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"It Didn't Look Like They Wanted To Come Out And Beat Us"

Posted on September 2, 2010 at 8:10 AM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Houston Astros | St. Louis Cardinals
I think the title of this post says it all.  When a player on the opposing team questions the desire, there's little else to say about the 2010 Cardinals.

That was Geoff Blum's quote to MLB.com after yesterday's game.  "It didn't look like they wanted to come out and beat us at all."  We talked about this some last night on the UCB Radio Hour (by the way, really great show--listen on Blog Talk Radio or iTunes when you get the chance) and Mike made the suggestion that it was the last game of a 10 day road trip, that there may have been some "get this over with mentality".  I understand what he's saying, but I don't think I agree with it.  Or, more precisely, think that shouldn't have been it.

First off, I'm not sure that Blum was talking just about yesterday, but perhaps about the whole series.  But even if he was just referring to the game Wednesday, it still shouldn't have been an issue.  This team is out there supposedly playing for their playoff lives.  This is the organization that patented "play a hard nine".  Even if the NL Central is out of reach now (and, being that the Cards are just as close to third place as they are to first, I think that's a darn safe assumption), you still have the wild card and, with the pitching this team has, you never know what could happen if you get into the playoffs.

"They didn't want to come out and beat us at all."

Those are just not words I ever expected to be applied to a Tony La Russa team and it just may be more evidence that, after fourteen years, it's time for some sort of change.  Even in '07 and '08, with a team dealing with injuries and trying to find itself, they played hard and hung around in the race.  This team?  It just doesn't seem to have the energy to go out and play, at least until the late innings when they try to make a rally.  Even that, though, has been lacking some in the last few days.

Rick Horton mentioned this yesterday on the broadcast: "The score is 4-2, but it feels like 20-2."  There's no faith in a rally by this team.  There are a lot of places you can put blame, but as we discussed last night on the show it really seems to come down to the offense.  There are holes in the lineup--when Colby Rasmus is not healthy and hitting #5, there's not much after Matt Holliday--and that keeps the team from sustaining rallies.  It's a far cry from what we thought we had at the beginning of the season, when you looked at the lineup and thought that, at any time, you could sustain a rally from any point in the lineup.

Yesterday's game was more of the same.  We saw the two-run home run by Matt Holliday in the first and thought that maybe something was going to happen.  Without that swing, though, the Cards would have been shut out for the third straight day.  They had chances, loading the bases twice, but never got anyone in.  The most devastating whiff was getting Jeff Suppan and Skip Schumaker on with no one out and 2-3-4 coming up, but not scoring.  

Albert Pujols went 0-4 and 0-13 over the past two games, so I think we can stop following the Triple Crown for him as well, since he's down to fifth in BA, 16 points back, and even now trails in RBI by two.  September may not have much of anything interesting in it.

Jeff Suppan returned yesterday and the results were fairly predictable.  He was able to stay out of damage, for the most part, until the fifth when he allowed Hunter Pence's three-run shot.  If he gets Pence out, do the Cards win?  Perhaps--the bullpen was strong yesterday--but it would have had that feel of "when is the other shoe going to drop" throughout the whole game.

Tony La Russa said it: "We stunk the whole trip."  Unfortunately, save for their good record at home and the fact that a majority of the games left are at Busch, there's not much reason to think that September won't have that reek of failure along with it.

Now, of course, the Cards will go out, sweep the Reds, and make us even more frustrated with this road trip.  No game today, 7:15 start tomorrow.  Things have to get better.  If nothing else, hopefully they can win more games than they lose in September and send us into the winter with a few positive memories.


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Heroes
Lance Berkman (24)
Albert Pujols (19)
Matt Holliday (15)
Chris Carpenter (10)
Kyle Lohse (9)
Yadier Molina (9)
Ryan Theriot (8)
David Freese (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Jon Jay (7)
Jake Westbrook (6)
Allen Craig (5)
Kyle McClellan (5)
Colby Rasmus (5)
Edwin Jackson (4)
Skip Schumaker (4)
Daniel Descalso (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Gerald Laird (2)
Nick Punto (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Lance Lynn (1)

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

Goats
Ryan Theriot (12)
Albert Pujols (11)
Jake Westbrook (10)
David Freese (8)
Ryan Franklin (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Fernando Salas (7)
Kyle Lohse (6)
Kyle McClellan (6)
Colby Rasmus (6)
Skip Schumaker (6)
Miguel Batista (5)
Chris Carpenter (5)
Daniel Descalso (5)
Matt Holliday (5)
Jon Jay (5)
Jason Motte (5)
Allen Craig (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Tyler Greene (4)
Yadier Molina (4)
Lance Berkman (3)
Mitchell Boggs (3)
Gerald Laird (3)
Edwin Jackson (2)
Trever Miller (2)
Corey Patterson (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Maikel Cleto (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Octavio Dotel (1)
Mark Hamilton (1)
Lance Lynn (1)
Nick Punto (1)
Arthur Rhodes (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Raul Valdes (1)
PJ Walters (1)

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

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2011)
    Adam Wainwright 94.7% (down 0.9%)
    Matt Holliday 91.1% (up 6.6%)
    Albert Pujols 90.4% (down 8.3%)
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Derrick Goold 87.8%
    Chris Carpenter 86.9% (down 6.7%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Mike Shannon 84.9% (down 4.6%)
    John Rooney 84.3% (up 8.1%)
    Yadier Molina 83.7% (down 8.3%)
    Colby Rasmus 81.8% (up 5.0%)
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Jim Hayes 76.1%
    John Mozeliak 74.1% (down 12.0%)
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    Bill Dewitt 71.0% (down 12.0%)
    Tony La Russa 70.8% (down 10.2%)
    BJ Rains 70.4%
    Ricky Horton 69.1%
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Skip Schumaker 64.1% (down 17.0%)
    Al Hrabosky 63.2% (up 19.0%)
    Mark McGwire 62.5% (down 10.7%)
    Dan Lozano 58.7%
    Joe Strauss 57.5%
    Kyle Lohse 55.1% (down 11.7%)

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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