Hero: Matt Holliday.  2-4 with a home run that turned out to be pretty big when Ryan Franklin danced through the ninth.

Goat: Felipe Lopez.  0-3 with two strikeouts sitting in the middle of the lineup keeps the engine sputtering.

Notes: Jaime Garcia didn't pitch as well as he did last time out, of course, but was able to make the pitches he needed to get out of his jams.  He might not have been able to do that against lesser teams, perhaps, but the rest of the staff couldn't do it against this lesser team.

Hero: Skip Schumaker.  In a game that didn't have much redeeming value, his two hits and a run stand out.

Goat: Pick one.  I guess the most glaring is Kyle Lohse for not only allowing eight runs, but to have squandered the 3-0 lead he was handed plus the 5-5 tie the Cards rallied for.  The home run to Adam Dunn really put the nail in the coffin.

Notes: I'm guessing since rosters are about to expand they won't cut him, but will we see Mike MacDougal in anything but a lopsided game or as the last pitcher out of the pen?  I hope not.

Hero: Pedro Feliz.  2-4 and a home run, which allowed the Cardinals again to have a game where the tying run comes to the plate in the ninth.

Goat: Adam Wainwright.  Waino continues to put a dent in his possible Cy Young season by not only being unable to gain his 18th win, but to lose against such inferior teams.  Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and now Washington have beaten him his last three times out, and his ERA in that span is 5.21.  Not the best time for him to hit the wall.

Notes: Jon Jay seems to be cooling off, as expected.  An 0-7 in the extra inning game and another 0-fer here.  Did have a home run this weekend, though, so he's got that going for him. Fernando Salas is a definite keeper.  I think he and Mitchell Boggs were the only bullpen members not affected by the meltdowns this weekend.

As always, more descriptive recaps of the games over in my weekly Baseball Digest column, if you can bear to go through it.

We aren't tracking the pennant race here, but it does bear noting that the Cards are now five games behind the Reds and three out in the wild card.  After these last two series and knowing that Houston has a 7-5 season advantage on us, it really seems like September may be just playing out the string.

Which means, of course, that there is much more time for the palace intrigue between Tony La Russa and Colby Rasmus.  Rasmus was scheduled to play in yesterday's game, so much so that KPLR listed him in the starting lineup and Jay Randolph was completely thrown off by the fact that Aaron Miles was hitting where Jon Jay was supposed to be.  (Really, it doesn't take much to throw Randolph off.  I'm going to be pretty glad that all the games are on FSMW next season.)

Apparently, TLR decided to scratch Rasmus due to an abundance of caution.  He said something about wanting to give him another day, didn't want him to get dehydrated or anything of that nature.  Which is all well and good....if they had moved the game from a night game to a day game all of the sudden.  Last I checked, though, people have been planning for that 1:35 EDT start since, oh, the beginning of the season.

So what really is going on in the clubhouse?  A very good discussion on that topic is over at Viva El Birdos.  I hope that there is less there than we fans are making out of it, but anyone that's read Three Nights In August knows what La Russa thought about JD Drew.  If the fans are starting to do a little comparison of those two, is the manager as well?  Is it possible that that previous relationship is coloring the current one?

Back in 2007 and 2008, when the manager was seemingly incompatible with the young star, I argued that you keep the youngster and let go of the manager.  I was wrong then, as Anthony Reyes hasn't panned out in Cleveland any more than he did in St. Louis.  However, I'm not swerving from that course in this instance.  Not only is Rasmus more established than Reyes ever was, you have to wonder if La Russa is losing the clubhouse.  If so, there's no reason to stick with him over a guy that you really have to have in the long run, if only from a payroll point of view.

Not only were the Cardinals' October chances hurt this weekend, but so were Albert Pujols's Triple Crown chances.  After getting as close as one point in the batting race, today finds AP sitting six points out of the batting race, now trailing Carlos Gonzalez.  (That's not including the specter of Omar Infante, who is at .341 and creeping closer to eligibility.)  Albert is also only two RBI ahead of Joey Votto, as the two battle it out.

