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Let's Go Out And Beat The Mets

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).

Slippery Slope

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/9
First 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.

From the Jaws of Victory

Just when you start thinking that Jason Isringhausen is back on the horse, it bucks him again.

Granted, some of last night can't be blamed on Izzy.  Kyle McClellan had a rough night in the nine pitches that he threw.  Albert Pujols possibly, maybe even probably should have caught the foul ball that would have had them out of the inning.  Randy Flores put the tying run on base.

But all that said, basically what the Cards asked from their closer was one out.  Get out of the eighth with the lead and things are much better.  You can start the ninth fresh and hopefully put up a nice Cardinal win.

He couldn't do that.  A weak single--one of the few balls this year that you say, "Rolen would have had that"--then a triple that scored the go-ahead run.  Tack on a walk after that and the Cards were lucky to go into the ninth just down one.

At least the Cardinals had a chance in the ninth.  Skip Schumaker got on and Miles almost worked a walk before flying out.  Don't know if it'd mattered, but it'd been nice to have two on and no outs.  Pujols stung the ball--that was two balls he smashed right at the left side of the infield on the night--but nothing doing.

Even with his game-ending strikeout, though, I think the Hero tag goes to Ryan Ludwick.  I loved what Adam Wainwright did, don't get me wrong.  It was a close one, but Ludwick pretty much was the offense last night, with his home run and two RBI. 

So instead of Wainwright getting a deserved win, instead of the Cards pushing their winning streak to four and their NL Central lead to 3.5, they have to regroup and try to win the series today.

Today's an afternoon affair, with a 2:05 start here in the middle of the country.  Kyle Lohse looks to put Saturday's atrocious outing behind him against Jorge de la Rosa, who can tell you all about a disastrous outing.

Lohse pitched well against the Rockies in the make-up season opener, throwing five scoreless innings and striking out three.  Again, Podsednik and Helton will be the key batters for him to watch. 

de la Rosa has faced a few of the Cardinals before.  He's been around as a reliever, facing most of the Cards when he was in either Milwaukee or Kansas City.  Still, there's not much of a book on him, so it'll be interesting to see what the Cards do with him.

It'll be a test to see if the Cards can bounce back.  So far this season, they've been able to do that.  Can they do it on the road after such a tough loss?  And if the game is close today, who gets the call for the save?

One Man Show

When I started naming a Hero every game, I never thought one of them could be a superhero.  But that's what Rick Ankiel looked like last night.

The home run was nice.  Even more so when Goat Ryan Franklin coughed up three runs (two charged to Looper) in the ninth, making the homer the winning margin.  But by itself, that wouldn't be enough.  Ryan Ludwick's 4-4 game or Looper's solid game into the ninth might have made the cut.

But those outfield assists elevated him into the rare air.  It was ironic (and indicated that they put their Top 10 together early) that the first throw wound up #3 on the top plays, because it was impressive but not nearly as much so as that second strike.  To be standing on the warning track and hit the third baseman on the fly, right where he can slap the tag on the runner, is mind-boggling.  A couple more like that and he'll have a nice golden glove to sit on his mantle at the end of the year.

It's plain to see that Rick has amazing talent.  Hopefully he'll continue to be able to hone it and be thought of as an outfielder rather than a former pitcher.

Very sad that Franklin got credit for a save last night, even though that's technically what he did.  Allowing back to back doubles that bring in three runs is not the way Cardinal fans want saves to be earned.  Franklin has a 2.12 ERA, but I'd like to see how many inherited runners he's allowed to score this year.  I've been very nervous when he's come into most ball games.

No matter, the Cardinals have already assured themselves of a series split and they get to throw their ace tonight in hopes of winning it.  Adam Wainwright pitched against the Rockies this year, but you won't find it in the record books as he threw in the season-opening rainout.  As I said first time around, the Rockies haven't seen Wainwright much.  If the rainout is any indication, though, he'll be fine.  He struggled early in that game, but part of that was excitement/nerves of Opening Day.

The Cardinals hope that Jeff Francis is as wild as he was in the rainout.  Historically he's been fairly tough on the Cards, though Troy Glaus has two homers against him and there are some small-sample-size good averages on the list.  This year's been kinda rough on Francis, especially at home where he has a 6.27 ERA.

If the Cardinals are able to solve the lefty for the second straight night, they'll be able to run their winning streak to four and keep that 2.5 game lead.  The good thing about this team is that they won't be satisfied with hitting 10 games over .500, they'll want to keep extending it.  A good chance they'll be able to do that tonight.

