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It's All About Pitching

Let's see, what's on the PD site this morning?

Well, the biggest news probably is the status of Adam Wainwright.  According to Derrick Goold, he can start throwing anytime now, but it's going to be after the All-Star Break before they even start talking about a return date.  I'd expect he'll probably get one rehab start, so if he's back by my birthday (August 2, mark your calendars) I'd be a little surprised.  Still, it doesn't sound like he's having any setbacks, which is good news.

Chris Carpenter is working his way back as well, but it doesn't look like he'll be in the majors before August either.  In fact, it may be with expanded rosters before we see him in St. Louis.  I've said all along that if he was back before mid-August that it'd be pretty surprising, even when the team was talking about him being back at the All-Star Break.  Tommy John just doesn't heal that quickly.

And, even in times of pitching need, Matt Clement cleared waivers and is going to work as a reliever in Memphis.  Talk about a move that backfired.  Granted, it was a low-risk move, but Clement seemed pretty well in spring training and I really thought that part of the improved pitching this year would be because of him.  Now, he may be an August or September callup as well and in the bullpen (which needs the help).  I guess it's still possible the Cards would pick up his option for next year, just to see if they can get something out of him, but this is not what Mozeliak thought he was getting.

General tangent: I'm going to do my All-Star rant in a little bit, but in other baseball news, I wanted to say how nice it was to see Milwaukee get CC Sabathia.  Not in the competition aspect--it makes Milwaukee the favorite in the NL Central in my book now--but in the fact that here's a small market team being able to make a play for the biggest name on the trade market.  Sabathia didn't wind up in New York or Boston or Chicago.  That's a good thing for baseball, in my book.

The matchup tonight is not exactly one that screams "win" for the Cardinals.  Joel Pineiro will go into Philadelphia and take on Cole Hamels.  The good news is that the Phillies don't have much of a book on Pineiro, at least not from personal experience.  The bad news is that some of the Phillies that have seen him have done pretty well.  As for Hamels, well, both of those statements pretty much apply to him as well.  Albert Pujols has done a good job against him and hopefully will continue that now that he's gotten #300 out of the way.  As long as they realize that some things you hear about Hamels may be exaggerated, the Cards could be OK.

Housekeeping:  You'll notice a few new links over on the blog roll.  St. Louis Sports Magazine has been nice enough to link over here a couple of times and I appreciate that.  Player to be Named Later is back from hiatus.  And a couple of the more, well, colorful Cardinal blogs, Cardinal Diaspora and Bert Flex, are on the list as well.  Bert Flex was nice enough to include me in their Cardinal Blogger Appreciation Month, which I appreciate.

No Use Looking Back

Really not much to say about last night's game.  Though I'm sure that the Yadier Molina meltdown had to be fairly entertaining to watch.

Let's assign the nightly tags and be done with last night's game.  I'll give the Hero tag to Rick Ankiel, who hit another home run to briefly give the Cards the lead.  Another solo shot, though, which has been a bit of an issue with the Cardinals.  And as big of a part to the early success he's been, last night's Goat goes to Adam Wainwright.  He was nice to see him hang in there for six innings, but eight runs is a heck of a lot for this lineup to try to overcome.

The Cardinals played game 40 last night.  They went 13-7 in their first 20, 10-10 in the last half.  The next twenty will take the Cards through June 3 and a game in Washington.  They play 13 of those 20 at home, so they should be able to bounce back a little bit and hopefully post an over .500 record for that stretch.  If they can do that, say another 13-7 (with 7 games against the Pirates in that stretch, it should be possible), they'll definitely hang around the top of the NL Central.  Being within a couple of games at the beginning of June would be well beyond anyone's expectations for this team.

They start that run tonight against the Pirates at home in Busch.  Kyle Lohse is coming off of two terrible outings, so he needs to get out there and right the ship.  Chris Gomez has done some damage against him, but other than that he's been able to handle the Pirates fairly well in his career.  He's not faced the Pittsburgh team yet this season.

