Recently in Tony LaRussa Category

End of the Line

That's the last time we'll see Mark Mulder in a Cardinals uniform.  It's probably the last time we'll see him on a baseball field at all.

I don't say that with any malice or glee.  I really was hoping that Mulder's new arm slot would be the key to getting him, not to his Oakland level, but at least to a serviceable starter.  Instead, he faces three batters, walking two and leaving the mound again in pain.

If that was the end of the line for Mulder, it's too bad St. Louis never got to see the really good version.  (If Billy Beane knew about Mulder's health issues--and I wouldn't put it past him--I'm not sure how he sleeps at night.)  The only really positive memory I have of Mulder is that epic 10-inning shutout against Roger Clemens.  Other than that, there's not much.

Of course, there will be more revisiting of the most rehashed trade in Cardinal history.  I'm still firmly convinced that if Dan Haren had been a lefty, the trade never would have been made.  It was all about getting an lefthander into the rotation.  And, at the time, the trade was reviled because of the inclusion of catcher Daric Barton.  That's not the problem.  Barton had to move to first (which means he couldn't play in St. Louis anyway) and isn't just lighting it up yet, three and a half seasons after the deal.  It's the fact that Haren developed into so much more than the Cardinals (and the fans) ever thought he would that has made the deal so lopsided.

The hero from last night's game probably has to be Brad Thompson.  I really liked Troy Glaus's AB that tied the game, but Thompson coming in with two on and one out in the first and getting out of it, then pitching effectively from there really stands out.  I've got trouble giving out the Goat, though.  I can't give it to Mulder--just can't tag a guy like that after possibly his career ended.  Kyle McClellan gave up the go-ahead home run to Howard, but he pitched well the inning before that and it was Ryan Howard.  I guess I'd probably give it to Chris Perez, because the Feliz home run made it just that much less likely the Cards were going to rally off of Brad Lidge.

One last comment on the game.  Does anyone else think it was cheap that they gave Skip Schumaker just a double on that ball that "stuck" under the wall?  Victorino looked like he was going to get it, then realized he could just keep it there and get an advantage.  I think there should have had to be an attempt at the ball before he could throw up his hands.  That was pretty lame in my book, though must be part of the ground rules at Citizens Bank.

The team is already moving on the Mulder front, likely disabling him and bringing up Jamie Garcia, which will please Erik at Future Redbirds immensely. Garcia will work out of the pen at least until the break.  If nothing else changes, I'd expect him to move into Mulder's slot after the All-Star Game.

Changes, though, are what Tony LaRussa wants to see.  This will be the first real test of the Mozeliak/LaRussa dynamic.  Up until now, it's pretty much been "hey, this is great, more than we thought, but let's wait and see."  Now, Mo's still there but LaRussa's competitive nature has taken hold and he wants to see something.  This is where Jocketty would go out and make some move that, in recent years, was little more than combing the waiver wire.  Will Mozeliak do that?  Will he start looking for a bigger trade?  Will he take Tony's dogs hostage until he quiets down?

Couple of vets going this afternoon.  Braden Looper looks to keep the bullpen off the field when he takes the mound, but the Phillies may have other ideas.  Pat Burrell has two homers off of him and probably will be excited to take his cuts today.  On the other side, Jamie Moyer is one of those you'd expect the Cardinals to struggle with, a soft-tossing lefty.  Really, though, for a guy that's been around as long as he has, the Cards (save Glaus and Kennedy, guys that saw him in the AL) haven't gotten a lot of ABs against him.  Glaus does have five home runs off of Moyer, so maybe he'll break out the big bat today.

The UCB is working on their next project.  If you weren't e-mailed and want to join it, let me know.  It should be a good discussion.

A Little Early On the Fireworks

Stop me if you've heard this before.  The Cards jump out to an early lead, posting a crooked number in the first.  However, they don't score again and the other team comes back to take the lead.

Last night's game matched that script again, but it was the later innings that deviated from the norm and made for an exciting win for the Cardinals.

I know Troy Glaus had two home runs, including the walkoff winner.  You have to like how he's heated up in the last month or so.  I checked the stats back in May and he and Rolen were almost in a statistical dead heat.  Not so much any more.

