Recently in Colorado Rockies Category
Posted on February 27, 2010 at 10:20 AM
Last year before the season began, I posed five questions to a
blogger for each team, so as to get to know the rest of baseball. I
focus so heavily on the Cardinals that sometimes the rest of MLB can
pass me by. That went very well, so much so that it spawned not only a
postseason edition but was part of the impetus for the formation of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.
So this year, I've brought Playing Pepper back,
with a little bit of a twist. Instead of five questions, I posed 10
questions, and this year every team got the same set. Plus, tapping
into those BBA connections, I sent them to every blogger representing
that team in the BBA.
We'll try to do two a day in a general alphabetical order, but things may change depending on responses.
Colorado Rockies
2009 Finish: 92-70, second in the NL West, NL Wild Card, lost in NLDS
I recently received my copy of Baseball Prospectus 2010 and read through the Rockies section, finding some glowing words about the current management of the team and how they've learned to play without worrying as much about the ballpark.
David Martin writes for the blog
Rockies Review and he took the time to go over the Playing Pepper Ten.
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Posted on October 6, 2009 at 10:58 PM
If you were reading this blog before this season started, you may remember a series I did called "Playing Pepper", where I asked five questions of a blogger covering each major league team. With the season coming to a close, I thought I'd tap into the talents of the newly formed Baseball Bloggers Alliance and ask five new questions of the bloggers covering the postseason teams.
The Rockies had a rush this season, coming from way back to almost take the NL West title, before settling for the wild card. David from Rockies Review and Miles from Inside the Humidor let us know what's going on with the rare air team.
C70: What is the Rockies' strength going into October?
ITH: The Rockies strength this year going into October is pitching, with Cook, Jimenez, and De La Rosa. But even stronger than the pitching in my belief is management, Jim Tracy's ability to manage the game and remove guys when things are not going well or substituting the right guys to gain an advantage. His trust in his team shows and he allows them to play the game and they knowledge of his support is evident. So I would say the real strength is Jim Tracy.
RR: The Rockies strength going into October is their depth. They scored the second most runs in the league, yet didn't have a single player with more than 92 RBI's (Troy Tulowitzki). They have four starters in the outfield, meaning one will always be ready on the bench if needed, and Ryan Spilborghs as their fifth outfielder who is pretty formidable. Their defense is also a strength. Clint Barmes and Troy Tulowitzki are possibly the best middle infield combo in the league. They have great range and great arms. With the extra outfielders, plus the addition of Jason Giambi, the Rockies have no shortage of talent.
C70: What worries you about the team?
RR: If there is a spot on the Rockies team that is worrisome it is their strikeouts. This team does way too much striking out. In fact, in 2009 they set a club record for strike outs. With runners on base this team struggles to move the runner over and play small ball. While they lead the league in sacrifice flies, they seem to leave runners on base all the time do to the extreme number of K's.
ITH: Right now the biggest worry is Jason Marquis, but also I worry about consistency at the plate. Can the offense consistently produce runs and not leave 8-10 men on base?
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Posted on September 28, 2009 at 10:44 AM
The Cardinals were able to lock up the NL Central this weekend. They weren't able to lock down worries about the postseason, however.
The clincher was nice and you have to give all credit to
Adam Wainwright. 130 pitches and he's still able to strike out batters to keep the St. Louis lead in the eighth. Chris Carpenter says that
locked down the Cy Young for him. While I'm still fairly sure Tim Lincecum is going to have a say in that still, getting to 19 wins with the supporting numbers he has for a postseason team is going to be a hard resume to overlook. A game like Saturday's, with everyone in baseball looking at him, may have put him over the top.
I was on Twitter at the end of the game and expressed strong relief after Ryan Ludwick's home run gave the Cards
a three-run cushion. Not only was it a big hit for a team that doesn't seem to be able to get them all that often, but it meant that Ryan Franklin didn't work with just a one-run lead. That became vital when he allowed a runner to get to third in the ninth before locking everything down.
Give credit to Jason LaRue as well. Only in there because Yadier Molina had been injured during the game, LaRue cranks the home run that broke the tie and put Wainwright in the driver's seat. After getting the lead back, there was no way Wainwright wanted to give it up again, which leads to the reasoning behind 130 pitches.
Tough night for
Joe Thurston, though, as he was hitless in his two at-bats before being replaced by Mark DeRosa and he made an error that led to one of the runs against Wainwright.
