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Who Are These Guys?Posted on July 19, 2010 at 10:34 AM Is it possible that, during the All-Star Break, aliens abducted the St. Louis Cardinals and replaced them with clones? Or that Tony La Russa gives an amazing motivational talk when he has three days to prepare? It could be, perhaps, that this is a great starting team, as they tore up the beginning of the first half as well.Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Los Angeles Dodgers | Philadelphia Phillies | St. Louis Cardinals Whatever the reason, it hardly seems like the same squad that frustrated us so much in the first 81 games. After winning the first two games, it'd have been easy to see things slip away. Instead, the Cards pull off the sweep and tie their longest winning streak of the year. Of course, when you have Adam Wainwright going at home, no matter what half you are in, you are looking good. After Saturday's game, Waino is 10-0 with a 1.31 ERA at Busch Stadium. If I remember the stat from SportsCenter correctly, that ties Hal Neuhauser for the best ERA at home this deep into a season. What I also found interesting is that Wainwright is now second in the NL in ERA, passing up Ubaldo Jimenez. He's only one win behind Jimenez, who has been the frontrunner for the Cy Young for quite some time. Josh Johnson is a threat as well, with his 1.62 ERA, but if Waino keeps it close in that category, the fact that right now he has four more wins than Johnson should come into play. There was a line of thought that Waino had peaked too soon, finishing in the top three in the Cy Young the year before his contract rewarded him for it. It's looking like top three just might be where he's going to reside for a while. With the heat, TLR didn't push Wainwright, so you have to give credit to the bullpen, who had done great work the night before and held the Dodgers scoreless in this one as well. Save the occasional hiccup (of which we will discuss soon), the bullpen has been fairly solid most of the year, the Colorado series excluded. Kyle McClellan has especially stepped up, posting an ERA under 2 and, in a world where there were some bullpen arms (say, perhaps, Chris Perez and Jess Todd), he'd have made his bid to be that fifth starter. Instead, he's made himself too valuable to move out of the 'pen. On the downside, Colby Rasmus really looked lost in this game. Three strikeouts in a 0-4 day is not what we want to see out of the youngster, though the report afterwards that he's feeling some weakness in his legs may have led to some of that. It also makes me worried that, at least for some folks, he's going to become the next JD Drew--a talented outfielder that doesn't show much emotion and often has some sort of ailment. I never was one of those that was hard on Drew and I don't think people are going that way with Rasmus now, but the similarities are starting to be there. So the series is won, the heat is strong, and so TLR runs out the scrubs on Sunday, with no Rasmus, Albert Pujols, or Yadier Molina. There is no way this team wins this game in the first half of the season. Yet these clones found a way. Honestly, after Mitchell Boggs had done his meltdown and allowed three runs in the game, I was fairly sure the game was over. I mean, a four-run lead with the big guns in the Dodger bullpen available? I really was thinking that Matt Holliday's flyout with the bases loaded and two out the inning before was the game-changer. A hit there, they get a lead, things maybe are different. 4-0 with these guys, though? Pack it away. And yet, it wasn't. Allen Craig had the two innings of his life so far in the bigs, driving in the first two runs and then, down to the final strike of the game, tying it up with a single off of Jonathan Broxton. Everyone did their part, as Pujols even got the count to 3-2 before hitting it sharply to short for the last out of the eighth. Those extra pitches added up for Broxton, and after Craig's tying single, it was just a matter of time before the Cardinals won. Holliday didn't make them wait long with his long RBI walk-off single. It's the first time in a long while that I have been so wrapped up in a game. I was able to watch almost all of Sunday's contest and, even though the temptation was there to turn it off after Boggs's outing, I'm glad I stayed with it. The eighth and ninth were impeccable dramas, the kind that it seemed teams earlier in the last decade turned out with semi-regularity. It's hard not to feel that a special second half is coming. And I've given a lot of grief to Brendan Ryan over the months, so I have to salute him when he comes through. He had a hit, drew two walks in situations where, as he did Friday night, he could have been too aggressive and swung, and then got down the sacrifice in the late rally. (Trust me, I think he could hear me yelling to get the bunt down after he popped up his first attempt!) I'd like to see Ryan make the comeback as well, though he's looked like he was in the past and then regressed. The Reds lost yesterday, so the Cards are in first by half a game as they face the Phillies while the Reds get the Nationals (and, on Wednesday, Stephen Strasburg). If the Redbirds are still in first when they hit Chicago Friday, look out NL Central. Mark McGwire has been pretty quiet this season. It's a little jarring when they pan the dugout and you see him there, white beard and all, taking notes and watching the action. There hasn't been a lot stirring around him, though there have been questions whether he's been effective with the team. After this weekend, though, he's pretty proud of his charges. Perhaps they have finally adjusted to the new guy. We'll have to wait and see. The last comment on yesterday's game: I note in the McGwire story the note that Joe Torre, who was having his birthday yesterday as well as Allen Craig, had a worse birthday game when he managed St. Louis, being up 11-0 and losing 15-12. That is one game that is burned into my brain. I still remember watching that one, since we got the Houston sports station back then, and just couldn't believe how the Cardinals were collapsing. It's proof that, in baseball, it ain't over until it's over. We sit now 13 days from the trade deadline. John Mozeliak, fresh off his well-deserved extension, is going to have to make a move for a pitcher since it looks like, at this rate, we've seen the last of Brad Penny and we can't be entirely sure when Kyle Lohse will return. There's no way a championship-level rotation should have both Suppan and Blake Hawksworth in it. If nothing else, it wears down the bullpen. What Mo is going to do, I don't know, but hopefully he'll come up with something. Cards and Phillies tonight on FSMW and ESPN. St. Louis does face noted Cardinal killer Kyle Kendrick. Statistics against the current crop of Birds:
Hawksworth goes for the Cardinals. He's been pretty good as a starter, but that Philadelphia lineup, even though it is struggling somewhat, still has a lot of problems in it. His stats against the team, though numbers in relief may not be predictive of his approach to the players as a starter:
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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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