Going for the Bucs is Phil Dumatrait.  The Cards faced him back on April 24 in a game the Cardinals won 6-2.  He didn't start, but came in to the game in relief of Tom Gorzelanny and allowed 2 runs in two innings.  Limited exposure to Dumatrait for the Redbird, but they've liked what they've seen.  Especially Molina, assuming he's not sitting the bench after the tirade.

Get your YNOT picks in and a CardsClubhouse preview will probably go up this afternoon.

Lineup Creativity, Part Deux

Earlier in the season, Tony LaRussa unveiled a fairly unique lineup, one that had Ludwick hitting leadoff.  He may have just topped himself.  Per Bernie:

Schumaker
Molina
Ankiel
Ludwick
Duncan
Glaus
Kennedy
Wainwright
Izturis

Yes, you read that right.  Yadier Molina, he of the blazing footspeed, the man slow enough to be caught by a glacier, is hitting in the second slot in the lineup.

It's a fascinating concept, though.  Obviously the lineup had to be juggled without Pujols in there.  You'd have expected, probably, Kennedy and Molina reversing roles.  So what is Tony thinking?

Well, we know that Molina hits Bush pretty well.  He's four for 10 with three home runs against the Milwaukee hurler.  He is hitting .301 on the season, .400 in May, though he hits lefties better than righties.  I would expect to see, if Schumaker does get on in front of Molina, some hit and runs put on.  LaRussa probably feels that Molina can handle the bat well enough to move runners over or get first-and-third with Ankiel coming up.  Molina has struck out only five times this season (which is even a better rate than Mr. Pujols) so there could be some action on the basepaths tonight.

Hopefully this one turns out better than the last jumbled lineup!

Splitting the Difference

The Cardinal teeter-totter continued this weekend.  After losing a game they should have won on Friday, they came back and won a game that, on paper, they probably should have lost Saturday.

With Ben Sheets on the mound, you know that runs are likely to be scarce.  So that meant that Chris Duncan's two-run home run was huge, pushing the Cardinal edge to 3-0.  Could play a lot of ifs there--without that home run, maybe Pineiro is handled differently, or maybe the Brewers win.  It was a big moment, though, so he gets Hero status for Saturday.

Our goat would likely have to be Kyle McClellan.  I know he was credited with his 12th hold in the game, but he walked in two runs that were credited to Pineiro's line, which brought it to a one-run game.  I would guess the book is out on McClellan, because his last couple of outings have been on the shaky side.  The league probably knows more about what to look for, what to lay off of, etc.

So, after taking the second game, the Cards stood about where you'd thought they would have after two games, one up, one down.  The pitching matchups looked fairly solid for them going forward as well.

Braden Looper limited the damage, but he didn't have his best stuff.  Ryan Braun made sure of that, smashing two home runs.  The biggest goat in this game was the Cardinal offense, since Jeff Suppan was laboring early on and they never took full advantage.  I know there's a lot of talk about Pujols's supposed misadventures on the base paths, but that seems a bit overblown to me.  He got picked off, which probably was a mistake.  But the second one, where he was thrown out at third, you see all the time and it works as a guarantee that the run will get in.  The throw gets cut off and redirected, and you can make sure the run gets in before you get tagged out.  The third one was just one of those things, because Glaus hit a bullet and that would have doubled up anyone.

And while it was nice to see Ludwick hit another home run and get the Cards a little closer, that doesn't quite make up for the three strikeouts he had before that.  I'd probably give Troy Glaus the Hero tag, for getting more hits in that game than he had in the entire month of May, and I guess Skip Schumaker the Goat tag, because if he'd been able to do a little more than the 0-4, it might have been a different story offensively. 