You don't want to say that they took
Sunday's game less seriously than others, but the lineup was a little on the wacky side, even for Tony LaRussa. I'm sure Tyler Greene was a little worried about playing outfield for the first time ever. It was a way to get him and David Freese into the lineup, though, which is a good thing.
Albert Pujols set an assist record for first basemen and drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double in the third, accounting for
all the Cardinal runs. That gets him the Hero tag, doesn't it? Normally, it would, but striking out later with the bases loaded (exactly how many times did this team have the bases loaded yesterday? At least three that I know of, some with less than two outs, and only once could they get runs in) as well as the error on Eric Young's grounder (which was really inexplicable. It just popped right out of the glove) and the
baserunning at the end of the game takes away from his overall performance.
I understand his reasoning, somewhat, in taking off on contact. And indeed, if Clint Barmes doesn't make that spectacular play, AP's on third with a tie game and one out. That said, that ball was almost caught by the outfielder, and Julio Lugo really needed to be tagging up instead of so far off the bag. I was excited at the time because I was sure that tumbling catch at least allowed Lugo to score, but no such luck.
Anyway, let's give the Hero tag to
Kyle Lohse. It wasn't a dominating performance by any means, though it might have looked a little different without Albert's error, but it was a servicable outing with no major blowups. Lohse kept a good hitting lineup in check in their own park, which may help in getting him to the #4 slot in the postseason rotation and moving John Smoltz to the pen. I'd expect they'd want to see him throw one more time, though that would be against the Brewers at home.
On the down side,
Ryan Ludwick has to be the Goat. No hits, three strikeouts, five left on. If he'd just been able to put that ball a little farther away in the ninth.....
Over the weekend, there was a
little more information about Wagner Mateo out there. Turns out his eyes are weak even with the contacts--without them they are exceptionally bad. Mateo might get a contract from someone and I hope that he does, but I can see--no pun intended--why the organziation decided to cover itself in this situation.
There's an interesting
article about the Molina brothers over at CBS Sports. Too bad that it appears Bengie won't be making it in this season. It'd be nice to have them all in the playoff hunt after losing their father.
The Cardinals have an off day today, then spend time in the Queen City before heading home to wrap the season. Hopefully they can use these out of it teams to get things kick started for the real work yet to come.
Posted on September 26, 2009 at 9:15 AM
All the Cardinals needed was a win. A win to head to October. A win, and Chris Carpenter was on the mound. It was all set up for a perfectly appropriate ending.
However, someone forgot to either tell the offense or the Rockies, depending on who was more at fault.
It's a problem when the Rockies score in the first and you wonder if that's going to be enough to win the game. It's a bigger problem when it just about was, if it wasn't for Ryan Ludwick's solo home run in the seventh. For all the talk about this vaunted offense, it can sputter just about as easily and as often as the cobbled-together May version.
Carpenter wasn't quite as sharp as he normally is, walking three batters, but still did only allow the one run. It was interesting to hear him talk about the
different slope on the playing mound than the bullpen mound. Wonder if that was intentional by the Rockies ground crew or just a slight different that he happened to notice.
How this will affect his Cy Young candidacy remains to be seen. On the plus side, he did throw seven innings of one-run ball and he's not getting run support. On the other, it was another game that his team lost, so some voters may dock him for that.
It wasn't the best of homecomings for Matt Holliday. He did get one two-out single with no one one, but left five on during the game, not including the double play he hit into in the eighth when the Cardinals had probably their best chance of taking the lead.
Speaking of Holliday, there's no contract talks going on, as John Mozeliak insists they'll
wait until the team is done playing. By now, there's probably not any reason not to do that, especially since you don't want a distracted player in October.
So the Cardinals have yet to beat the Rockies this season, having been swept in a four game series earlier in the year which kick-started Colorado's run to postseason contention. Adam Wainwright tries to stop that streak tonight.
Wainwright got the loss in
his earlier meeting with the team in purple, allowing three runs (two earned) in six innings. That was before he was
Adam Wainwright, though. It's hard to remember now that he struggled a little in April and May. If he hadn't, they'd already have his name on the Cy.
Historically, Wainwright's been pretty tough on the Rockies hitters, though. If he keeps getting ground balls tonight, the Cards should be in pretty good shape.
Opposing him is Ubaldo Jimenez. In the
UCB's recent interview with
Viva El Birdos founder and Colorado resident Larry Borowsky, Jimenez was tabbed as a key to a postseason matchup with the Birds and the Rox. So getting a win against him tonight could give some positive feedback toward postseason thoughts.