Of course, Pujols isn't thinking much about it and won't do a lot of discussing of it, but you wonder if either that or the fact that the team is struggling again is starting to weigh on him.  He has six strikeouts in his last five games, which would not be notable given his "struggles" in that department this year, but during his hot streak, he's been making significant contact.  The first 19 games of August, he struck out only four times.  If he's falling out of "the zone", it could make it very difficult for him to win any of the TC categories, much less all of them.

While it wasn't the best of weekend for Pujols on the field, off the field provided probably one of the highlights of his life.  Much was made out of AP and TLR being a part of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington this weekend.  I never worried much about it, one because TLR emphasized they were told it would be non-political, which it seems to have turned out to be, and frankly because I'm on that side of the spectrum anyway.  (Shocking, I know, to find a conservative on the Internet!)

I hope that everyone, whatever their political beliefs, can acknowledge that the Cardinal representation at the rally was done well and non-politically.  Here's a video of both of them and politics never comes up.  From what I understand, it was more a religious rally than anything and, as such, there's no doubt that Pujols belonged there.

The Cardinals finish up this road trip by going to Houston for three games.  As mentioned above, Houston has been a thorn in the side of the Redbirds all year long.  We should have known this was going to be a frustrating year when the Cardinals became the first team to lose to them, or when Houston swept them in St. Louis is mid-May.  In other words, expect a sweep is out of the question and hoping for a series win may just be a long shot.

Jake Westbrook goes for the Cardinals.  In his words, he's been "consistently mediocre" since coming over from Cleveland.  Given whom he was replacing in the rotation, mediocre was a step up.  Still, it'd be nice to see him come out and give a strong performance for once.  Especially since the Redbirds go up against J.A. Happ, who I thought was someone that had shut the Cards down a lot in the past, but he gave up five runs in six innings last year and seven runs in the only inning he's faced the team this year.  Maybe this is a more favorable game than I thought.

On a final note, I've mentioned before the Social Media night that the Cardinals are having on September 16.  As someone that does the blogging and the Facebook and the Twitter, it's of course of interest to me.  While it's not to the level of other major league teams, who have had dedicated nights for their bloggers and at times have given them press credentials to cover the ball game from the press box, it was a first step.  Could have been bigger, but it was definitely good to see the Cardinals going in that direction.

Matt Sebek, writing over at Joe Sports Fan's new abode, has put together an open letter to the Cardinals, suggesting that they should have expanded their panel to include more non-traditional media members.  I'm flattered to have been included on Matt's list, though basically anyone else on that list would be much more interesting to listen to than myself!

Cards and Houston tonight at 7:05.  If you want the perspective from the other side, remember friend of the blog Astros County for your Houston needs.

Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Houston Astros | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals   Comments (4)

Definition: to irritate or provoke to a high degree; annoy extremely

See: St. Louis Cardinals, 2010

It's like it's become a baseball version of Phineas and Ferb.  "Hey, Ferb, I know how we are going to play frustrating baseball today!"  (Side note: That's actually on right, and I'm going to watch it with my daughter once I'm finished rambling.)  There are nights that the offense doesn't show up.  Then the offense shows up, but the pitching goes to pot.  If they both work, that probably means the bullpen doesn't function.

It's never a blowout and it's never easy.  I'd guess that fully 65% or more of the Cardinal games this year have had the chance of being tied in the ninth by one team or another.  You can't point a finger just at one thing.  It's possibly the most frustrating season the Cards have had in a long time, causing many fans to just hit their top level of exasperation.

Last night was no exception.  First off, incredible kudos to Albert Pujols on reaching such an amazing milestone.  400 home runs earlier (in age) than anyone but Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez?  That's some strong company.  When there's been talk of AP breaking the all-time home run record, I've been a bit skeptical.  Sure, he puts up a lot of homers, but he's not a guy that tends to go out and have seasons of 50 or more. He's such a great all-around hitter that I figured he'd put up a high total, but not really challenge.  I don't think of him as a home-run hitter, just a great hitter that hits some home runs.

When you get to 400 this early in a career, though, you have to start thinking about it.  Albert still has a lot of prime years left and, barring injury, he could break the club home run record (assuming he resigns with St. Louis) in 2012 if not before, reaching the 500 milestone in 2013.  It wouldn't take a Bonds-like suspicious surge to put him within reach of the mark.  It might even be appropriate, since Hank Aaron was a solid home run hitter who didn't put up huge seasons but consistent ones, just like AP.

