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A Giant Fall

You know, if someone had told me that the Cardinals were going to beat up on Matt Cain, I'd have felt pretty good about the rest of the series.  Saturday was not unexpected, because Lincecum can dominate with the best of them, but I didn't expect the shellacking the Cards had on Sunday.  Let's go through the games one at a time so we can establish the Heroes and the Goats, then we'll take a look at tonight's Brewers game.

I didn't get to hear much of the game Friday night, only a little portion as I was traveling between parts of my personal doubleheader (softball and a poker game).  The part I did here, though, was a lot of fun, as it was just after Albert Pujols's three-run home run and in the midst of that 12-batter fourth.  Looking through the box score, it's tough to pick out just one Hero since everyone had their hitting shoes on and both pitchers did very well, but I think I'll give it to Chris Duncan.  A tie-breaking two-run home run plus a double is a pretty good night.  As for the Goat, tough to say, but we'll do a bit of a make-up call and give it to Troy Glaus.  He did get one hit in three trips, but he left three on the bases.  Again, just the worst of a very good night for the Cardinals.

Saturday, again I didn't see much, but what I did was pretty expected.  Tim Lincecum is a tough pitcher to crack.  To some degree you'd want to stay close, hope his pitch count starts climbing and get into that bullpen.  There were some opportunities, though--he walked three and gave up six hits in his seven innings--but was able to negotiate out of them.  The key at-bat may have been in the fourth against Pujols, with two on and none out.  Pujols got up 3-0, but Linecum was able to work it back to 3-2 and then got Pujols's anxiousness working against him by getting him to chase ball 4.  That really took some life out of the team.

I'd still say, though, that the Goat for that game has to be Rick Ankiel, who went 0-3 and left four on base, including striking out after the Pujols at-bat described above. Rick's been in a little slump lately, hitting only .222 in his last seven games.  With him still learning the strike zone, he probably will go through good streaks and bad streaks.

Hero for Saturday would probably have to be Skip Schumaker, who continued to do his leadoff job well, going 2 for 4.  Joel Pineiro pitched much better in this one than he did in his first outing, though was still a little shaky allowing eight hits in just over six innings.

Sunday, well, there's no much good to say about Sunday.  I think it's fairly obvious the Goat should be Braden Looper, who had nothing, allowing 10 hits and 7 runs in three innings.  Anthony Reyes had some trouble in the first inning he came in, allowing runs to score, but settled down after that.  Hero-wise, I think we can give it to Troy Glaus, who went two for three, scored one of the runs and drove in the other.  Some kudos to Ron Villone as well, who pitched three scoreless innings.  I'm sure he wasn't expecting to get that kind of work when he signed on.

The Cardinals are the midst of their first slump of the season, losing three of their last four.  They need to get back on the winning track and tonight they get a chance to do that against the Brewers in a rematch of last Wednesday's game.

Adam Wainwright goes against Carlos Villaneuva tonight up in Milwaukee.  Last time these two got together, Villaneuva didn't make it through the fifth while Wainwright went 7.2 innings and hit a home run to boot.  The Cardinals have to be favored tonight, but it'd be great if some of the bats made it a less-than-stressful evening.  The preview for this series is up at CardsClubhouse, as well as the YNOT.

On the United Cardinal Blogger front, we are just two blogs short of our goal for our new project, so I'm going to detail it here and hope that it will intrigue a couple more blogs to contact me with their willingness to participate.

What we are going to do is a "progressive-dinner" type of game discussion for the Cards/Cub game on May 2nd.  Each blog will take an inning and discuss the game and any tangents that may come out of that inning.  For example, one blog may take a sabermetric approach to TLR's pitching change, one may have their opinions on Duncan playing for Brian Barton if he strikes out with runners on, various things like that.  It should be a way for you to see the whole game, but through nine different prisms, as it were.  The posts will not be live blogs, but will likely be posted on Saturday evening or Sunday.