Jimenez did a pretty good job against the Cards in his
one outing against them in 2009, going seven strong and only allowing two runs. St. Louis hasn't done just a whole heck of a lot against him
in his career either, so it could be another close and late game tonight.
Might be a moot point, though, because the Giants and Cubs play this afternoon. So the Cards may be in the playoffs before they even take the field. Right now, I'll take it anyway it wants to come!
Posted on June 9, 2009 at 10:53 AM
So possibly the
worst four game series in the history of
the Cardinals came to a close yesterday not with a bang, because that seems
impossible for the team right now, but with the expected whimper.
Without
Brendan
Ryan, it likely would have been another shutout against a team that, even
on a five game winning streak, still sits last in the NL West.
The listlessness of the game actually makes it hard to find
a Goat. Brad Thompson was serviceable as
the starter, even if Tony La Russa didn't let him linger around long. Chris Perez allowed a run in his inning after
the Cards had cut the lead to two, but it really was just window dressing. As I've often pointed out, the Cards have
rallied from three or more runs down only twice this year, so once it got to
4-1, you had to feel like it was about over, even with the extra run scored by
the Birds. Maybe that's why we should go with Jason Motte, who gave the Rockies their three run bulge.
Being a day game, I was actually able to follow the game on
Fox Sports Midwest's live blog, via Twitter discussions, and on the
CardsClubhouse game thread as well as listening to John Rooney and Mike Shannon
on XM Radio. Reading the comments and
discussions, you can tell that Cardinal Nation is very frustrated. The expectations for Chris Duncan and Rick
Ankiel are about as low as possible.
People are worried about the pitching staff. All in all, the natives are restless.
It may be one of the reasons that Bill DeWitt came out and
said, yes, we can take on payroll if the situation is right. While the cynics in Cardinal Nation will say
something along the lines of talk is cheap, I think it's an encouraging
thing. Usually the talk is about
containing payroll, being able to stretch just a bit. I think that with attendance being so above
what they had projected, there's a good chance a significant amount could be
added. Whether it will or not is a
totally different topic, but I think that if a trade isn't made, it's because
the two teams couldn't match up, not because the Cards wouldn't take on the
contract.
I do hope that John Mozeliak is working the phones pretty
hard, though. The only reason the Cards
are still in contention is the fact that the pitching staff had that amazing
run in the latter part of May. Lose a
couple of those games, which could have easily happened given the lack of
offense, and the Cards are closer to five games out now. Resting on the "we're 2.5 games out" laurel
isn't going to hack it much longer, because it doesn't take long for 2.5 to get
to 6 to get to 10.
I think, more than anything, the team needs a mental boost,
the knowledge that the club is working for them as well as them working for the
club. I know that a lot of teams are
still counting themselves in contention and therefore aren't necessarily
willing to part with much, but even a small deal now that leaves you bullets
for one closer to the end of July might work from the reinforcement end of
things.
Speaking of reinforcement, Khalil Greene is on his way to
Memphis to start his rehab assignment. I
honestly didn't expect to see him back in the news so early and wonder if he's
really ready for this. He's saying the
right things, the club's saying the right things, and maybe a few days away
from the game, with counseling and potentially medication, really did get him
on the road to recovery. You have to
hope so, if only for his sake. Plus if
he can get back to an average season for him, that'll help the offense right
there.
Tonight, the big club takes the field in Florida while the
front office looks to the future. Chris
Carpenter takes to the mound hoping to stop the losing that has gone on since
his last outing. The Marlins basically
haven't seen Carpenter before, so they could be in for a long night. (If, for some reason, Carpenter gets touched up,
the wailing and gnashing of teeth in Cardinal Nation goes up 50% tonight.) Josh Johnson has a touch more experience with
the Cards, who have hit him in the limited exposure. Albert Pujols even has a home run off of him,
something that'd be great to see tonight as well.
My guess for the lineup tonight:
Schumaker 4
Ankiel 9
Pujols 3
Rasmus 8
Ludwick 7
Molina 2
Greene 5
Carpenter 1
Ryan 6
I was suggesting Colby Rasmus in that cleanup slot
yesterday, and TLR has indicated that, while initially opposed to it, he's
coming around to thinking it couldn't be any worse. Expect to see Colby in that slot tonight.
The front office will be drafting tonight, with no real
indications on who they will take. I
know little about the draft--though I hear that Strasburg kid is pretty good,
wonder where he'll go--so check out Derrick Goold's wrapup on some possible
picks and, of course, keep it tuned to Future Redbirds as they follow and
discuss this evening. I understand you
can follow it on Twitter as well, which is pretty neat. I'd check out some of the MLB Network
coverage if I had the station, but you've heard that rant before.