Besides that, there were a few positives.  Randy Winn had an exceptional game and really should have been discussed as the major contributor toward a win.  I honestly thought he had rapped into a double play in the ninth with the bases loaded, but he was able to hit the ball out of the shortstop's reach to plate the two runs that should have assured the win.  Four hits, including one in the twelfth which, coupled with a stolen base, put him at second with no outs, but he didn't sadly didn't move off of that spot.

Brendan Ryan did fairly well also after being inserted in the fourth.  Only one hit, but some spectacular defense.  That play in the 12th saved the game for a while, but really was incredible.  If that wasn't the top play on Web Gems last night, there's no justice in this world.

On the pitching side, Fernando Salas had another excellent game.  He ran into a bit of trouble with a couple of walks in his second inning, but was able to get out of that jam.  I think Salas has proven his worth and probably won't see Memphis again, whether this year or next.

Other than that, though, there were a lot of disappointments.  While he didn't get a lot of help from his defense, Chris Carpenter usually pitches better than that.  You can't really think that he had a lack of focus or a let down because Washington was a last place team--we've seen him be too much of a competitor for that.  Maybe he wasn't comfortable for one reason or another or maybe it was just a flat game, but it came at possibly the worst time.

Felipe Lopez....well, if the one game he made two errors at third was enough to make the team trade for Pedro Feliz, this game was probably enough to keep him off of shortstop for a long while.  I can semi-understand Tony La Russa's reasoning of not wanting to put Brendan Ryan into a tailspin again, but I think that might be underestimating Ryan a bit.  Knowing that Carpenter has requested Ryan in the past to play behind him, that could have been part of Carp's discomfort.

However, it's pretty much all moot if Ryan Franklin can hold a lead.  I know it was his second inning of work, but looking at the lineup the Nationals sent up in the ninth, he should have been able to close the door.  Besides, he hadn't pitched since Saturday, so he shouldn't have been that tired after one inning.  (Interestingly, Franklin hadn't--and still hasn't--pitched in a save situation since locking down his 21st on August 13.  Which means there hasn't been any situations since then, which seems to me to be a long streak, if it means anything.)

In a game that hard-fought, you just can't afford to give that lead back up, but Franklin did.  Adding just another layer to the exasperating season.  And that doesn't even take into account the fact that they slipped another half-game behind the Reds, but I'm not talking about the pennant race anymore, am I?

By the way, I heard TLR's reasoning for not sending up Bryan Anderson in the 12th, instead using Adam Wainwright, but I'm not completely convinced.  I understand that he thought Doug Slaten would dominate Anderson since he's tough on lefties, but I think you still have to take your shot there.  Your pitching staff is getting depleted, your star is out there on one leg, you take your chance.  If you have to, put Anderson behind the plate, Yadier Molina at first and take Pujols out, because of the injury and they weren't going to ever pitch to him in any situation save bases loaded in that game anyway.  If Matt Holliday hadn't been hit on the hand, this wouldn't have been an issue, but it was way too reminiscent of the April 20-inning game vs. the Mets. 

We'll see if tonight's game is any less frustrating.  Jaime Garcia hasn't faced Washington this year, which is good for him, most likely.  He's coming off the shutout, so he can't do better than he did last time out, but if he can do somewhere in the neighborhood, hopefully the offense that was around last night will back him up.  Scott Olsen goes for the Nats.  A lefty with a 5+ ERA.....yeah, this is going to end well.

If you'd like to see if this season was preordained or just remarkably frustrating, Out of the Park Baseball, a computer simulation game that has been around a while, is going to be half price this weekend.  OOTP is an incredible game and well-worth the $20 that you'd spend on it.  Download it and see what would have happened if David Freese had been healthy all year, if Brad Penny hadn't strained his side, if Ryan Ludwick never got traded.  You'll have a blast, I promise.

More than watching the real team can be at times, at least!

Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals   Leave a Comment

Look at this week, for example.  After falling to three and a half behind those Reds, you go out and dominate the first game against a team that, frankly, you should dominate against.  All well and good, especially when the Reds lost anyway.  The upward climb was going well with a three game winning streak.