But the Hero isn't always about the best player in the game.  Chris Duncan pinch-hits the two-run, game-tying home run off of a lefty.  For everything that Duncan's been through, this Hero's for you.

If I didn't have a firm rule about keeping the Goat tag on a player, Tony LaRussa would probably get the tag for last night's game.  What was he thinking bringing Mark Mulder into that situation?  I know Mulder had thrown a good inning last time out.  But it was just one inning.  Let's not just dump him straight into a high-leverage situation, OK?  Especially when the guys coming up had good career numbers against him.

Kyle McClellan was looking sharp.  He'd faced five batters and retired four of them.  Granted, his splits show that righties have done pretty well against him this year, but he owns lefties.  Church (L), Delgado (L) and Easley (R) are coming up.  Is it really worth playing the percentages and bringing in a untested lefty in that situation?

Mulder actually didn't look quite as bad as you'd think.  It seemed to be watching that he had little control of his pitches.  The movement was great, but he didn't know exactly where he was going with it.  The first pitch to Church was a nasty one and Mulder got burned on that AB with a bloop single.  The hit by Delgado, though, was as solid as they come.  A sac fly and then, representative of his control problem, a HBP and he was done.  It's not a huge setback, but it's not exactly what you want to see out of the bullpen either.

Albert Pujols almost got the Goat tag, not only for his 0-5, but his anxiousness in the ninth.  Everyone hitting in that inning seemed to want to end the ballgame with one swing.  I'm sure AP thought the first pitch would be his best chance of doing that, but I'd have rather seen him draw the walk and have something going than popping out like that.

Tonight the Cards could get the series win.  A couple of young pitchers head to the mound as Mitchell Boggs, who of course hasn't ever faced the Mets, goes up against former top prospect Mike Pelfrey.  The only Cardinal Pelfrey has faced is Jason LaRue (twice).  He's got a 4.47 ERA but has been pitching pretty well of late.  Could be a low-scoring affair, or it could be a wild one.  As the philosopher said, "Youneverknow."

Not Quite "Lonborg and Champagne", but We'll Take It

This blog's title is a reference to the famous Boston Globe headline before Game 7 of the 1967 World Series.  Jim Lonborg had already beaten the Cardinals twice in that series, throwing 2 complete games, allowing a total of 4 hits and a run.  Of course, allowing his opponent, Bob Gibson, to see that headline before the game was probably the worst thing the Red Sox could have done; Gibby dominated, and the Cardinals tasted the bubbly.

I was reminded of that when Mickey Lolich trotted out to throw out the first pitch, especially considering the Cardinals had one only once at Comerica since 2000 (but what a once - Game 1 of the '06 World Series).

The result?  The boys won their third game of the road trip, 8-4 over them Tigers.  The game had chills (Cabrera's home run that wasn't), thrills (Schumaker's pinch hit 2-RBI single in the sixth) and head scratchers (how did Barton get caught off third in the first?).  But what matters is the Redbirds FINALLY picked up a game on the Cubs.  It's been 3 weeks (since June 7, specifically) since they gained ground on Chicago.  Let's hope they don't have to wait another 3 weeks to pick up another game.

Heroes and Goats:  it's tough today.  Since LaRussa pegged Brendan Ryan "the star of the game" I won't disagree with him.  Brendan had a nice multi-hit game, and his two-RBI double in the seventh iced the game.  Goat:  We'll go with Brian Barton (tough call) and Rick Ankiel (not so tough) for getting caught off/picked off, respectively, on the basepaths.

Other news/notes:  Albert Pujols' rehab is going well, and he may return as DH in this series.  Otherwise we'll see him in the KC series this weekend.  LaRussa thinks any infielder can play first, an interesting opinion I don't agree with (there's a lot of footwork required around the bag that most people don't think about), although you can't argue with the results (Kennedy played well last night).  Mark Mulder's next rehab step is uncertain. 

One final thing:  Get out and VOTE for our all-stars.  25 votes per email address and as many as you can fill out at the ballpark.  Ryan Ludwick, Albert, and Yadier should be all-stars this season; don't leave it up to Clint Hurdle to have them added to the roster.

