There's no doubt that Jaime Garcia is last night's Hero.  He likely could have had another shutout if it wasn't for the error that extended the eighth.  As it was, he didn't allow any earned runs through eight innings of play, dropping his ERA down to 1.64.  Someone mentioned on a different site that he could be a frontrunner for the NL Cy Young if it were voted on today and I think you'd be hard-pressed to disagree.  Which makes it hard to believe that two months ago we were worried if he was a flash in the pan after his terrible spring.  Just more confirmation that spring doesn't mean much of anything.

On the flip side, there's Tyler Greene.  It'd be one thing if he made an error on a tough play.  It'd be one thing if he made an error after a long night of playing ball.  However, to drop an easy popup after being inserted as a defensive replacement?  That's not going to go over well.    A lot of people are very high on Greene, pressing for him to be the regular starter.  Right now, though, I'm just not seeing it.  He's shown flashes and maybe if he played regularly he'd be able to do it more often, but I'm afraid he's going to be a AAAA guy.

Lance Berkman proved that you really can't just flip him to the right side and expect to automatically get him out.  He's been hitting much better right-handed this year and he added to that last night with the game winner. 

You knew it had to happen sometime, but Matt Holliday is cooling off.  He's hitting .222 in his last seven days and hasn't had a hit since Saturday.  He's still hitting .360 and obviously there's no real concern there, just a little bit of the law of averages as work.

Wonderful night for Yadier Molina, both on and off the field.  He went three for four, drove in the first run and the one out he had was hit very hard, just right back to the pitcher.  He also added to his reputation as a good guy and a fan favorite with his guest of the game last night, a sick child from Puerto Rico that Molina flew (along with his family) up to experience the big-league lifestyle.  The boy (looking around, it seems his name was Justin Mendez) threw out the first pitch, was sitting at field level and Yadi spent time over there with him during the game.  After Molina's double late in the game, they exchanged points and both of them came running onto the field after Berkman's game-winner.  No matter what else happens to that child, there's no way Justin will forget last night, which is an amazing thing.  Kudos to Yadi for all of that.

Albert Pujols went three for five, but no runs or RBI and did ground into another double play.  The prevailing thought is that he will turn it around and hopefully he will soon.  He did hit a double last night, his first extra base hit in a week, so perhaps he is working on getting out of that slump.  That said, the power just hasn't been there--his last home run still was April 23, which is getting close to a month now.  It's going to be very hard for him to hit that .300/30/100 level that he's done every year.

People are starting to get healthy.  Sounds like Colby Rasmus should be back today or tomorrow as well from his nagging stomach injury.  Brian Tallet is rehabbing with the Quad Cities team and made his first appearance last night without incident.

Then there's Skip Schumaker, who is starting his rehab in Florida today.  The question for Skip is what his role will be when he returns to the team.  Will they immediately put him back into the starter slot?  As much maligned as his defense has been, it's not like the replacements have been that much better.  He's not been bringing much to the table offensively, though, so it would seem his role would be a great utility-type player.  That said, I don't believe injury is going to lose him his job, so expect to see a lot of Skip once he's activated.

After that short series with the Phillies, the Cards have another one, this time with Houston.  Of course, they made sure to start the Cardinal Killer, as today's game pits Bud Norris vs. Kyle Lohse.

We all know the mystique around Norris when he faces St. Louis.  Here's his numbers vs. the Cardinals:

It's worth noting that the Redbirds hung three runs on him last time, though they were unearned.  Whether the defenses are weakening and the Cards are figuring him out, though, is still uncertain.  Another good game against him tonight and maybe they can stop trotting out the Chuck Norris meme when he throws.

  Some success, but as we always say, it's a different Lohse.  He'll have to be careful with Carlos Lee (who's not the threat he used to be either) but Lohse should be able to have another stellar game against this lineup.  We'll see if the new Cardinal killer, Brett Wallace, can be stopped or if his reign of terror will continue to grow.

Look forward to tonight's matchup as well as the UCB Radio Hour, which will have Jon from Redbird Dugout hosting.  Same time, same place as normal, so tune in!