Then the car reached the top and started downward.  A frustrating loss with Adam Wainwright on the hill with a 2-0 lead was mitigated somewhat by the Reds also falling and Albert Pujols being one batting point away from a Triple Crown.  It wasn't much, but it was something.  A team that is serious about contending, though, doesn't lose a series to Pittsburgh, especially when they are trying to make up ground on a leader.  

Yet that's exactly what happened with last night's performance.  The Pirates started a guy that had an ERA close to the mark of the beast, which might have been appropriate since he then went out and bedeviled the team last night.  A guy that had walked six last time he faced St. Louis wound up pitching six three-hit, scoreless innings, with only two walks in there.

Finding a Hero in last night's game is tough.  Felipe Lopez did get a home run that broke up the shutout, but much-maligned Aaron Miles came in as a pinch hitter and went two for two, driving in the last run in the ninth.  Which is indicative of the bigger problem; you know you are struggling when Miles is the best part of a game.

Even the consolation prize of a possible Triple Crown took a hit, with Albert Pujols having a rare 0-4 game.  Coupled with Joey Votto going off against the Giants, AP is now back seven points in the batting race, slipping to third behind Carlos Gonzalez.

How can a team that is this talented, who was supposed to be comfortably ahead in the division right now, have a series where their star says, "We didn't play to win the series and they did"?  How is it even possible that you don't roll into Pittsburgh, take at least two of three if not sweep and then look to Washington?

Derrick Goold has done the math on how hard it will be for the Cards to overcome 3.5 games this late in the season.  However, even thinking about a sustained tear for this team seems implausible at best.  At the end of April, they stood 15-8 and three games up in the division.  Since then, 53-48, never getting too high, seeming to pull out of tailspins.  To think that this team is suddenly going to play .600 ball over the next month seems, well, inconceivable.  And yes, I do know what that word means.

So I'm done.  I'm not done being a fan or watching games, nothing like that.  I enjoy the baseball and will miss it significantly when it's gone in the coming days.  I'll still cheer and hope they win, but I am going to do my best to not worry about the pennant races, not get caught up in wins or losses.  Just try to enjoy the game, as the Cardinal Diamond Diaries ladies have suggested.

Besides, I can already see how this season is going to pan out.  About late September, this team will finally put on a run.  Cincinnati will falter somewhat, so it will come down to the last day with a chance for the Cardinals to tie for the division and force a playoff.  They'll have the tying run on base in the ninth....and fall short.  It seems to be the way of things this year.

I hope that with Chris Carpenter on the mound, who shut down Washington earlier in the year, going against Jordan Zimmerman, a talented young pitcher but one who is still adjusting from coming back from surgery, that the team will play to win tonight.  Cincinnati doesn't play, so we can pick up the half-game....which is something I won't be worrying about tonight.  

Really. Promise. Maybe.

Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Pittsburgh Pirates | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals   Comments (1)

Let me preface this by saying while I enjoy doodads and gizmos, I don't have a lot of them.  The budget doesn't let me be much of an early adapter.  However, back in March, I was able to finally purchase a Touch.  While one of the big reasons I got it was to be able to use MLB.tv, I expect that would have to wait until 2011 due to the price of the annual subscription.  However, I was able to get in on the vaunted $20 sale right before the season started and had the best of both worlds.

Now, I tend to do my best to take care of things like this, because one, I don't have the money to fix or replace and two, I tend to live a Murphy's Law-type of life at times.  It seems like if something can go wrong with something, especially if I've spent money on it, it will.

So the whole family has gotten to where they enjoy using the Touch.  They play the games, download different apps, the whole deal.  I use it to check my e-mail and Facebook and, of course, watch games.  It's been worth the money and really a lot of fun.

Then Stephen Strasburg comes along.

I'm a huge pitching fan and have been excited to see Strasburg since he reached national promenance last year.  I missed his first start because I had a softball game at the same time.  His second start was on TBS, so I could lay on my couch and watch that one.  His third start, though, wasn't televised in my area.  (My cable company won't get MLB Network, to my lasting sorrow.)

I started out watching Strasburg on the computer while the family was finishing up dinner.  However, I had to get the kids bathed up because I was heading out to my bi-weekly poker game soon.  I didn't want to miss his start, though.  What to do?

