debate.  It's great to see Yadi have an all-around game and get some recognition for the work he does behind the plate.

Our goat has to go to Albert Pujols, unfortunately.  Three strikeouts and a walk are not what you typically expect from Pujols, though it is notable that this is the first year since his rookie year of 2001 that he has had two three-strikeout games.  Hopefully that'll focus him and get him on a tear.

Very nice to see the team put the Chicago series behind them and come out against a tough pitcher and start off with a win.  I was very worried about Joel Pineiro going, especially when he gave up yet another lead early in the ball game.  Doing a rough skim through his game log, I come up with 13 leads that he's blown over his 19 starts.  Most of those have been of the one-run variety, but over half have ranged from two to four runs.  He's not exactly a confidence builder.  (I'll try to do the same work on the other starters for comparison soon.)

There was another quote from LaRussa that bugged me just a little, though.

"McClellan pitched out of a horrific inning. Young pitcher (Perez) stumbled a bit."

First part of that is true, reading the game description.  McClellan, with Molina's help, did get out of a jam not of his own creation.  To be able to strand a runner at third (especially the leadoff guy) with no outs is a great pitching performance.  I've got no qualms with that.

But saying Perez stumbled a bit seems a little misleading and perhaps an indication of his mindset.  Perez did walk the leadoff batter, true.  But then, after Molina's help, he struck out the next two guys.  Even if Uggla doesn't try to steal, there's a strong chance he gets out of that inning anyway.  It wasn't like there were runners on first and second, no outs like some of our other relievers have been known to do.  Or that people were hitting him all over the year.  Basically, if you can't realize that Perez's outing was one of the more "clean" saves this bullpen has had this year, there's something wrong.  Apparently, LaRussa's not ready, really, to trust Perez in that role.

As you all know by now, Carpenter is on his way back to St. Louis for evaluation.  When I first heard that, I was pretty concerned, but watching Derrick Goold on the FSN broadcast last night, he made a point that relieved my mind, at least.  It does make sense that, given how much is invested in Carpenter, they make sure that throwing isn't going to cause more problems before he throws.  If he's fine, great.  If he needs rest, well, so be it.  It's not worth risking a promising '09 for the thin reed of '08.

The apparent future closer (at least for this year) had a better outing this time in Memphis.  I expect one of the new blogs on the roll, That's A Winner, will have more on that soon as the author there is a Memphis resident.  You'd still like to see a little better numbers in the stat line, but I realize it's more about working on things than winning games during rehab.  And, as someone pointed out after his first outing, statistically he already looks like he'll fit into the bullpen!

Good to see Rick Ankiel back out on the field.  I was starting to think they'd have to DL him to get Brian Barton back on the 25-man roster today.  I'd much rather see Rick patrolling the outfield than out for a few days!  What move they are going to make for Barton is an interesting question.  Mather's been hitting pretty well lately, as we saw by him getting two Hero awards in yesterday's wrapup, but he still has options and that's big with this crew.  He might go down for two weeks and come back up on September 1.  There's really no one else unless they wanted to cut Kennedy, but that's a lot of money to be paying him, especially since he's under contract for next year.

The Cardinals try to keep the momentum going tonight when they send out their best pitcher not hurting, Kyle Lohse, to face Chris Volstad.  Volstad's never faced the Cardinals, having only six games of MLB experience.  He's done pretty well in those six, though, including six scoreless innings in Philadelphia last time out.  This could be another low-scoring night for the Redbirds.  The Marlins have seen a little more of Lohse than they had of Pineiro and with reasonable success.  He'll really have to be wary of Wes Helms, who has gone yard twice against him.

The Cards are three back in the wild card after the Brewers won last night as well.  They've won six in a row, so they should be due for a setback, though they are going out to San Diego and facing that struggling offense.  A win tonight would be a very good thing!    


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Also on the Network: √ Doing Our Part [Depressed Fan] √ A Quick Question [Depressed Fan] √ Lineup Suggestions and The Bulls (Again) [Depressed Fan] √ Arb Surprises [El Lefty Malo] √ What's In A Name (Besides Taxpayer Money)? [Loge 13] √ None? None At All? [C70 At The Bat] √ Holiday Quick Hits: Too Much Turkey [Arin It Out] √ The Yankees Hate Draft Picks [Depressed Fan]

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