Signed up so far (with innings requested if they have done so) are Stan Musial's Stance (first), CardinalNationGlobe (fifth), The Redbird Blog (eighth), Redbird Ramblings (ninth), Rockin' the Red and Mike on the Cards, along with myself, of course.  If you want in, e-mail me or drop me a note in the comments.

Day Off Reflection

The Cardinals came away with a split this weekend in San Francisco.  You knew that it'd be tough to deal with Lincecum and he proved that, striking out 11.  I was pretty impressed to turn on the game in the fourth and hear the Cards up 2-1, but that didn't last long.  And I knew once they got behind to a guy like that, well, you just had to hope his pitch count forced the bullpen into action.

For a team down 7-2, though, the Cardinals did make it interesting.  Two in the eighth and the tying run comes to the plate in the form of Albert Pujols.  If you are going to be in the situation, that's about the best you can ask for.  Ironic that something generally positive (a wild pitch, moving the runners up) became very negative (intentional walk, double play, out of the inning).  That's baseball, I guess.

And the team didn't give up in the ninth, either, having two on with Chris Duncan at the bat.  Down 0-2, he worked the count back even before being called out on a pitch that was obviously a ball.  Benjie Molina yanked it back into the strike zone, but that only added to the obviousness.  I don't know that the game would have come out any differently, but that was a terrible call.

Heroes and Goats time.  The Goat's pretty obvious: I know it was his first time back, but Joel Pineiro has to pitch better than that.  Six runs in less than four innings is tough to take.  In his defense, he did have some bad luck (kicked a ball right back to him, bloop single by the pitcher) and hopefully after shaking the rust off, he'll be better when he faces these guys in Busch this weekened.  Hero will go to Ryan Ludwick, with his 2-5 and a HR.  He must enjoy San Fran, since he got homers and Heroes in back to back games.

Cardinals get a day off to rest up before taking on the second-place Milwaukee Brewers.  The CardsClubhouse preview is up, as well as the YNOT if you are interested.  The Cards get the back end of the Brewer rotation and should be able to put some runs up this series.  They've still not lost a series this year.  If they are able to say that next week, it'll put them in good position for a run through the NL Central, who will be their opponent for 13 games from April 21 to May 4.

It's Tony's Team

If nothing else, the 2008 Cardinals really do seem to be an embodiment of their manager's personality.  "Play a hard 9" is his catchphrase, and the Cardinals definitely did that today against the Giants.

After being no-hit by Matt Cain through six innings, Albert Pujols broke it up with a double in the top of the seventh.  That was what the Cardinals needed, because from there to the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals ran off seven unanswered runs before an uncharacteristic rough outing for the closer forced the tenth.  The Cards didn't miss a beat, though, and won it in the 10th.

Even though Chris Duncan got the game winning RBI, I think you have to give the Hero of the game to Ryan Ludwick, for his two-run, go-ahead homer in the ninth.  Without Izzy's meltdown, he wins the game.  Nice to see Rick Ankiel get another homer as well.  And Anthony Reyes notched his first save, which is impressive as well.

The pitching was a little shaky today, though.  Wellemeyer cruised for a while and did have seven strikeouts, but five runs in the sixth is tough to take.  However, the Goat has to go to Jason Isringhausen for allowing two runs in the ninth.  Thankfully, he was able to stop it there and force extras.

Tomorrow is Joel Pineiro vs. Tim Lincecum.  It'd be great for the Cards to get in there and get another win, but even a split of the series is nice.  It'll be tough hitting Lincecum, but today's game gives the Cards the idea that if they can hang close, they can win it against the bullpen.  Can you blame them?

Back on Track

The Cards go from their worst game of the year to possibly their best.

Seriously, find me a Goat in that game!  We've got Schumaker and Barton throwing out back-to-back runners at the plate.  Lohse gives up two runs in 5 and a third and the bullpen shuts down the Giants.  And even the two runs Lohse gave up were due to bloop hits, in large part.  Every starter that didn't pitch got a base hit.  No errors were committed by the Cardinals.  Talk about a tough one.