You can see where this is going.

It worked out fine when my son got his bath.  I made sure to keep it well away from the tub and moved it away from the sink when he was brushing his teeth.

Then, my daughter's bath.  Again, things were going well until she says, "I want to see the baseball game."  So I turn it toward her to show her the game.

I'm still not sure exactly what happened.  I wasn't over the tub when I showed her.  I thought I was well enough away from it.  However, apparently I wasn't.  The Touch slipped from my hand, bounced against the side of the tub, and landed face up in her bath water.

The image of the game being viewed through a thin layer of water will stay with me a long time.  After freezing for a second in utter disbelief, I lunged for the Touch, got it out and wrapped a towel around it.

Perhaps if I were more electronic-savvy (or actually have been able to think), I'd have first gone to the internet and looked for answers.  If I'd done that, I'd have seen that I shouldn't turn it on or use it at all.  Of course, that's not what I did.  Everything seemed to be OK, there was just no sound.  Maybe I was in time.

Then it shut off.

Restarting it, I rushed for the headphones (since when I turned the volume up and down, that was the volume it said it was adjusting) to see if I could get the sound back on.  That's when the screen stopped responding.

After some texting with my brother-in-law, I did the "submerge it in rice" thing this weekend.  When we finally got it out yesterday, after some major work, it seems to actually work somewhat.  The apps will come up, the touch screen is responsive, everything is good.

Except the wi-fi.  That option is completely ghosted out.

At least it works in part.  The family can still play a lot of their games.  It still syncs up with the computer.

But no more watching Strasburg or any other game on it.  I hope he's happy.

Filed Under: General Baseball | Washington Nationals   Comments (1)

Tuesday, they were able to scratch enough to take out the Nationals 3-2.  Give Hero status to Ryan Ludwick, who bailed out/rewarded a ton of people with one big swing.  Chris Carpenter pitched well enough to win, so Ludwick's big fly allowed that to happen.  Carp threw quite a few pitches (118) but still only allowed one earned run.  Skip Schumaker had two errors, including one that led to the tying run, so Ludwick took the focus off of him.

Then there is Brendan Ryan.  As soon as I saw that he was the pinch-runner, I mentally said, "Please don't get picked off."  Of course, because this is The Lost Season (not to be confused with LOST's Final Season) for Ryan, he was, unsurprisingly, picked off.  Cole and I discussed this some during last night's UCB Radio Hour, and I make the point that he's probably trying to do too much right now.  He's got to want to make something positive happen, helping the team and hopefully jumpstarting his season and confidence.  However, by pressing that much, it becomes even less likely that the positive moment, that spark, is going to happen.

You wonder if they won't suggest that the wrist is bothering him more and wind up putting him on the DL so they can get him some rehab/reps in the minors.  He's out of options, so that's the only way the team can do it.  We'll see if that happens in the near future, especially if Aaron Miles is still hitting in the minors.  Should Miles be a candidate?  No, probably not, but that doesn't mean he won't get a shot at it.

Wednesday, the offense again just couldn't get anything going.  Anibal Sanchez is a very good pitcher, of course, with no-hit stuff.  However, that's not necessarily a requirement for the opposition right now to hold down the Cardinal lineup.  Then, when Sanchez was removed and the first two men in the eighth walked in front of Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, did it pan out?  Were they able to take advantage?  No, Holliday struck out and Pujols grounded into a double play, a very similar result to a recent game where Pujols grounded out and Holliday then hit into a double play.  Flipping the slots didn't flip the results.

Jaime Garcia again pitched a wonderful game.  The only knock on Garcia is that he's not as able to get deep into games as some of the other pitchers.  Last night, that wasn't completely his fault, as there were grounders in the first and other innings that should have been turned into outs but weren't, forcing Garcia to see more batters.  Still, four walks didn't help his cause much.

Being that he didn't get to go deep meant that the Cardinals had to go into the soft underbelly of their bullpen.  Right now, that means Blake Hawksworth, who gave up two in his first inning of work, then put the game out of reach by allowing two home runs in his second.  With the offense struggling, there probably is some pressure on the pitchers, especially the relievers, to make perfect pitches knowing that a run may be more than the offense can overcome.  Hawksworth didn't make perfect pitches at all, though.