You'd like to think that if the Cards could bust out in a
game, maybe they'd get something going.
It'd just be nice to see some crooked numbers for once, though.
Posted on June 8, 2009 at 8:17 AM
Putrid. Pathetic. Despair-causing. Ugly. Pick your negative adjective and you could apply it to the three games this weekend against the Rockies. When your opponent scores more in one inning (9) than you do in three games (7), you could be in a slump. When your opponent scores more in its
lowest scoring game than you have in a week and a half, you are in a slump.
At least
Friday was a decent game that the final score disguised as a blowout. Adam Wainwright, while not as dominant as he's been at times this year, did well enough to keep the Cards in the game. Take that back, he did well enough to keep a normal offense in the game. When he
left with the score 3-1, there was a strong chance the game was over anyway. That didn't give
Dennys Reyes and Jason Motte and Jess Todd the right to go blow things out of proportion, however. Sure, the Cards scored a few runs late with homers by
Yadier Molina and Ryan Ludwick, but you have to figure by that time, with that lead, Rockie pitchers are just putting it in there, letting people hit it to get out of the innings.
Speaking of Jess Todd, I've not had this explained to my satisfaction yet. The Cardinals designate Blaine Boyer so they can bring up Todd. They add Todd to the 40 man roster and start his arbitration clock. They go through all of that, then send him back down the next day for Blake Hawksworth? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see Hawksworth get a call up as well, but it seems ridiculous to go through all of that with Todd for a couple of innings. Unless there's some sort of trade showcasing going on (and neither of them really passed that test, did they?) it doesn't make sense.
Saturday was another listless, unexciting game as the Cardinals continued to hit Aaron Cook's pitches into the ground and Ian Stewart kept hitting pitches out of the park. Four hits won't win many games, though at least one of them was a
Rick Ankiel home run. Still, with the way this team is performing, when an opponent reaches a lead of three or more, it's basically over. Which makes it depressing when that happens in the fourth. You could probably pick numerous Goats, but
Todd Wellemeyer giving up six runs, including two homers to Stewart, will do the trick.
At least on
Sunday the Cardinals had a lead for a while before the bullpen, again, was less fireproof than fire starter.
Sunday also had the novelty of Albert Pujols driving in
two runners on a sacrifice fly. (Just when you think you've seen it all out of the guy.....) But the game again boiled down to not enough offense (only
Colby Rasmus and Pujols, and AP didn't do anything after that rare sac fly) and an explosion in the pitching staff, this time by
Kyle McClellan.
It's getting to the point where, as a fan, you throw up your hands and wonder what is going to go wrong now. At least earlier in the season, there was great pitching giving the Cardinals a chance to win and distracting from the offensive woes. I don't mind 3-2 games or 2-0 games if the Cardinals are winning them. It's just tough to stomach two runs or less on a regular basis when the pitching staff is giving up four or five.
If Bernie Mikalsz is to be believed (and there's not really any reason he shouldn't be, save the fact he likes to stir things up occasionally), the clubhouse is starting to have the
same doubts and frustrations. I'm not to the level of suggesting John Mozeliak package the farm for anybody, but I do hope he's being creative. Someone suggested Ryan Zimmerman, though the odds of the Nats moving him are almost zero. Still, things like that, thoughts not necessarily being hashed and rehashed in the marketplace of ideas, are more likely to improve this team than the ones being batted about.
If getting smacked around by a last place team wasn't enough, today we get Brad Thompson back on the mound against an old acquaintance. I wouldn't say friend, because Jason Marquis frustrated a lot of people when he was in St. Louis. I was one of his early defenders, saying he hadn't been as bad as his detractors claimed. By the end of his tenure, though, there wasn't much left to defend.
Still, because he's a former Cardinal, you know he's going to wind up handcuffing this already anemic offensive production. He has a
pretty decent history against most of these Redbirds, though the maligned outfield has done damage against him, which hopefully won't tempt Tony La Russa to sit Rasmus tonight, even though Chris Duncan is .300 with a HR, Ankiel is .400 (in five at bats) and Ludwick is .333 (in six at-bats). St. Louis was able to get to him
last time they faced him, so maybe Marquis won't be able to get revenge this afternoon.
Thompson, on the other hand,
doesn't have good numbers against the Rockies. Nobody's taken him deep, but they put the runners on. He actually has a career ERA of 1.50 against Colorado, but there's no way to tell how many inherited runners might have scored in those games (at least, not where I'm looking).