The Great One

With the great ones, you just know.  You just know when they are going to do something to win the game.

Albert Pujols, in case anyone reading was wondering, counts as one of the great ones.

I've noted before when it was just obvious he was going to hit a home run.  Last night was another one of those situations.  Seeing the lead that Pujols was getting off second and how long it was going to take the Rockies to field that grounder, I said to myself, "He's going to go home."

Now, granted, you can't be sure he's going to make it home.  We love Albert, but occasionally he gets crazy on the basepaths with his aggressiveness.  That said, he sometimes makes the wrong choice in his desire to win.  Not last night, though, as he seemed to totally shock the Rockies with his mad dash.  I mean, it's no Slaughter, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

There's our Hero.  The Goat tag has to settle on Chris Duncan, who had about the worst birthday you could imagine.  If the Cards hadn't played a night game on Sunday and then had to travel, I might suggest that he had his celebration already.  Two errors to give a lead back to the Rockies plus an 0-4, 2 K day is close to the definition of Goat.

Today's matchup is Braden Looper vs. Mark Redman.  Looper hasn't faced the Rockies much--another case where no one has 10 ABs against the Cardinal hurler--but he's shut them down when he has faced them.   He'll need to be very careful with Todd Helton, though, who has 2 home runs in 7 ABs against him, though the last of those was in 2003.

Redman has a few more data points in his report against Cardinal batters.  Troy Glaus might be looking forward to this, as he's put up a solid average in 21 AB.  And Albert Pujols has a homer and a .455 average in the 11 ABs he's had against Redman.

Cards push their lead to 2.5 games and, with a win tonight, can go 10 games over .500.  If last night proved anything, it's that this team will play a hard nine and never give up, not even on the road.  We'll see if there are more dramatics needed tonight.  If so, there's a good chance the great one will step up again.

Cards Win! Cards Win!

Let's take a quick look at the Heroes and Goats of the successful series against those Cubbies before moving on to the Rockies series that starts tonight.

Friday's game should have been a lot less stressful than it was.  I don't think anyone would argue that the latest Jason Isringhausen meltdown would give him Goat status again.  Allowing two runs in the ninth to a divisional rival, risking a game that was won, is not good at all.  And it raised worries that he's hurt again, which would be pretty bad for the Cardinals, though LaRussa would probably move Kyle McClellan into that role.  Honorable mentions: Troy Glaus (0-5, 2 K, 4 LOB) and Cesar Izturis (1-5, 1 K, 5 LOB).

When you win a game with a home run in the eleventh inning, you pretty much assure yourself of Hero status.  So, Skip Schumaker, congrats on being Friday's Hero!  Honorables: Yadier Molina (2-4, 2 RBI), Adam Wainwright (6.1 IP, 1 ER, 5 K).

Saturday's game was well-dissected by the United Cardinal Bloggers.  Kyle Lohse's rough inning plus the fact that Russ Springer couldn't stop the runners from scoring made for a tougher decision, but the starter gave up more and has to take a lot of the blame for that game.  Ugly results there.  On the Hero side, I'll go with Yadier Molina, with a 2-3, HR outing.

I got to watch a lot of last night's game, my first extended look at the Cardinals since Tuesday.  I will say I was a little surprised that LaRussa pulled Wellemeyer when he did, but with him reaching close to 100 pitches, I guess it wasn't much of a stretch at all.  McClellan looked good in his first inning, but the next thing I know the bases are loaded.  For the Cards to get out of that jam with only one run allowed was pretty impressive.  And it was great to see Izzy come back and be effective.

Our Hero, though, has to be Adam Kennedy.  Not only does go 2-2 with 2 walks and drive in the insurance run, but he's the headline of the Post-Dispatch, and who am I to argue with Joe Strauss?  Goat, I believe, would be Rick Ankiel, who went 0-3, left three on and at least twice popped up in the infield.  Rick's a streaky guy, but I hope he's not heading on the downside of his streaks now that the Cards are going on the road, a place where he's not hit much in his career.

So the Cards win the series against the Cubs, which gives you a nice warm glow even when first place isn't on the line, but is even better when it gives the Cardinals a 1.5 game lead in the NL Central.

Amidst all this, though, you have the news that Anthony Reyes has been sent down to Memphis.  Looks like Duncan and LaRussa have won this round.  Obviously, he was just being used as a mopup type pitcher, which gave him irregular work.  And this lack of work is blamed on him not being sharp.  Vicious cycle there.