Today, if the weather allows it, Nate Robertson goes for the Marlins while Adam Wainwright, who is the focus of my segment on Redbirds of a Feather's Sunday podcast, goes for St. Louis.  Which should mean that, if the Cardinals can squeeze out a couple of runs, they can split this short series.  Here's Robertson's numbers against the Cards:

Filed Under: Florida Marlins | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals   Leave a Comment

Batting order probably is overrated and it is hard to know if the swap of Matt Holliday to third and Albert Pujols to fourth really had that much of an impact.  I think the four-run first, though, might not have happened if the two were in their normal positions.  So many times Pujols has gotten on this year, but Holliday's followed with a little grounder.  With Holliday walking in front of AP, Pujols got a solid base hit and the two-out rally was on.  At least early, the change in scenery (as it were) paid off.

Kyle Lohse finally was able to figure out something, though I thought it was going to be a long night when I saw the deep fly ball outs he was getting early.  You had to figure that eventually those things were going to start dropping or going a little farther, winding up over the wall.  Instead, he was able to pitch out of the trouble he created at spots in the game and give a solid outing over to the bullpen, which did their job (with a little help from Ryan Ludwick).

If Lohse actually has turned a corner, it'll be a big boost for this team, of course.  He got ahead of the hitters, which was key, though he still had a weaker GB/FB rate than I would like to see.  His next outing is against the Angels.  If he can put back-to-back strong starts together, maybe I'll at least check out the bandwagon.  Until then, I'm not sold.

Goat last night would be Felipe Lopez, though you have to cut him a little slack since he had just been activated off the DL.  Still, if the team is benching Brendan Ryan for the time being and letting Lopez play short and lead off, he's going to have to get on base.

Cards go for the sweep (and, if Cincinnati would kindly lose, first place) with Chris Carpenter on the mound.  This is usually a good thing, his recent non-dominance (and inexplicable expressive moodiness) notwithstanding.  Here's what Carp's done against the Nats:

The Nationals counter with John Lannan.  His results against the Cardinals: 

Not much here.  Lannan has struggled so far this season, so we'll have to see if that continues against this team.  We know how often the Cardinals do a favor for those guys with the very high ERAs by helping them lower it a few notches.  (As an aside, notice that Craig Stamman was pretty impressive on the mound after that first rough inning.  The Cardinal offense swap couldn't pile on against him.)

The Baseball Digest story I mentioned yesterday went up late, so here's the link.  Looking forward to seeing Carp start a winning streak tonight!

Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals   Leave a Comment

Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Three hits, including a two-run home run that proved to be the difference.

Goat: Ryan Franklin.  Didn't blow the save, but he did his darndest.  Thankfully the team turned a double play behind him to end the game, otherwise they probably go extras.

Notes: Ludwick and Albert Pujols hit their first home runs since late April, seemingly a good sign for the offense.  Jaime Garcia continues to be amazing.  He's not faced any team twice yet, so we'll have to see how the league adjusts to him, but he keeps just mowing down hitters and showing maturity and poise beyond his rookie status.  The bullpen (save Franklin) also did a very nice job in this one.

Hero: Skip Schumaker.  He drove in the first run with a sac fly, then had a wonderful piece of hitting in the ninth to bring the Cards within a run.  He took the low pitch from Francisco Cordero right back up the middle, not trying to do too much.  Really nice work.  If Joe Mather's ball had been just a bit farther from the outfielder or the throws hadn't been perfect, he'd have scored the tying run as well.

Goat: Adam Wainwright.  Waino was bound to have a night like this, even as I start to come around to the idea that he's the ace of the team, with Chris Carpenter a strong runner up.  Just didn't have the curve working as well as normal and it showed, especially on the hanger to Jonny Gomes that tied the ball game up.

Notes: Should have known the Cards would have trouble with Mike Leake, since they'd never seen him before.  Good to see Colby Rasmus go deep--again, his first home run since late April--but the offense continued to struggle as it has for three weeks or so now.  Really did like the look of those 1947 uniforms.  I couldn't believe people on the FSMW text poll preferred the powder blues to those classy look.  What has happened to Cardinal Nation?

Hero: Jason LaRue.  Two hits, including a home run.