Another Downer

Really, was anyone surprised?

I missed both games yesterday, the afternoon win due to work and most of the evening one due to softball.  I did see them get down 5-0 and was pleasantly surprised to hear on the radio on my way home that the game was going into the bottom of the ninth.  I turned on the game at home to see the Cards up in the bottom of the 10th, but the Nats had a runner on and Ryan Franklin was pitching.

This is going to turn out badly, I thought.  And sure enough it did.

Since Izzy gave up the closer role, Franklin has pitched 9.1 innings.  Counting last night, he's given up four earned runs, for an ERA of 3.86.  Six of the nine outings, though, he's not been charged with any runs.  However, his WHIP in that span is 1.61, which is ridiculously high for a closer.  To put it in perspective, Izzy's WHIP for the year is 1.78.

I'd like to see Tony be a little more open to one of the rookies getting a shot in the ninth, but I think the more likely hope is that Izzy is mentally and physically ready soon to take the job.  And will Tony have to swallow a little pride and bring Anthony Reyes back to the majors after another disaster by Mike Parisi?

Hero of the second game has to be Mark Worrell.  Two scoreless innings with the team way down, then blasts a three-run homer in his first AB.  The Cards have had a number of people, including pitchers, do that in the last decade.  If I had more time, I'd look them up.  (About to leave the office, sorry!)

At least they won the first game, behind another blast by Troy Glaus.  He really does like the warmer weather!  The goat is a toss up between two players that went 0-3, but Aaron Miles left more men on than Brian Barton.  Awesome to see a pinch-hit HR by Pujols as well.

More draft today.  I'm sure everyone's seen that the Cards took a 3B with their first pick.  Sounds like a pretty solid hitter.  With David Freese, Allen Craig and now Brett Wallace, the hot corner is a popular place.

Cards and Houston tonight.  Looper vs. Moehler.  Could be a lot of fireworks at the bandbox.  Out of time, or I'd do the normal breakdown.  Enjoy the day!

Cards Beat Nationals, Mother Nature

That was a heck of a game, huh?

Not that it was anything dramatic.  After Yadier Molina's home run, it was unlikely that the weakest hitting team in the National League was going to make much of a run.  But two rain delays really ruined whatever rhythm you could get in the game (not to mention my watching, which had to give up during the first one).

I don't do it very often, but I think you've got to give Cesar Izturis Hero of the Game honors.  A steal of home (on the front end of a double steal, but still)?  Plus three hits?  And no errors on a sloppy field?  Sounds like a pretty good all around game to me.

I hate to give Albert Pujols the Goat tag, because there's really no telling how much that calf was bothering him while he was in there, but he definitely tried to do too much in his first at-bat.  After all the stats about him crushing Odalis Perez, he reached for ball 4 and hit a weak grounder that would have been two if Felipe Lopez hadn't bobbled it.  A walk would have been fine there instead of going after that pitch.

All that aside, hopefully the calf won't be a problem and he can be back out there today.  The lineup loses so much without him and, since the Cubs apparently will never lose again, the Cards need to keep winning if they are going to stay close.  Though if he had to miss a game, the ones against Washington probably would be the least damaging.

It's almost mind-boggling that Kyle Lohse came back out after both rain delays.  After throwing four innings and having an almost two hour stoppage, you rarely see the starter continue.  But to add another one on top of that was just asking for trouble, I'd think.  I know TLR wanted to get him a win if at all possible, but was it worth risking him hurting himself?  It panned out, though, so I guess we'll defer to the skipper on this one.

Matt Clement had a strong rehab outing yesterday.  It's tough to get worked up about these--even Mark Mulder had some good starts--but it definitely is better than the alternative.  And Derrick Goold gives reasons why even though the numbers are similar, Clement had a better outing than Mulder.

Pitch time:  I occasionally get a message from XM's marketing agency asking for a plug in the blog.  Since I'm a big XM fan, I try to oblige.  This time, it has to do with the First-Year Player Draft coming up tomorrow.  You'll be able to hear the whole thing on XM 188.  That's the official feed, with no comments or anything.  If you want a little analysis with your draft, try XM 186.  And there's a special XM/ESPN special on XM 141 today starting at 6 pm.