I think Reyes can be a decent pitcher and I'd like to see him do it in St. Louis, but I think it's become obvious that if he's ever going to reach any potential, he's going to have to do it in a different organization.  As long as John Mozeliak isn't going to give him away--and rumor has it he hasn't been looking to so far--I think most in Cardinal Nation will accept a deal.

The Cardinals don't get a chance to savor the series win, though, because they head out on an eight-game road trip to Colorado and Milwaukee for the rare back-to-back four-game series.  I'm not sure the last time the Cards had that kind of road trip, but hopefully they'll play better than their 6-5 current road record.

Joel Pineiro is scheduled to go for the Cardinals, though his back has been bothering him and recently called-up Mike Parisi could go.  Assuming Pineiro is fine, though, the Rockies might be glad to see him.  He missed the season-opening series against this team, but in extremely limited action (only one person has more than 3 ABs against him), the Rockies hitters have been able to put the wood on the ball.  All of these appearances seem to have been in interleague play when Pineiro was with the Mariners and then the Red Sox and they have not seen him since his resurgence in the National League.

Ubaldo Jimenez goes for the Rockies.  He faced the Cardinals back in April, his only appearance against the team.  The Cardinals won that game 3-0 and Jimenez allowed three runs (and five walks, foreshadowing the coming trend) in five innings.  If he's that erratic tonight, the Cardinals might pull out another one.

One Series Down, 51 To Go

Being that not only was I working yesterday during the game, but working out of the office, I was able to catch about 10 minutes on the radio and that was it.  All of my observations will have to come from reading game stories and various other discussions.

From what I see, though, there's little doubt that the Hero for Thursday was starting pitcher Brad Thompson.  Six and 2/3 scoreless, plus an RBI single?  Without looking it up, I'd say that has to be the best game Thompson has ever pitched in the majors.  Doing it against the Rockies is pretty impressive as well.

Other positive notes included the first appearance of Anthony Reyes this season.  Three up, three down, all on strikeouts.  And even Tony gave him his due, saying, "You kept saying, 'Wow.' Three times."  It will be interesting to see when he pitches again, whether he'll get a longer stint, whether he'll be ready to go tonight.  The pitching has looked very good so far this season, but Braden Looper goes tonight against a team that's been hitting the ball pretty well.  Long relief may be something the Cards are needing today.

Also, apparently Troy Glaus reads the blog (Hey, Troy!) because after saying yesterday that a bit of offense wouldn't go amiss from him, he has two hits and drove in a run.  Maybe that will relax him and get his bat going.

It also sounds like Skip Schumaker and Jason LaRue combined on a nifty play throwing out Todd Helton at the plate.  This series had hitting, pitching and defense--keep that up and there are going to be some disappointed people writing for Yahoo.

Examining the box score, it's a little difficult to come up with a Goat.  Most of those that didn't get a hit made a play in the field.  Almost by default, today's Goat goes to Cesar Izturis.   0-3 plus an error will get you that on a lot of days.  Though I will say Izturis has played better so far this season than I expected.

Cards start a series with the Nationals tonight.  You can participate in the CardsClubhouse YNOT for the series if you get your picks in by first pitch.

A Win On The Board

Nice to see a solid all-around game last night.  I didn't get to see much of it--that's the norm with two kids, dinner, etc. for the night games--but the parts I did see were pretty impressive.

There were a few choices for Hero of the Night, but I'm going to go with Rick Ankiel.  Solid defensive work, three hits, and the tie-breaking home run right after Colorado had tied it up, killing any momentum they had.  Ludwick and Wellemeyer could also have been chosen.  But Ankiel put up the complete game.

Little harder to come up with a Goat when the team wins 8-3, but on a night where almost everyone got on base or was part of the offense, Troy Glaus puts up an 0-4.  He did get a sac fly, which makes him a lesser goat, but it'd be nice to start seeing some offense out of him.  It was a little distressing to see Ryan Franklin give up another run as well.

(Note that Brian has helpfully set up a Heroes and Goats tracker on the sidebar!)

Short post today due to work concerns.  Cards play this afternoon, with Brad Thompson taking on one of last postseason's sensations, Ubaldo Jimenez.  With Duncan hurting, could this be a time where Barton gets a start?  Tony often uses these day games to run out the bench, keeping them fresh.

Wash It Away

The Cardinals played some baseball yesterday.  You just can't prove it by the record book.

It was a heck of a game for the 2 1/2 innings they played, though.  Adam Wainwright was probably a little overexcited about the Opening Day start, but limited the damage to one run in the top of the first.  Then the floodgates opened.  The baseball kind, that is.

Jeff Francis had the hardest time finding the strike zone, throwing 10 straight balls (and it'd probably been 11 if Pujols hadn't swung at a questionable pitch).