Goat: Brad Penny.  Penny's results have been sliding the last few games, though it's been overshadowed with how good he was at the beginning of the season.  He labored all day long on Sunday, finally adding salt to the wound by allowing a bases-loaded single to Bronson Arroyo, who was in the process of shutting the offense down (like we've not heard that one before).

Notes: Dusty Baker walked Pujols intentionally in the first.  It worked out, of course, when Matt Holliday bounced into a double play.  Until the people behind him catch fire, the odds of Pujols hitting in a key situation are nil, even though he's been more impatient and not quite Pujolsian for a month or so now.

If anyone wondered if Cincinnati was for real, this weekend proved that they are.  You look up and down their lineup and they have a solid offense, one that seems to be clicking.  Their pitching staff is solid as well.  If the Reds fade, and I'm not sure that they will, you have to figure it'll be August or so.  The Cardinals are going to have a fight on their hands.

That is, of course, if the Cardinals are going to be in that mix.  This is the first time they've been out of first since the end of last July.  How they respond that that this week, against some tough opponents in Washington, Florida, and the Angels, may give us a little indication of how this season is going to go.

The offense is going to have to get clicking.  Opponents think Pujols isn't comfortable (and they are glad for that).  Mark McGwire thinks the players need to trust their abilities.  Whatever needs to happen, hopefully we'll see it start happening soon.  The starting pitching, showing some signs of wear, can't keep this team afloat forever.

The slump has cost him his job, at least regularly.  Brendan Ryan is now the utility guy, not the starting shortstop.  With Felipe Lopez about to come off the DL (and how important was THAT move now?), it looks like we'll see a lot more of Lopez at short or a mix of Lopez and Tyler Greene.

Have we overestimated what Ryan is?  When he first came up, I thought he was going to be another in a long line of Stubby Clapp/Joe McEwing/Bo Hart-type players.  He surprised me a lot last year and I revised my opinion accordingly.  However, looking at his career numbers, it's hard to see if there's a pattern or not, due to more limited usage in his first couple of years.  He had a strong debut season in '07, slipped in '08, was great in '09.

Then we have 2010.  He's made almost as many errors this year (7) as he did all of last year (8).  Most of his fielding numbers are down, though he's still an asset there.  It's just when the bat is as befuddling as his is, defense can't completely carry you.  A .162 average is something you see from a starter in the second week of the season, not the seventh.

You hope that he'll get it going, though sporadic playing time and defensive substitutions don't necessarily lend themselves to working out slumps.  Maybe he'll show something in the cages and get an extended trial again.  Otherwise, his star may have burned brightly, but quickly.

Cards get a two game set with the Nationals kicked off tonight.  Normally, that's not a big deal, but Washington sits tied for second in the NL East, four games behind the Phillies.  In fact, after the recent swoon by the Redbirds, Washington is only one game worse in the standings than St. Louis.

Adding to the degree of difficulty, Kyle Lohse goes for the Cardinals.  We know how Lohse has struggled at times this season, though he has had flashes of, well, at least goodness.  How's he done against these National hitters?

Cardinals get to face Craig Stammen.  Stammen's numbers are pretty bad, but that's the kind of pitcher that can be kryptonite to this team.  

Big news in Nationals camp is that their first-round pick from last year is coming to the bigs in time for this series.  No, not that guy, their stud reliever from that draft, Drew Storen.  It's going to be interesting to see if he gets into this series.  He's supposed to be a dominant arm in the pen and I'd like to get a look at him, especially if the Cardinals are well ahead.

Cards need to start righting the ship.  While the rest of the NL Central is quite a ways below them in the standings, the Reds were at one time as well.  Things can spiral quickly if they aren't nipped in the bud.

My weekly article will be up at Baseball Digest later on today and I recorded some thoughts for Redbirds of a Feather this weekend, though last I checked Freddie hadn't uploaded the weekend podcast yet.

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With the season starting, time got away from me on finishing up the Playing Peppers, but there are still a couple in the bank.  Washington is off to a pretty decent start, a couple of games over .500 and just one game back in the standings.  All that, and no Stephen Strasburg yet!  With the Cardinals facing this team in a couple of weeks, it seemed a good time to get back into the swing.