I know Future Redbirds is all over the draft and they've gotten me interested to see what direction the Cardinals take.  It'd be nice to get a high-ceiling guy for once and have him pan out!

Today's game features the NL Pitcher of the Month against John Lannan.  Lannan's first start this year was against the Cardinals and he allowed two runs in 6.2 innings.  Unfortunately for him, that was enough to get the loss tacked on to his record as Loshe shut out the Nationals.  That was his only career outing against the Cards, so he's still somewhat of a blank slate.

Wellemeyer hasn't faced the Nationals this year.  He's going to be even fresher to the Washington hitters, as they have only a combined 16 plate appearances against him.  Hopefully his May success will carry over and give the Cardinals a series win with a game to play.

Reading the T-Shirts

I have a lot of Cardinal red in my closet.  In fact, it's pretty rare not to see me in some sort of St. Louis regalia.  And, in the last few years, I've started accumulating a number of the T-shirt jerseys.  You know what I'm talking about, the shirts with the Cardinal logo on the front and the player name and number on the back.

A few days ago, while trying to decide which one to wear, I started thinking about what the player on the back says about the person wearing it.  I'm not much good at this, but I'll give it a try.  (Oh, and the starred ones?  Those are the ones I have hanging in my closet right now!  I wouldn't necessarily lay claim that the descriptions fit me, though.)

Albert Pujols #5*: Having Pujols on your back could say a number of things.  It could say that you appreciate greatness.  It could say you know that he is this generation's Stan Musial.  Or it could say you are a front-runner who only knows Pujols on the current roster.  If you see this guy talking on the phone at the ballpark during the sixth with runners on and the game in the balance, count it as front-runner.

Rick Ankiel #24*: You are big on redemption.  You love the Hollywood movies.  You know, the one where the hero is knocked down but eventually makes a dramatic return and earns the standing ovation.  You teared up when he hit his home run in his first game back.  It's OK, you can admit it.

Rick Ankiel #66: You still pine for what could have been.  You remember the devastating curveball and the blazing fastball.  You get a little sick when you think of the 2000 playoffs.  Make that a lot sick.  And, also, you need to update your wardrobe just a bit.

Jim Edmonds #15: You are a little flashy.  You appreciate diving catches and dramatics on the field.  You tend to rush into the bank at 4:59 just ahead of the closing doors, even though you probably could have been there five minutes earlier if you wanted to.

Jim Edmonds #15 (Cubs): You are either obsessed with Jimmy Radio or just mentally deranged.  Either way, please seek professional help.

J.D. Drew #7*: You always thought J.D. was the whipping boy in St. Louis, that he was more productive than most gave him credit for and not quite as injury-prone as everyone made him out to be.  You also have sprained your shoulder patting yourself on the back and must miss a couple of days of work.

Chris Carpenter #29*:  You love seeing gambles pay off.  You'll put down $5 to win $500.  You remember 2005 and figure if a guy can be mentioned with Bob Gibson, he's good enough for your back.

Scott Rolen #27*:  There are a couple of options here.  You either love defense, remembering the leather Rolen flashed fondly, or you are one of those who formerly took LaRussa to task about most everything (though less loudly since 2006) and you wear 27 as a silent protest.

Yadier Molina #4: Defense is your passion.  You love seeing runners thrown out or picked off.  You love testing your reflexes by having people toss you items, just to see if you can catch them. (Usually, you can't.)  Or, perhaps, you just like to say Yadier Molina (which, I believe, is why my three-year-old son is so fond of him.)

Adam Wainwright #50*: You believe that pitching wins pennants.  You remember the curveball to Beltran more fondly than your wedding day.  You think the trade with Atlanta was just as good as the trade with Oakland was bad.

Jason Isringhausen #44: You live life on the edge.  You drink milk two days past the expiration date.  You renew your car tags on the second of the next month.  Adventure, excitement, these are your companions.  Unfortunately, they often leave you at the ER waiting for the on-call doctor.