It's an afternoon tilt, so maybe the bats will warm up. Otherwise, it's going to be a frustrating Monday and a long flight to Florida.
A friend of mine works for the Cardinals and suggested I pass along this deal if anyone is interested. You can see the Cards take on the Giants from the Legends Club for $70, which is apparently 30% off the regular price. If interested, click here and check it out. The coupon code is INSIDER.
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 8:59 AM
Get an MVP and a Cy Young together and what do you get? A victory, at least these days for the Cardinals.
Last night's game was a wonder to behold, but it usually is when Chris Carpenter is on the mound. It's amazing that all the expectations, all the hype we've had about Carpenter the last few years, while he's been hurt and unable to pitch, were actually
understatements. He's been as dominant as any pitcher I've seen and he does it without (usually) a high number of strikeouts. He just knows how to pitch and it's special
every time he takes the mound.
(Speaking of special, two complete games last night between him and Aaron Harang? How often does THAT happen these days? Very cool.)
If he keeps up this run, how much will the month off for the oblique hurt him in his chances for another Cy Young? And, if Carpenter won another Cy, how long would it take to get a statue of him outside Busch?
Carpenter was impressive, but without
Albert Pujols, he might have suffered another tough-luck no decision or even loss. Pujols went yard and
drove in all three runs. All that, plus his baserunning was on display again as he completely deked out Brandon Phillips from second, causing him to throw wildly to first (and then Pujols took third on it). The Cards didn't score out of the situation, but that wasn't his fault. We already know there's going to be a statue of
him outside Busch, the question is, will the make it the same size as the Musial one? I'm thinking it has to be.
For the Goat, we'll give it to Joe Thurston, who went 0-3 with three left on. Thurston's been hitting pretty well, but everyone has an off night.
Off the field, it was a little busy as well yesterday. For one thing, Kyle Lohse does
appear headed to the disabled list, but they've not put him there yet. Instead, they put Blaine Boyer on waivers as a DFA so they could bring up Jess Todd.
I am guessing that John Mozeliak knows the market for Boyer and expects him to clear waivers and head to Memphis, but it's possible that Boyer's five innings on Wednesday may be the last we see of him in St. Louis. If so, at least he left on a fairly positive note.
Personally, I'm pretty excited to see Todd. Not only is he a guy that's rocketed through the minor leagues, but he was an Arkansas Razorback, the same as your author (though, of course, all my time was spent in the Business Department, not the ball field). There might be a few "Woooo Pig Sooies!" in Busch tonight if he gets into the game.
Tonight, the Rockies come into Busch, having just broken a four game losing streak. The Rocks are struggling, sitting last in the NL West with a record that's 11 games under .500. They send out
Jorge de la Rosa, who's not having the best of seasons. He hasn't be historically that great against St. Louis either, though Pujols is just hitting .250 against him. Look out for Ryan Ludwick, who has two home runs in four at-bats against de la Rosa.
The Cardinals counter with
Adam Wainwright. Wainwright seems to have found his rhythm, though he was a little shakier last time out than Cardinal fans would like to see. The Rockies haven't seen him a lot, but they have
hit him a decent clip. It'll be interesting to see if Garrett Atkins uses this series an audition, as he's been rumored to fill the Cardinal third base hole.
Posted on February 23, 2009 at 3:30 PM
As the players start getting themselves ready for another season, I
thought it'd be a good idea to do the same. I contacted a blogger for
each major league team and posted them five questions. This is the
result. You can find the tentative schedule of teams here and today's main post is right here.Some of the most memorable Cardinals of the past decade have come from Colorado. Darryl Kile's recapturing of his form after leaving the Mile High City of Denver, coupled with his untimely passing, left an indelible mark on Cardinal Nation. Larry Walker's last at-bats, after being a Colorado icon, came in pennant race form in St. Louis. Even utility man Aaron Miles, now off to Chicago, wore the purple before the red.
I got with Mark of the now-defunct
Bad Altitude to see if the humidor is still working and if Todd Helton is still a fan favorite.
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Posted on July 1, 2008 at 8:03 AM
It's always nice to beat the Mets. Whether it's because you remember the '80s (where's the sports version of VH1's show? Imagine talking about Mets/Cardinals, Hershiser's scoreless streak, the split season strike stuff. Maybe when MLB gets their own channel off the ground we'll see things like this), because there's always something good about beating the "big city", or because you are friends with Met fans, taking down the team from New York puts a spring in your step. (Sorry,
Loge13!)