But because I'm a completist and have to assign it in every game, I'll go with Kyle Lohse, just because he did give up 8 hits and a walk in his time out there.  That kind of WHIP will come back and get you with better teams.

If there's that much trouble hunting up a Goat, the flip side is that there are a lot of Heroes.  Schumaker (thanks to the Giants porous defense) got on five times and scored four runs.  Barton drove in his first two RBI in his career and made a nifty grab out in left.  Ludwick went yard and had five total bases.  Kyle McClellan comes in with the tying run at the plate and pitches 1.2 scoreless.

However, for all that, you still have to go to El Hombre.  Albert Pujols not only gave the Cards an early lead, he then erased the Giants lead with a three-run bomb.  After that, it was all downhill for the Giants.

No TV for today's game between Todd Wellemeyer and Matt Cain.  After a couple of years of having almost everything on TV, it's a little strange not to have this one televised.  Hopefully the Cardinals will be able to handle the young ace of the Giants staff.  Of course, it won't be from experience if they do.  It appears that Cain has never pitched against the Cardinals, with the few ABs anyone on the team has gotten from him being on another squad.  It's pretty rare when one of our relievers-turned-starters has faced the opposing team more.

Coupled with other results last night, the Cardinals have the best record in baseball (8-3) and a 1.5 game lead on the Brewers and Cubs.  All the standard caveats apply, but you'd still rather have this result than a lot of others.  Let's see if they can keep it rolling this afternoon.

All's Right With The World

My Thoughts on Bonds

OK, let's get this out of the way. Barry Bonds sits 4 home runs shy of tying Hank Aaron's all-time home run mark. The whole race has been a divisive issue in baseball, what with the steroid investigation hanging over the whole thing. Many say Bonds cheated and shouldn't get the record. Some say everyone cheated and he still hit those home runs, so he should get the record. You know the debate, it's pretty well established in most baseball outlets.

What I think is missing in some of these discussions is one basic point: Bonds is not a nice guy. It's been fairly well documented that he's a me-first type of jerk, at least most of the time. I'm sure that he has his moments and that his family and friends love him, but he doesn't put on much of a face for America, and that's his right. He doesn't have to be all cute and cuddly.

However, when you go out of your way to alienate most of the people following you, don't expect them to give you much of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to situations like this. I think that, even with all the same information out there, if Bonds was more of a Ken Griffey Jr. type, who seemed to have fun and was well respected in fan circles, more people would be willing to push the steroids stuff out of the way and celebrate this acheivement.

That's really how it worked with McGwire and Sosa. There are still more people that will give them the benefit of the doubt than will Bonds, though that leaked grand jury testimony does have something to do with that. But more importantly, we liked those guys in '98. We loved the fact that they knew they were doing something big, that they were playing off of each other and getting into it. The lovefest that was #62 in Busch Stadium went a long way.

When Bonds hit #73 a couple of years later, sure, part of the lackluster response was the fact that the record was only 3 years old, and of course it came in the shadow of September 11. But I believe that if Bonds had been in the running for the record in '98 with his personality, most people would have been wanting him to fall short. And that was before any of the steroid stuff really came out.

So, in summary, be nice to people. They'll be a lot nicer to you if you are.

Also on the Network: √ Kevin Curtis Out With Sports Hernia [Depressed Fan] √ Trying to Find the Bright Spots [Arin It Out] √ You Have GOT To Be Kidding [C70 At The Bat] √ Fantasy Football Anyone? [Depressed Fan] √ Damon's Miscue Sinks Yankees [Green Pinstripes] √ Two F'ing Hands. [Depressed Fan] √ More Newbies, Please [El Lefty Malo] √ Shea Stadium Seats: This Explains Everything! [Loge 13]