Brendan Ryan #13: You love the scrappy guy.  This is the latest in a long line of shirts for you, starting with Joe McEwing and then Bo Hart, which you still break out occasionally.  Whether they have talent or not, it doesn't matter.  You also don't feel like it's a good day until you've gotten your clothes dirty in some form of exertion, even if it's just diving off the couch for a loose chip.

Colby Rasmus #?: You are always looking ahead.  As Yoda said, "All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was."  The present is nice and all, but you continue to plan and hope for a better day.

Jamie Garcia #?: You are actually Erik Manning.

Mark Mulder #30: You believe in miracles and you think the best bandwagons are the ones with plenty of room.

Of course, these are in all the traditional team colors.  You hate to see people of the female persuasion decked out like this.

Any more suggestions?  Post them in the comments!

Around the Blogs: Cracks Are Showing

The Cards are in a slump at the moment, having lost six of seven.  That has affected the tone in some quarters of the blogosphere (Mike on the Cards says they're in a funk and Redbird Ramblings would prefer not to discuss it), but that's not what everyone's talking about.

A point of discussion about last night's game is the usage of Ron Villone.  Stan Musial's Stance really can't figure out why he was out there instead of McClellan.  I'm not sure what LaRussa's thought process was, but it's better than the silly idea that he hates rookies, a meme I'm quite tired of.

The Red Baron, in his weekly Wednesday fill-in for lboros at VEB, hands out some first quarter grades.  There's not much to disagree with here.  I might bump the starting pitching down to a B and the relief corp up to a C-, but that's a judgment call.  Suffice it to say, though, that the bullpen has been the disappointment of the first portion of the season.  I know he grades down the middle infield, but really, we are getting what we expected out of these guys and maybe a little more.

Speaking of, the back of the Cardinal bullpen has been under scrutiny recently.  Fungoes shows that Jason Isringhausen really hasn't been quite as bad as we thought, just unlucky.  It'll be interesting to see if Izzy gets back into the closer role and if that luck will start to even out.

The Cardinal Virtue has his take on the rumored Jim Edmonds to the Cubs bit.  I wrote about that in today's main post and I agree with what John says here for the most part.  I'd like to think Edmonds would have enough of the love for the 'Lou to turn down a Chicago invite, but if that's the only place that's offering and you still want to play, it's hard to fault the guy.  Get Up, Baby! has the reaction many Cardinal and Cub fans are having over the news.

CardinalsGM ponders trading Chris Duncan.  I've honestly got no problem with trading him off, even though I think he gets a little more of the blame than he should at times.  That last name can be a double edged sword.  But if someone would give us good value for a Duncan/Reyes package, I'd do it.

As always, when you want to know something about the Cardinal minor league system, you head to Future Redbirds.  It was the first place I went this morning when I read that Stuart Pomeranz had been released, though Eric hasn't touched much on that.  (Redbirds Fun does have part of the article over there, though.) But the three up/three down feature is back and you always need to read the Daily Farm Report.

Don at The Redbird Blog goes the miscellaneous route as well, pointing out some stories you might not have seen other places.

A couple of good posts over at Rockin' the Red.  First off, some ideas for shaking up the lineup, as well as what some trade targets are doing.  Kujo would like to see Chris Perez and Joe Mather come north and help out the big squad, especially if that meant Duncan was moved.  However, in Mozeliak's chat today at the PD, he indicated that no moves with Duncan are planned at this time.  Not that he'd say if there were, but it comes across as not something they want to do.

Also, Kujo looks at the cost/benefit of signing Rasmus long-term.  With the price of young talent the way it is, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do a deal similar to what Tampa Bay did with Longoria, but I'm still of the camp that he should play at least a year before you start thinking about long-term extensions.

The professionals are weighing in as well.  Derrick Goold looks at some of the advanced metrics in relation to Pujols's baserunning (something that had been discussed anecdotally at CCH) while Matthew Leach tossed out some tidbits yesterday, including the information about Mark Mulder's last workout.

To pull it back full circle, check out THEblindhomer Sees for his Pittsburgh preview/recap.

