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!

Cardinals Get Off Script

Posted on September 10, 2010 at 9:17 AM
Filed Under: Atlanta Braves | St. Louis Cardinals
We've seen it before.  Way too many times, in fact.  A miscue, a bad pitch, and suddenly the Cardinals are in a 3-0 hole early in the game, a hole that they don't climb out of as they slog to another loss.


I was afraid we were in for another rough outing from Adam Wainwright.  That first inning was a disaster, though the fact that Brendan Ryan and Albert Pujols make errors on the first batter of the game doesn't fill you with confidence either.  Giving up the home run to Derrick Lee, who tore up the Cardinals in that weekend series when he was with the Cubs but hadn't done much since arriving in Atlanta, seemed to put the nail in the coffin.  Then Waino gave up two more hits after the home run, though he got out of that.  All in all, it seemed like a long night.

Thankfully, though, the bats got working.  You have to think Colby Rasmus enjoyed being close to home, with a multi-homer game and four hits, plus a walk.  Not much else the man could do, is there?  That should quiet down the feud talk for a day or so.

The best thing about the big five-run second was that it was everyone but the big bats that got into the action.  Matt Holliday, who gets the Goat for getting tossed out of a 7-3 game (which probably was settled but you never know), got out to start the inning, so it was Rasmus and the bottom of the lineup that got it going, finished off by Skip Schumaker's home run. It seemed like the hitters just had to take out some frustration on someone.

By now, though, we've learned about drawing conclusions from a Cardinal game.  Sometimes you'd like to think that this kind of game means that they are waking up, that maybe they'll finish September like they started April.  However, there have been too many inspiring games followed up by flat performances for us to get too excited.

That said, the lead for Cincinnati is just five after losing on a steal of home to the Rockies.  Which makes the Milwaukee series more frustrating, since two wins there makes it three.  Even with that, if Wainwright would have been able to win the Saturday game against the Reds, it's a four game mark.  It's still a lot of ground to make up in roughly 20 games and the schedule doesn't help this weekend, as the Reds host the Pirates.  It'd be pretty surprising if the Cards, even if they were able to win the rest of the weekend, made up any more ground.

Even Tony La Russa seems to have a handle on this team, saying in regards to momentum, "We've got a lefthander going against us tomorrow.  We haven't seen him before.  We have everything going against us."  Ah, Tony.  We so know the feeling.

Still, things could be worse this weekend.  The Cardinals send out Chris Carpenter tonight and Jake Westbrook tomorrow afternoon.  The problem comes in Sunday night, on the nationally televised ESPN game, when Kyle Lohse goes to the mound.

The problem with Lohse is more the fact that there isn't anybody else you can send out there.  I mean, you have Lance Lynn at Memphis, but 1) they are still in the playoffs, so it's not fair to them and 2) you don't necessarily want to throw a rookie in the middle of a major league pennant race for his first exposure.  You'd have to weigh teams not knowing much about him vs. general rookie nerves and learning curve, and I don't think the answer would be positive.  Lohse does feel like he's made major progress and, for the most part, his start last time was acceptable.  If he can figure out how to finish off innings, then perhaps the Cards will have something.

With the Cardinal radio broadcasts going back to KMOX next season, it's not surprising that there are going to be some shakeups at KTRS.  First up is Mike Claiborne, who was let go yesterday.  I've never been overly impressed with Claiborne, who seems like a good guy but not necessarily one that comes across that well on radio especially, but it sounds like he probably will get picked up with KMOX, which is good for him.

Perhaps the spark will turn into a flame this weekend.  Perhaps it will fizzle out.  All I can say is, keep watching and let's find out.




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