The Cards wrap the series tonight with Adam Wainwright going against David Bush.  In theory, you'd like their chances to end the road trip on a winning note and splitting the eight games, which is a minor victory.  Wainwright has done well against the Brewers, though he'll have to work carefully to Prince Fielder.   Wainwright defeated the Brewers on April 16, allowing two runs (one earned) in 7.2 innings.  That was another of Izzy's tightrope acts, as he allowed two in the ninth before closing it out.

Bush, though, has held his own against the Redbirds.  He pitched against the Cardinals on April 15, though, and gave up three runs in six innings in a 6-1 Cardinal win.  It's not surprising, though, that LaRussa picked today for Pujols to take a breather, since Bush has been pretty hard on him in the past. 

Another Stellar Izzy Outing

What's left to say?

Jason Isringhausen did it again.  For the third time this week, he took victory and turned it into defeat.  He has more blown saves (3) in May than saves (2).  His ERA is approaching 7.50.  How long will this go on?

Numerous comparisons are being made between this year and 2006, when he struggled for so long before his hip injury was finally diagnosed.  But on May 9, 2006, his ERA stood at 4.77 and he only had two blown saves.  He blew four in June on his way to 10 on the season.

Tonight's was particularly galling, when you note that he came in and had two outs before he threw his third pitch.  Then a single by J.J. Hardy, hitting .235 on the season.  A single by Gabe Kapler, a .279 hitter.  A walk to Jason Kendall, who was 3 for his last 16 and was 2 for 17 lifetime against Izzy.  After that, it was almost a fait accompli that he was either going to walk Rickie Weeks to force in a run or give up a hit to lose the game, and he did the latter.

If Izzy's smart, he'll avoid the game threads tonight, because there's a lot of skewering going on.

The problem is, there's a lot less of statistical backing to defend Izzy with now.  The post by Larry at VEB earlier this week really opened my eyes up.  I was hoping it was just a slump, but when you look at the data, it seems to be much more than that.  He's not getting the ball past people.  You need that in your closer, because otherwise swings become hits become losses.

He's given up 5 earned runs in 3.2 innings in May.  It's not getting better, it's getting worse.  Which is sad when you consider his April ERA was 6.00.  And while ERA doesn't tell the whole story most of the time, it's a pretty telling stat when your closer has one in this area.  And he started the year with seven scoreless innings!

With the Cubs winning today and with the Cardinals facing Ben Sheets tomorrow, they really needed this game.  And they should have had it as well.

There's a good bit of blame to go around, though.  The Cardinals only managed three runs, including two in a bases-loaded, no out situation.  Getting two was good, but there will still no outs after that.  A solid hit would have broken the game open, but instead it was a liner that doubled off Izturis and that was pretty much that.  The Cardinals have done a great job lately of jumping on the opposing team early.  What they've not figured out is how to keep building, to be able to score in the middle and late innings.

I think the Hero status should go to Albert Pujols, though.  That was a monster home run as part of his 2-3, one walk night.  37 straight games reaching base is a nice marker.  If he can get a couple more, it'll be the second-longest streak in the last few years.

Today (assuming you are not going to read this in the few minutes between now and midnight) the Cardinals have to come back and try to end their longest losing streak of the season against a pitcher that's as good as almost any out there.  Ben Sheets has a nice 4-0 record and a 2.29 ERA.  It's going to be a tall task.

In the past, though, the Cardinals have hit Sheets very well.  Pujols has a .403 average in 65 AB against him, with 4 home runs.  Chris Duncan should get off the bench, as he's got a couple of homers against Sheets as well.  Izturis might get the day off, though, with his 2-22 mark.  Since 2005, Sheets is 1-6 with an ERA over 4 against the Redbirds, according to the research I did for the CCH series preview.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cardinals.  Only Jason Kendall has really seen him a lot, and he's only had minor success.  On paper, you'd think the Brewers would be heavy favorites, but if some personal histories hold up, this could be a closer game than you'd think.

The only question will be, who will close it out for St. Louis if it is?

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.