Last night's game (and, as a side note, it was good to finally see the Redbirds on TV again!) reminded me of that old quote about the owner whose idea of a good season was when his team was up 10 games at Memorial Day and slowly pulled away. The Cards scored early and then, in a reversal of basically their whole season, continued to add on.
I wanted to give the Hero to Chris Duncan for finally showing some pop. You could also give it to Mark Mulder for a scoreless inning (more on him later). But seven innings, 0 ER against a potent offense that has given you fits before? How do you go against
Kyle Lohse? A great performance and hopefully one that sets the tone for the rest of the series.
The Goat is between two 0-4 batters (the only two position players not to get a hit), but since Schumaker did get a walk and score a run,
Brendan Ryan takes the title again.
So Mulder
finally got into a game and showed that, perhaps, the new arm slot hype has some basis. Sure, it was about as low-leverage as innings come, but he didn't give up a run, threw strikes, had good velocity. It'll be interesting to see how he's used in the days and weeks to come and how long his success holds up. If he continues to get people out, do they start to stretch him out some to take over a starting role later in the season?
Looks like Wainwright is
aiming for a mid-July return. Hard to get too excited, though, with the way injuries work with the Cardinals.
And apparently the Cards are looking at Holliday and Fuentes from the Rockies. I wouldn't mind them, especially Holliday. I can't imagine St. Louis will be able to pull it off, though, without damaging the minors, something they need to be careful about doing.
Today's starters: Todd Wellemeyer (
vs. Mets here) against Tony Armas Jr. (
vs. Cardinals here).
Posted on May 9, 2008 at 9:21 AM
Two days ago, the Cardinals were on a three-game winning streak, had a 3 game lead in the Central, and were four outs away from pushing the lead up half a game and winning the series against the Rockies.
Now, the Cards have lost two in a row for the first time in two weeks (since their back to back losses to Milwaukee and Pittsburgh April 22-23), have a two game lead on the Cubs and face a Milwaukee team that would love to add to their misery.
It's starting to look like there was a reason
Kyle Lohse was on the market as long as he was. In his last two starts, his ERA has risen from 2.36 to 4.87. 15 earned runs in 10 innings will do that to a person. Just a rough check on his peripherals from his last two starts compared to his first six. (I've not figured out tables here yet, so bear with the presentation.)
H/IP K/BB GB/FB K/9First 6 0.93 1.75 1.80 3.67
Last 2 1.70 0.57 1.75 3.60
He's giving up more hits and walks. When your K rate is as low as that (and, again, thanks to Rockin' the Red for bringing that to my attention during the UCB project), you can't get out of those jams. More and more wood is being put on the ball, which means more hits, which means he's more careful, which leads to more walks, which is just ugly.
BTW, where does he stand in the K/9 category, minimum 20 innings?
159th, just ahead of Matt Morris. Heck, even Jamie Moyer is higher up on the list than he is. You can pitch this way, but you've got to be very careful.
Ryan Ludwick gets the rare back-to-back Hero award for his two home run day. If it wasn't for Ankiel's superhuman throwing abilities, he'd have a three-gamer going. In some regards, he was the offense in this series, at least the last three games. 9 for 13 with 6 extra base hits? I don't care what hand the starter throws with tonight, he should be in the lineup.
Now the Cards have to regroup and see if they can't get back on the winning track against a fairly familiar opponent. The Cards have already had five games against the Brewers, going to Milwaukee a couple weeks back (part of that last two-game losing streak mentioned above). The Cards have won three of five, with the two losses wild extra-inning affairs, the first where they blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth and lost in the 10th, the second when they made a big comeback, played Pujols at second and lost in 12. The Brewers have lost six in a row and
ESPN's Accuscore has the Cards as a slight favorite tonight.
The Cardinals should be fairly familiar with tonight's starter. Manny Parra has already pitched twice against the Redbirds, fashioning a 6.00 ERA and allowing 14 hits and 7 walks against them in nine innings, but has yet to factor into a decision. On the whole, the Cardinals
have done well against him, though Ludwick has the only home run.
St. Louis counters with Todd Wellemeyer, who actually has missed the Brewers so far this year. Wellemeyer is
basically a blank slate to the Brewers, as the person that has seen him most, Jason Kendall, has all of four plate appearances against him.
It's on the road, where the Cards aren't quite as dominant, but they should have a good chance of stopping the streak and getting back on track tonight.
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