Ugly Play Causes Cardinal Loss

You'd never know it from the final 9-5 score, but yesterday's game against the Mets was a close, low-scoring affair that the Cardinals led.  Until the seventh inning.

I was listening to the radio broadcast and John Rooney and Mike Shannon gave plenty of grief to Colby Rasmus for not throwing out the runner at home and then dropping the fly ball.  There's no doubt it wasn't a stellar day for the prospect either on the field or at the plate, where he went 0-3.

But what was more troubling to me was the pitching of Trever Miller.  Miller didn't seem to have much of anything, giving up a double to Carlos Beltran and then a home run to Omir Santos.  (And if you are like me and just said, "Who?", Santos is apparently a catcher that got 10 ABs with Baltimore last year.  I don't know if he's in the running to backup Brian Schneider or just a warm body in camp right now.)

Obviously, a lot of the hitters that Miller faced wouldn't have come up if Rasmus catches the third out earlier in that inning.  But Miller didn't limit the damage at all.  Five hits and a walk in one inning will do a lot to lose a game.  If it was a regular season game, I think Miller would get my Goat award.

More positively, Adam Wainwright had a good outing and is ready to start the season.  He did walk four and allow five hits, which are troubling numbers, but if the strike zone was as iffy as some have said yesterday, some of those walks might not be his fault.  The most important thing is that he's happy with his stuff, which should translate to good things for the Cardinals.

Offensively, Khalil Greene was the only Cardinal with two hits, pushing his spring average back over the .400 mark. Save a few of those hits for the regular season, Khalil!  Seriously, if half of this offensive output translates to the regular season, we'll be in good shape at shortstop.

Someone wrote me yesterday asking about Shane Robinson and why he was still in camp.  Right now it appears to be just as a depth issue, but he's definitely making his mark there as well, with the winning RBI on Sunday and then a home run in the ninth yesterday.  You have to think that, if he starts off well at Memphis, it's really going to push John Mozeliak to move an outfielder.

Speaking of the GM, he talked about the roster construction yesterday.  Most everything is settled, which we pretty much knew.  Someone between Rasmus, Joe Mather, Brendan Ryan, Brian Barden and Joe Thurston will be heading to Memphis.  My guess is Barden, unless they feel Mather needs some regular work to get back into the swing of things.

One person that won't be playing on Opening Day is Troy Glaus, who headed back to California to have his shoulder examined yesterday.  It's not necessarily a setback, since he was going to have to have examined sometime anyway, but until we hear the results and have him get back to rehabbing, you can't count on his return.  LaRussa hopes for a May 1 return, but I'd be pretty shocked if that happened.  If he's back before Memorial Day, count it a victory.  David Freese's message to Troy: "Hey, take your time.  I've got it covered."

Cards put their closest thing to an Opening Day lineup on the field today against the Red Sox.  As Derrick Goold noted in the UCB Radio Hour, this team will stay up in Fort Myers and face the Twins Sunday, while a B team will be used in the home game on Saturday.  Kyle Lohse takes the mound and hopes to continue the streak of good starting pitching.  Here's hoping he does! 


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