The Wildest Times of the World

Lohse blowing a 2-0 lead.  Cards trailing 8-3.  Rallying for four, then scoring the tying run off a missed double play in the ninth.  12 innings.  Albert Pujols playing second.  And then the Brewer who scored the game winning run is traded to Tampa Bay.  (They couldn't do that just a little earlier?)  What's next, cats and dogs, living together?

It was a crazy game, made a little more so because it was a day game and I was following along at the CardsClubhouse game thread.  One of the great things about the internet and the rise of game threads (almost every forum has them now!) is that you can "watch" the game together.  As close as sitting with a bunch of people in the stands as you can get without spending money.

Anyway, it was a very unorthodox game.  Lots of what ifs.  Most people will dwell on the missed call by the umpire on Pujols's slide home.  I didn't see it, but it sure sounded like he was safe.  Obviously, that run plus the fact that it made first and third two outs instead of one out could have made a difference in the game.

The one I want to talk about, however, is one of LaRussa's questionable moves, at least in my mind.  As soon as a right hander came into the game, LaRussa pinch hit Rick Ankiel for Brian Barton.  This seemed a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction.  At the time, the Cards were down by 5, which seemed like a perfect opportunity to see what Barton could do.  I realize that TLR always goes all out for a win and the team did rally, but it didn't have much to do with Mr. Ankiel, who is really slumping right now.  Besides, if he'd kept Ankiel on the bench, he could have used him at a more strategic time.

Many people say that TLR doesn't like the youngsters, that he'll do anything not to play them.  A theory I've come up with in the last week or so is not that he doesn't like the young players.  I mean, look at his use of Kyle McClellan, the way he used the bullpen in 2006, his four ROYs under his watch, stuff like that.  No, I think what TLR's bias relates to is first impressions.

Rick Ankiel made a heck of a first impression as a pitcher and Tony immediately liked him.  Now, he'll go almost out of his way to give Ankiel shots.  Brian Barton started off the spring slow and didn't make the best of first impressions on the field.  That seems to be what LaRussa remembers and possibly part of why he starts on the bench.

It's not really a personality thing--I mean, he probably likes Barton as a person, just like he likes Brendan Ryan--but being that his first impression of Barton as a baseball player was negative, that keeps factoring into his decisions.

It's just a theory, but it seems to fit some of the decisions he's made over the last few years.

Anyway, back to the game.  It's a rare decision, but I think the Hero of the game has to be Aaron Miles, who went 4 for 5 with a run and an RBI while playing two different positions without an error.

The Goat is Jason Isringhausen, who quickly ruined the afternoon by allowing a walk, a stolen base and a hit.  You can't be walking people in the 12th if at all possible, especially when your first baseman is playing second and would have to cover on the steal.  (Though, to be fair, it sounded like Molina's throw was on the wrong side of the bag.)

While Izzy gets his third Goat of the year, it was one of the first and few times where you could actually consider Albert Pujols for the role.  Sure, AP had a nice game (2-6, 2 RBI, a run--should have been 2--scored) but look at his last two at-bats, when the game was on the line.  In the ninth, he impatiently swung at pitches with the game on the line and would have ended the game on a double play if not for Rickie Weeks' bad throw.  Then, in extras, he strikes out.  The Goat is not always about who had the worst game.

Still, I love his attitude about playing second.  (And also like the fact that he lobbied to play shortstop.  Like that was going to happen with his bad elbow, but the man wants to do anything he can to help the team.)  When he was given instructions about not turning a double play and to be careful, he said he would.  But later.....

"What do you think, that I wasn't going to turn a double play?" scoffed Pujols. "I was. I was going to turn a double play. I'd be careful. First of all, I'd make sure I catch the ball and not try to get too fancy and drop it. But I was going to try to turn it."

There's a reason he's the best.

So on to Pittsburgh, a land that has been favorable to the Cardinals in the past.  Last year, they went 12-6 against the Pirates and are 88-41 (.682) against them this century.  The last time the Cardinals had a losing record against the Bucs was 1999, when they went 5-7.