If I didn't get your blog in here, I'm sorry.  If I don't have your link, add it to the comments (and add mine to your rolls!)  I've been tinkering with the blog links recently.  If you scroll all the way down, I've even added some non-baseball links.  If there's something I'm missing, let me know!

Lineup Creativity, Part Deux

Earlier in the season, Tony LaRussa unveiled a fairly unique lineup, one that had Ludwick hitting leadoff.  He may have just topped himself.  Per Bernie:

Schumaker
Molina
Ankiel
Ludwick
Duncan
Glaus
Kennedy
Wainwright
Izturis

Yes, you read that right.  Yadier Molina, he of the blazing footspeed, the man slow enough to be caught by a glacier, is hitting in the second slot in the lineup.

It's a fascinating concept, though.  Obviously the lineup had to be juggled without Pujols in there.  You'd have expected, probably, Kennedy and Molina reversing roles.  So what is Tony thinking?

Well, we know that Molina hits Bush pretty well.  He's four for 10 with three home runs against the Milwaukee hurler.  He is hitting .301 on the season, .400 in May, though he hits lefties better than righties.  I would expect to see, if Schumaker does get on in front of Molina, some hit and runs put on.  LaRussa probably feels that Molina can handle the bat well enough to move runners over or get first-and-third with Ankiel coming up.  Molina has struck out only five times this season (which is even a better rate than Mr. Pujols) so there could be some action on the basepaths tonight.

Hopefully this one turns out better than the last jumbled lineup!

Record-Breaking

The Cardinals posted their highest-ever April win total by beating up on the Reds yesterday.  After Harang took a 2-0 lead, I was afraid that the game was starting to get out of hand, especially the way Harang can pitch.  But the Cardinals immediately stole a run back (almost literally, with Duncan scoring on a wild pitch) and were off and running.

Heroically, Rick Ankiel was 3-3, driving in two of the Cardinals' five runs.  Right behind him was Aaron Miles, with his 2-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI game.  And it's possible that Jason LaRue should get a little mention as well, depending on what he told his teammates about Harang.

On the flip side, Troy Glaus was 0-4 with a double play, which gets him another Goat award.  Days like that are going to happen, though, and at least it happened in a win.

If there's anything LaRussa can do, it's juggle lineups.  So far, the results are looking good.

Along with the game yesterday, there were a lot of eyes on the Memphis game, with Mark Mulder pitching.  Those eyes are now permanently scarred after witnessing a horrific outing.  3.2 innings, 7 earned runs?  At least we won't have to worry about the braintrust rushing him up to the bigs.

Mulder can have two more rehab starts and I expect, even if the first one is very good, they'll leave him down there for both.  There's not a pressing need for a starter right now anyway, plus you still can't quite tell what you have with him.

While the strong start puts the Cards in good company with prior Redbird teams, don't start printing the playoff tickets yet.  Larry at VEB did some great work showing the pitching splits, home and away, leading to the projection that May, with an even split of 14 home games and 14 road games, and June (18 away, 9 home) could be tough ones for the Cardinals.

That's for another day, however.  Today, the Cards are virtually tied for first place and are off getting ready for the series with the Cubs.  A day to reflect on April and appreciate what they've done and a day to root like crazy for the Brewers this afternoon.  Looks like a good matchup in Wrigley, with Zambrano and Gallardo going at each other.

Won't be around tomorrow, as real life has a heck of a day in store for me.  But I'll be back Saturday with the pre-game and post-game postings for the UCB game blogging project.  I'm quite excited to see how this is going to turn out!

And for those of you coming over from VEB or other places talking about the project, here's the link to the description.  Note that CardinalsGM is taking over for my inning, while I'm doing the pre and post game.

Wasting Opportunities

The Cardinals seem to be unable to get into a winning groove like they did the first week of the season.  Every time they get a winning streak started, they seem to snap it quickly.

Mike on the Cards (note the new site, BTW) mentioned the Cardinals leaving runners on base.  Seemed like a reasonable symptom of a struggling offense, not able to get the big hit.  So I did some rough research and compared LOB for wins vs. LOB for losses.

