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Misery

Posted on May 12, 2011 at 7:31 AM
Filed Under: Chicago Cubs | Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals
That game made Tony La Russa close his good eye to keep from watching it.

(By the by, TLR has really never had to be away from the team, usually being suspended on a home stand or just for a game.  Can you imagine him at home listening to John Rooney and Mike Shannon or watching the Fox Sports Midwest broadcast?  He's well out of the broadcast area, though, and he may never have gotten the MLB.tv package.  Picture the manager sitting at his computer watching GameDay and, like the rest of us, going, "In play, run(s)?  What happened?  Blast it!")

I didn't get to spend the game on Twitter last night, so I'm not sure if there was much discussion about Jake Westbrook returning to the mound after the rain delay, only to be quickly removed before the end of the inning.  There's no question that the delay wasn't long enough to keep Westbrook from returning, but it was just as obvious that he didn't have much last night for whatever reason.  It might have been a good time to use the rain delay as an excuse to keep him out of there, but that's a hindsight guess.  I don't have any qualms with him going back.

I think Westbrook will be our Goat for last night's game, but until reading and thinking about it, I was about to anoint Jason Motte in that role.  Motte came in and allowed Westbrook's two runners to score plus allowed one of his own, but that was compounded by an error by Colby Rasmus.  If Rasmus gets to the ball, perhaps that inning goes a bit differently, so I'll go with Westbrook instead.

As for Ryan Franklin, well, you've got to give him credit for taking one for the team.  The Cards put together a bit of a rally late that made it look like the four runs he allowed might be the difference in the ballgame, but it wasn't.  Reading the game story makes it sound like he was a bit lucky to not be scored on in his first inning, but again, he wanted to pitch yet another one to help keep the bullpen preserved for this afternoon's game.  He's not effective right now and I'm sure this whole thing is killing him, but he did what was best for the team without complaint.

On the Hero side, I think I'll go with much-maligned Ryan Theriot, with his two hits, one run and the RBI that gave the Cards a brief 1-0 lead.  It was also good to see Albert Pujols get a hit and a walk and drive in two.  He's hitting .270 now and on the rise, so maybe we'll start seeing the real Albert Pujols shortly.

Not much else the team can do but forget about that game and come out this afternoon to win the series.  Jaime Garcia goes today in his first outing since being almost perfect.  Here's his line against the Cubbies:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Jeff Baker 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Aramis Ramirez 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .250 .250 .500 .750 0 0 0
Darwin Barney 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Marlon Byrd 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Jeff Samardzija 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Alfonso Soriano 3 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Tyler Colvin 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .500 .000 .500 0 1 0
Kosuke Fukudome 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 23 22 4 1 0 0 3 0 4 .182 .217 .227 .445 0 1 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/12/2011.

I'm a little surprised the Cubs haven't seen that much of Jaime.  I know we are only into Garcia's second year, but being that Chicago is in the division I would have thought he'd have had more than one start against them.  What little is there looks good, though he's not faced Starlin Castro, who has been a pest in this series.

Casey Coleman (no relation to Christine, I expect) takes the hill for the North Siders.  His exposure to the Cardinals is in line with Garcia's with the Cubs:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Matt Holliday 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Jon Jay 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Colby Rasmus 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .333 .500 .333 .833 0 0 0
Daniel Descalso 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Albert Pujols 3 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 .500 .667 1.000 1.667 0 0 0
Chris Carpenter 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Yadier Molina 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Jake Westbrook 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 22 20 4 1 0 0 1 2 4 .200 .273 .250 .523 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/12/2011.

Just like with Jaime, the little exposure Coleman has had to the Redbirds has been pretty positive for him, though Albert seems to have had a good game when they faced him.

1:20 start for today's game, and while I'm not a fan of the Cubs, visually a day game at Wrigley does have its charms.  Let's hope the Cards can continue their streak of winning series with a victory today!

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2 Comments

2 Comments | Leave a comment

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Christine | May 12, 2011 8:18 AM | Reply

Although of course you'll be reading my post today -- your poem is in there -- you will find out my family baseball history at the end as well. :)

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Author Profile Page Cardinal70 replied to comment from Christine | May 12, 2011 10:31 AM | Reply

I did notice that. I didn't want to say anything when we met at UCB weekend, but I had a feeling you might be related to Vince.

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (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)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (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%


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