Blogs By FansC70 At The Bat
Sponsor


Cardinals_WideSkyscraper.jpg

Baseball Schedule is your best source for the latest St Louis Cardinals Schedule information as well as keeping up with division rivals including Cubs Schedule, Reds Schedule, Brewers Schedule and Astros Schedule.

Bet on the Cardinals with Sports Interaction's MLB betting lines


Slots Galore Casino Tournaments

Get your tickets from Bubba! Cheap St. Louis Cardinals Tickets and more, including tickets for the next MLB All-Star Game. Bubba's got Boston Red Sox Tickets and New York Yankees Tickets

Authentic, large selection of Cardinals memorabilia, guaranteed and certified.

Subscribe
RSS Feed

Archives

Players

Categories


Alliance tickets has an extensive inventory of St. Louis Cardinals Tickets , Colorado Rockies Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and Seattle MarinersTickets.

With all of the St Louis tickets out there, Cardinals tickets and Rams tickets make for great presents. GoTickets.com can fill all of your sports tickets needs, just check out our testimonials!

A Holliday Weekend

Posted on June 21, 2010 at 4:36 PM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Oakland A's | St. Louis Cardinals
It's late in the day, I've already written about my electronic tragedy of the weekend and I've worked up my Baseball Digest column (to be up later this evening, probably).  Let's take a quick crack at this weekend's series with the Oakland A's.  Oakland is one of those teams I'm a little fond of, though not as much as when Tony La Russa and Mark McGwire were running around over there.  Still, love those green uniforms.

Friday (6-4 win)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  Three hits, including a home run that put the team on the board early.  That lineup switch--or the warmer weather--seems to be working.
Goat: David Freese. 0-4 with two strikeouts.
Notes: Again, not the sharp Chris Carpenter, but the offense was able to bail him out of his really bad inning.  Also nice to get back into the NL Central lead after this one and Cincinnati losing to Seattle.  How nice was it that the Cards miss Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez and their closest competitor has to face them?

Saturday (4-3 win)
Hero: Adam Wainwright.  Eight innings of one-run ball.  Plus, if I didn't choose him, Holliday probably sweeps the weekend.
Goat: Ryan Franklin.  Apparently didn't have anything, giving up a run (eventually two) and getting nobody out.
Notes: Another home run and multi-hit and RBI game for Holliday.  Good work by Jason Motte to limit the damage in the ninth, almost getting out of it without giving up anything.

Sunday (3-2 loss)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  OK, uncle.  Two home runs gets you back on the list.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  Two strikeouts and a fly out in the biggest situation late in the game.
Notes: Another tolerable outing by Jeff Suppan.  Still not able to go too long, but first time through the lineup he's a rock.  

Like Bernie Miklasz says in today's column, consistency seems to be the hobgoblin of this team.  Holliday gets going, Colby Rasmus and Pujols slow down.  (Though, to be fair, Rasmus did hit two bombs this week, so that's something.)  Freese hit all four of his home runs in, what, a week's time?  Granted he's kept his average up and been hitting some doubles as well, but it goes to the streakiness of this team.

The fact that the Cards are up 1.5 over the Reds with the engine not fully functional tells you about the NL Central but also about how good this pitching staff has been.  Without the emergence of Jaime Garcia, this team is well back, especially after Brad Penny's injury.  Garcia's got to get some credit for team MVP, just because of what he's meant to a team like this.

Day off today, which means a slow day in Cardinal Land.  Matt Holliday did get Player Of The Week, which is nice.  That may be a symbol of this Cardinal team, though.  I mean, when you look at the stats, save for the middle infield nobody just looks bad.  But then you see Holliday's week that pumped these numbers up, Rasmus was POW a couple of weeks back with a strong seven days, and Freese got it back in May.  I could have sworn that Pujols had gotten one this year as well, but I can't find it in a Google search.  Still, that helps highlight the peaks and valleys this team has on a regular basis.

Looking forward to the Toronto series, should be a good pitching matchup.  We'll look at tomorrow's game, well, tomorrow, but I want to mention that Ian Hunter from The Blue Jay Hunter will be joining us on UCB Radio Hour on Wednesday, so if you have any questions about the Jays, let me know or give us a call!


Leave a comment




Leave a comment




Cardinals_MediumRectangle.jpg

UCB_11_trans_dark_sm.png

Search



BallHyped Best Sports Blogs Book
This blog was featured in the Best Sports Blogs of 2010 Book!
• Pick up the limited print edition
• Free Best Sports Blogs ebook 


United Cardinal Bloggers

FRIENDS OF THE UCB


Download the iPhone or Android UCB app by clicking on the nice orange picture.
Open in Mobile App 

And check out the UCB Network over at LockerDome!
lockerdome-share_63x63.png
  



Other Cardinal Blogs

Recommended Cardinal Forum

Other Cardinal Sites

General Baseball Blogs/Sites



Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


    Looking for St. Louis Cardinals Tickets?  TicketCity is your source for New York Yankees Tickets and World Series Tickets.

    Looking for Cardinals tickets? Stop by OnlineSeats. We’ve got Blues seats and even Rams games. Go to the coasts as well and catch a Celtics game or get Dodgers tickets.

    Referrals