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Unable To Get StartedPosted on May 3, 2011 at 10:37 AM As interesting and enjoyable as the 2011 season has been so far, there is one thing that has eluded the Cardinals so far, and that's a long winning streak. Two up, one down, never getting a sweep. It was like that as well last year, and I guess as long as you win two of three, it doesn't matter too much, but it'd be nice to see this team get on a roll.Filed Under: Florida Marlins | Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals As long as they don't start rolling the wrong way, of course. Last night gave them a two-game losing streak and the first time we've actually been disappointed in what Kyle Lohse brought to the table. If you look at it broadly, Lohse really wasn't that bad, with most of the damage concentrated in one inning. Lohse allowed a one-out single to the pitcher, then lost the command that he's shown all season long with back to back walks. He decided to challenge the next hitter and, well, slams happen. Not to say that Lohse escapes being the Goat--better control or keeping Mike Stanton in the park later on would have done wonders for the chances of a Cardinal win. I'm just saying that perhaps we don't have to panic that the smoke and mirrors has worn off and we're going back to old-school Lohse just yet. When I listened to the slam last night on the radio, it seemed to me that the Cards hadn't given up very many home runs this year. Turns out that's really fairly true--they are 19th in baseball and 10th in the NL in home runs given up, which is a testament to how well the team is pitching and the ground-ball nature of the squad. Without digging into it, I bet a large portion of those HR were allowed by the relief staff as well, which made a home run against a starter fairly rare (and then it happened twice). Lohse also took a line drive off the leg, which apparently turned out to be nothing. That said, it made you wonder if he wasn't some sort of baseball bad luck magnet. In 2009, it seemed like he couldn't get through a start without some calamity affecting him, whether it was line drives or being hit by a pitch or issues on the basepaths. Let's not go down that road again, Kyle, what do you say? Rough night for Colby Rasmus as well. He did get a hit and score a run, but his diving attempt at Stanton's ball turned into a triple when he couldn't come up with hit, which happened to be the winning run when Stanton scored on a sacrifice fly. Then Rasmus had a chance at redemption with two on and two out in the ninth, but made the last out on the first pitch he saw. The Hero again had to be Lance Berkman, who drove in four of the Cardinal runs and hit another home run along with it. Berkman was named Player of the Week for the second time in April (so it seems pretty safe to think he'd get Player of the Month) and he wasn't going to rest on his laurels. Unfortunately, no one else did a lot last night, so it went for naught. BJ Rains brought up a good point on Twitter last night. Since Mitchell Boggs blew his save opportunity, it seems like he's been warming up and getting into games earlier. He pitched the eighth on Friday when the Cards were down one, the seventh on Saturday when the Cards were down two, and then last night he pitches the eighth with the game tied. Now, many people would argue for using him in high-leverage situations and not saving your closer for the ninth, necessarily, but two points on that. One, that's never been Tony La Russa's style. Ryan Franklin pitched the ninth (or came into the eighth and finished the game) when he was a closer and all closers before that did as well. Secondly, these weren't necessarily high-leverage spots. Boggs started all of those innings, so it's not like he came in to put out the fire. He kept the game close in Atlanta, but you'd have expected he'd been saved for the ninth last night if he was the closer. It seems to me that we can't call him that anymore, that there really isn't a closer on this team. Something to keep an eye on as the week progresses. Roster move was made yesterday, as Allen Craig was activated and David Freese goes on the DL. Freese and La Russa seem to be more optimistic, with around an 8 week timetable being expressed by those parties. John Mozeliak wasn't as confident, saying more like 9-12 weeks and a late July return. Apparently it was a pretty bad break, as Freese underwent surgery to fix it up, and knowing how Mozeliak treated the Adam Wainwright situation this spring, I'm betting that his window is more likely than the eight week one. As Pip writes over at Fungoes today, though, the gap between Freese and his likely replacements isn't as large as other gaps on the team. We'll see if that holds true as the months go along. Speaking of injuries, Skip Schumaker is 2-4 weeks from returning and Brian Tallet is still a ways off as well. As Bill postulated on Gateway to Baseball Heaven Sunday and has written about at I70 Baseball today, the team really isn't missing Schumaker and that says something interesting about what should happen when he returns. Now, to be fair, the team hasn't missed Wainwright as much as they thought they would, but if he was healthy tomorrow he'd be back in the rotation without a beat. Schumaker, though, has always seemed to be an expendable part, at least to all but perhaps the manager. Having players like Daniel Descalso and Tyler Greene put up respectable numbers and keep the team afloat while he's gone has to be a little concerning to Schumaker. He'll likely get his job back when he returns, but I don't think anyone's in a big rush for that to happen. As for Tallet, having another lefty in the pen would be nice, and it seems to me Mozeliak hints at trying to acquire one in the article. I don't know if that's really going to be an option, but if Trever Miller continues to struggle, it may move to the front burner. Cards try to shake off the last couple of games and Kyle McClellan looks to get back on the winning track tonight. Here's what he's done vs. Florida:
Anibal Sanchez could be a tough draw for St. Louis, being that he has had no-hit stuff some this season. Here's what the Cards have done in the past against him:
For those of you that did the Houston YNOT prediction game, the results have been posted over at CardsClubhouse. I'll try to be sure to add the form for the games in the future over here, starting this weekend with the Brewers. Also, early reminder for the UCB Radio Hour, because not only do we have a great guest lined up, but Christine from Aaron Miles' Fastball will be making her co-hosting debut as well. Mark your calendars!  Leave a comment |
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 HeroesMatt 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) GoatsMatt 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 FlightsHappy 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 |
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