Tonight, Ian Snell tries to shut down the St. Louis machine.  El Hombre is really looking forward to this one.  He has four homers (and a .563 average) in 16 ABs against Snell.  There's a strong likelihood that Pujols will get his third three walk game of the season tonight.  The rest of the lineup looks pretty good against him as well.

Todd Wellemeyer is on the hill for the Cardinals.  Most of the Pirates haven't seen him much, but what they have seen, they've not liked.  Ronny Paulino does have two hits against him, however.

Finally, a couple of small notes.  If you've not heard, Brendan Ryan will be joining the team in Pittsburgh.  Brad Thompson is going down to Memphis for a bit, which is probably good because he's had some struggles in the bullpen in two of his three outings.

We've gotten one more blog to join our May 3rd game blogging project.  The Cardinal Virtue will be taking the second inning.  We still need one more volunteer and then the game will be set. (EDIT: We got it!  Fungoes is going to take an inning as well!)

Also, if for some reason you want these headlines on your site, check out the widget I created at WidgetBox.

Winning It The Hard Way

Adam Wainwright on the mound.  A pitcher the Cardinals beat around last week.  Should be an easy win, right?  With this year's bullpen, never say never.

I'm not advocating that Wainwright should have stayed in the game, mind you.  At 99 pitches, especially after throwing 115 or so last time out, getting him out of there with a lead was the best idea.  I am just not sold on Ryan Franklin being that dominant eighth inning guy that we saw last year.

I'll give him some credit, though--at least part of that inning was out of his control.  I listened to it on the radio and it sounded worse than it was on the highlights.  After the double by Braun, he struck out Fielder, but the ball got away and Braun was able to go to third.  Then what on the radio sounded like a deep drive was a fairly mid-range ball that Ludwick lost in the lights.  If everything goes like it should, Franklin has Braun on second with two outs instead of a runner on third, a run in and only one out.  For that potentially game-losing misplay, you have to give Ryan Ludwick the Goat from last night's game.

Wainwright pitched a good game, but did allow the Brewers to tie it up right after the Cardinals had taken a 2-0 lead.  Troy Glaus got a two-run double, so he's in contention for the Hero selection as well.  Skip Schumaker had the game winning RBI.  But I want to go a little different way.  Brian Barton sits on the bench all night, watches the Brewers tie up the game, and then is the first batter in the ninth against a flamethrower.  Hitting a double in that situation was huge and led to the win.

Afternoon baseball today, as Kyle Lohse and Manny Parra revisit their matchup from last Thursday afternoon.  Lohse was very effective until his last inning, so hopefully with Kyle McClellan especially rested the Cardinal bullpen will be able to bail him out and get the series sweep.

Strength Turned Weakness

I was listening to the game on my XM Radio (not really product placement for our new advertiser, just the truth) and with the Cards having a 3-0 lead into the eighth, I really thought the sweep was in hand.  The Cards had missed some opportunities, sure, but the pitching was rolling and the Cards hadn't blown this big of a lead yet this season.

However, as I've said before, last year's strength is looking like this year's weakness.  Last year, if you could get it to the bullpen with a lead (something that was pretty problematical) they'd lock it down.  This year, save for Kyle McClellan, there's not many you'd trust not to fan the flames.

You can't really fault the starter for this one.  Not only did Kyle Lohse pitch seven scoreless innings before faltering in the eighth, he drove in a couple of runs with a single.  Ryan Franklin put the tying run on base by hitting Rickie Weeks, which could have been the turning point of the inning.  After a bunt, Randy Flores came in and got a decent result--a popup of Fielder--but it dropped and the tying run scored.

McClellan came in and kept the game tied, but Brad Thompson, in his first relief outing since leaving the rotation, allowed the two run bomb to Fielder that was the difference in the ball game.