What I found was a little surprising.  In the Cardinals' 16 wins so far this season, they've stranded 133 batters, which works out to 8.3 batters per win.  In their 11 losses, they've stranded 98, or 8.9 batters per loss.  That's a little skewed by the 16 they left in the 12 inning loss to Milwaukee, so removing that would put the two categories just about even.

More recently, they are 4-4 in their last 8 games.  In the wins, they strand 8.75.  In the losses, 11.25.  That counts that 16 LOB game as well, but the last few losses have been more frustrating in this regard than earlier ones.

Of course, not all LOB are created equal.  Walking the seventh guy to load the bases for the pitcher leaves 3 on base if he strikes out, but we don't expect much in that situation.  Runners on second and third, one out and no one scores, that's a different story.  But right now I don't have time to go through the play-by-play data and figure out a weighting method.

Suffice it to say, the Cards haven't been all that efficient in scoring their baserunners, whether it's been a win or a loss.  It might be interesting, though, to see if that's a product of most good offenses.  Because more hits, more chances to leave runners on.  For example, Houston only left 3 runners on in their 3-2 win over St. Louis on Friday, but that's because they went through a stretch where 16 batters were retired in a row.  Can't leave 'em on if they don't get on in the first place.

Anyway, to the game.  I wasn't able to see much of it.  Sounds like if Wellemeyer had been able to get loose early, the results might have been different.   That's the way it goes, of course.  Some nights it takes longer than others.

The Hero award looks like it should go to Rick Ankiel, who got off of his homerless slide, plus had a double and was responsible for two of the Cardinals three runs.  If he's going to be a streaky hitter, it looks like he might be going on another binge.

The Goat, in my mind, will go to Chris Duncan.  I know he went two for five, which is good.  But he cost the Cards what turned out to be the game-deciding run by losing a fly ball and then, with the tying run on first and two outs in the ninth, swung at the first pitch instead of having a little patience.  Maybe he was expecting Cordero to challenge him, being that is what closers do, but he'd have had to get an extra-base hit to get Pujols around to score.  Glaus was up behind him, so it's not like he was the last chance.  Maybe it wasn't a bad play, but in my mind it seemed he should have been a little more patient.

And apparently TLR's selection of Ludwick as the leadoff man wasn't that inspired, since he went 0-5 with 4 K.  Whether it was just a bad night or being in a different spot in the lineup, I don't know.  Theoretically, where you bat shouldn't have that much of an impact on you, but it apparently does for some players.

Today, the Cards take on the rookie Johnny Cueto and they counter with Joel Pineiro.  Obviously, the Cardinals have no history against Cueto, which can cause problems.  One of my pet theories is TLR prepares the team so well statistically that when they don't have a baseline against a pitcher, they have trouble adjusting.  Hopefully that'll be proven wrong tonight.

Cueto had an amazing debut, allowing one hit and striking out 10 in seven innings.  Since then, though, he's been a little more hittable.  In fact, twice in his last three outings he's allowed five runs and his road ERA is 5.11.  If LaRussa looks at the stats, he may not put all his lefties out there, as Cueto has been limiting them to a .184 average.

Being that he spent most of his career in the American League, the Reds haven't seen much of Pineiro.  What they have seen, though, they've liked.  A team .357 average against him, though the player with the most AB, Scott Hatteburg, is only hitting .241 and only Corey Patterson has a home run against him.

Could be a low scoring affair tonight if both pitchers live up to their potential.

Also note that it has been one year since the tragic death of Josh Hancock.  Derrick Goold takes a look at that and the changes that resulted from it.  It was interesting to note that the Cards have basically designated 32 as "temporarily retired" for a few years.

Site note: I've added a new blog, THEblindhomer Sees, to the blogroll. 

Also on the Network: √ Yanks Bail Mo Out [Depressed Fan] √ Shea Stadium Festival For Peace Revisited [Loge 13] √ Warriors Want Lou [Depressed Fan] √ Molina Gives Yanks Hard-Fought Victory [Green Pinstripes] √ New Mexico State of Mind (Part 1) [Arin It Out] √ Yanks Beat A Lefty? [Depressed Fan] √ Yanks Start Second Half With "W" [Green Pinstripes] √ All-Star Breather: The Giants Catchers [El Lefty Malo]