And talk about irony, folks.  Francis walks the bases loaded.....and faces Rick Ankiel, who at times is synonymous with lack of control.  Do you think, just for an instant, some empathy was felt by Rick?  Maybe, but that didn't stop him from taking advantage and smacking a double.  Molina follows with one and the score is 4-1.

The only other real Cardinal highlight was Albert Pujols's home run.  Which brings to mind a quote that was on my Cardinal daily calendar just this weekend:

"I don't like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher."--Rogers Hornsby.

It looks like it could be that kind of year for Mr. Pujols as well.

Unfortunately, all those stats and great momentum was wiped out when the flood started in the third.  I guess that's what happens when Cesar Izturis reaches base twice in a row!  And it's not like hitting the reset button on a Playstation game.  The Cards can't run out Wainwright again today, because even though he hasn't officially pitched, I'm thinking his arm would tell you differently.

You lose all the pomp and circumstance as well.  I doubt they'll bring the Clydesdales back, or have the players show up in the red convertibles, though maybe they can actually get their honorary first pitcher to show up this time.   I'm guessing tonight will be just like a regular game, save that it turns out to be the first one.

So the ironic matchup of the night is Kyle Lohse against Kip Wells.  A pitcher only signed a couple of weeks ago vs. a pitcher that was the key FA signing of the last offseason.  I've defended Wells at times here--look through the archives to see that he wasn't always as bad as we thought--but by the end of the year, it was obvious he had to go.  Colorado doesn't seem to be the best place to rehab your career, but whoever will sign the checks, right?  The Cardinals should be looking forward to facing Wells, though that probably will mean he'll shut them down. Only Pujols and Jason LaRue have had much of a history against Wells, though with four home runs in 37 PA against the Kipster, Albert's ready to go.

Lohse had some problems against the Rockies in the postseason last year, but they've not seen him much in the regular season.  Only Scott Podsednick has more than 10 PAs against him, so you'll probably see that speedster in tonight's lineup.  Bernie says keep an eye out for the curveball.

So they'll try it again tonight.  Hopefully the momentum that they had working will carry over and the Cards can officially start the season with a win.

Opening Day!

All the promise of the spring gets puts to the test as the daily "grind" starts.  I say grind, but that's only for the players.  For us fans, it's the most joyous of times.  Baseball, on every day.  The background of our evenings, always giving us something to watch and discuss.

I'm still on record as saying that the Cardinals are going to fulfill some of this spring promise.  I spent a good portion of my fantasy draft yesterday making the same arguments I've made here.  I really hope that I'm not eating my words come September--I doubt they'll be very tasty, especially if the Cubs are winning.  (BTW, Cub fans, here's to a happy 100th anniversary.  May there be many more!)

The lineup is already out there, from the always-informative Derrick Goold:

1. Skip Schumaker, LF
2. Ryan Ludwick, RF
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Troy Glaus, 3B
5. Rick Ankiel, CF
6. Yadier Molina, C
7. Cesar Izturis, SS
8. Adam Wainwright, RHP
9. Aaron Miles, 2B

I'm a little surprised to see Brian Barton not in there.  As Goold says in his entry, there was a lot of speculation he'd be in the lineup against the left-handed Jeff Francis.  And Glaus hitting fourth instead of Ankiel?  Interesting in its own right.  Should be interesting to see how this all works out today.

OK, so here's Francis's line against the current Cardinals.  Not a lot of success save Pujols, who basically has success against everyone.  It does show why Miles is in the lineup and probably why he's hitting ninth, making for greater odds that there will be a man on when the lineup rolls over.  And Glaus has taken him deep a couple of times.

Wainwright against the Rockies is here.  He's not had a lot of exposure to the club (27 PA against hitters wearing the purple), but that's not surprising given his one year as a starter and the teams only getting together twice a season.

I look for a low scoring game.  Hopefully the Cardinals will be able to pull it out.  Anyone want to pick a Pujols home run?

It's a wonderful time.  Baseball is here!

Also on the Network: √ Yanks Beat A Lefty? [Depressed Fan] √ Yanks Start Second Half With "W" [Green Pinstripes] √ All-Star Breather: The Giants Catchers [El Lefty Malo] √ Rock Is Dead; Shea Stadium July 18, 2008 [Loge 13] √ Citi Field Revealed (FYI: No Loge Here) [Loge 13] √ My Rifle, My Pony and Me [Beantown West] √ Quick Chicago roundup [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Giants Reveal New Stadium Ticket Plans [Loge 13]