So there are plenty of pitchers to put the Goat tag on, but with the lack of offense, I think the tag would have to go on Rick Ankiel, unfortunately. Three strikeouts and not doing anything with the baserunners that were on almost every time really comes back to haunt a team in an extra-inning loss.

The Hero has to be Ryan Ludwick.  His fourth home run, a 4 for 5 day, means the offensive woes can't be traced to him.  Lohse and McClellan would come close in this category as well.

Unfortunately for the Cards, this was a game they really needed to win with the Giants coming to town.  Not that the Giants themselves are that big of a deal, but Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum go in the first two games of the series.  So far the Cardinals have not lost back-to-back games, but if they aren't careful, they could have a three-game losing streak going into Sunday.

Cain took a no-hitter into the seventh last weekend when he faced the Cardinals.  While that likely won't happen again, the Cardinals are going to have to do a better job of cashing in on opportunities if they plan to steal one against him.  He'll face Todd Wellemeyer in a rematch of last Saturday's game.  Hopefully Tony will keep a close eye on Wellemeyer, who has struggled in his last inning in his starts lately.  He'll have to limit the damage to stay in the game.

The CardsClubhouse preview is now up and the San Francisco YNOT is open until first pitch tonight.

Train Keeps Rolling

Another game, another win.  You know, a person could get used to this.

The Cardinals kept their lead at 1.5 games, though the second place team is now Chicago instead of Milwaukee.  They guaranteed they'll go into the weekend in first and kept pace with Arizona for the best record in baseball.  (Notably, no AL team has 10 wins yet.)  I'm sure they can keep up this .733 pace and win 118 games.  Right?  No?

Hard to top the all-around game that Adam Wainwright had.  7 2/3, one earned run, six strikeouts and he hit a home run to boot.  Close second on the Hero scale would be Albert Pujols, for his two-run double that got the scoring started and his nice defensive play that help stop the Izzy meltdown.

The only downside to Wainwright's outing was the fact that he threw 115 pitches.  Not terribly extreme, but a little higher than you'd like to see.  That's not all Tony's fault, though, as Wainwright started the eighth with a servicable pitch count before things snowballed, and by that time the braintrust was trying to nurse him along to play the percentages.  It worked for another Cardinal win.

A rough ninth means that Jason Isringhausen gets the Goat.  For the second straight outing, he allowed two runs and put a Cardinal victory in jeopardy.  I know Izzy's done this before--they are even called "Izzy saves"--but it seemed like he did that less last year after the hip surgery of 2006.  Hopefully he is just hitting a rough patch and can straighten it out quickly.  I can't handle that kind of stress!

And how about that 17-pitch walk by Ankiel last night?  Talk about working pitch counts!  And even Skip Schumaker chipped in with a home run.  This offense definitely has its moments.  If it can continue to work the count and get good pitches, they will put up the runs.

Bernie makes a very solid point, one that probably is going unnoticed outside of St. Louis.  There are no dramatic stories here that make for a great early record.  It's not like Pujols is going yard every night or the pitching staff is perfect.  People are playing around their ability levels--a few above, a couple below--and this should be a pretty decent team.  Which is what I've been saying since before the season started.

Afternoon baseball today.  A lot of times, that's when Tony runs out the B lineup.  We'll see who we see today.  The pitching matchup is Kyle Lohse vs. Manny Parra.

Lohse has spent most of his career in the American League, so he's not faced a lot of the Brewers.  Looks like the guy with the most success against him is Gabe Kapler, who probably won't play due to his shoulder injury sustained shagging fly balls.  Craig Counsell is hitting .400 with a home run against him, so I expect Rickie Weeks will get the day off.

The Cardinals haven't seen Parra much, but what they've seen, they've liked.  No home runs against him, but a .333 BA will generate some runs if you keep that going.

Chance for the sweep.  Can the Cards pull it off?

And remember, if you want in on the next United Cardinal Blogger project, let me know.  There are still spots available!

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]