Before the season started, I asked Mike from Hendo's Hutch, Mark from History's Perspective, and Dave from Nationals News Network about their team.  It's been a long wait for them to see their answers in print, but here they are.

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First, the Cards returned Ben Jukich to the Reds.  For a Rule V guy, he didn't get a lot of looks in camp, only getting two innings in one game.  I'm slightly surprised that the Reds didn't work a trade for him, since to take him back they have to spend $25,000, and right now the Reds are pinching every penny they can.  Still, while it would have been nice to have him in Memphis as a potential backup, the Cards didn't look at him as a LOOGY type anyway, so there are probably other options.  Be interesting to see how Jukich does this year, though, especially if he makes it to Cincinnati.

Secondly and more importantly, there seemed to be an organizational shift in regards to Jaime Garcia.  Going into the spring, some of us wanted to see him as the fifth starter in St. Louis, but the injury issue seemed to be influencing those that make the decisions, inspiring the signing of Rich Hill.  Garcia was seen as an afterthought to Hill and Kyle McClellan going at it for that last slot.

As your bracket will likely attest to this morning, afterthoughts have their way of making their way to the foreground.  On Twitter yesterday, Derrick Goold reported that Tony La Russa had declared that Garcia would be a starter somewhere, or at least that the organization wasn't looking at him as a reliever.  As I said earlier this week, I expected him to take that long relief role that Adam Wainwright had a few years back.  That's not the case anymore.

Then, Rich Hill pitched yesterday and it was another ineffective outing.  Hill walked five in three innings and, for a guy that needed to work on his command to be successful, that's a step back.  So we wake up this morning to see in the paper a story that Garcia will be given a start Monday against the Astros.  As Darth Vader said, "The circle is now complete."  (Well, almost, but when you get a chance to toss Vader into a blog post, you have to take it.)

Tom from CardinalsGM mentioned on Twitter yesterday that it was the point where he started to take results seriously.  There is just over two weeks left.  A lot of the guys that never were going to make it have been weeded out and sent to minor league camp.  Starters are starting to go five, six, seven innings.  The regulars will be playing.  Things that happen from now on are going to have a huge impact on the decisions that are left to be made.

So if Garcia goes out and throws on Monday like he's been throwing the rest of the spring, that very well may put him in the lead in the fifth starter derby after being on the outside looking in for so long.  That's what spring is all about, right?  The unexpected making a run.  A young third baseman making it so that you can't leave him off the roster.  The hometown pitcher fighting his way onto the roster.  There is a reason spring training lasts this long!

Approval rating time!  Even though I didn't plan it this way, so far every day has been one new person and one person we rated last year, and today is no different.

If we'd have rated Mark McGwire last year, it would have been as the disgraced and retired icon.  You'd have to have factored in the uncertainty (well, at least proven uncertainty) of his steroid usage and how you felt about all of that.  It's a new year, however, and we aren't rating just the icon, but the hitting coach who has made his confession.  It was possibly the most interesting name on the approval ballot.

McGwire wound up higher than I thought, with 64 people giving him an average score of 73.2%.  There was an outlier of 5, but the next-lowest was 20, while his high was one 100.  A lot in the 70-80 range, it looks like.

On the other hand, we have Yadier Molina.  A lot of Molina love last year, as he piled up the second-highest rating at 93.4%.  Not a lot has changed with Yadi, and this year he drops just a bit to 92.0%.  That'll put him behind Carp this year as well (likely) behind Albert.

Cards play a split-squad schedule today.  The noon game features St. Louis playing against their complex partners, the Marlins.  Not sure who is going in that game, though it should be Chris Carpenter, I'd expect.  The game is also supposed to be on FSN, so if you are in the viewing area, you get a lunchtime treat.

Most of us would have probably rather they televised the other game, however.  This evening, 5 PM start, the Cards go over to Washington and face Stephen Strasburg again.  Not only that, but McClellan tries to hold off Garcia for that fifth slot with a strong start.  Should be a lot of interesting things out of that one!

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Garcia struck out seven batters in three innings, allowing no runs and just one hit and a walk.  Of  course, you adjust that for competition, since the Nationals aren't known for a dominating offense and some of those that Garcia faced won't be in the big leagues to start the season, if ever, but seven out of nine is a pretty good ratio in any league.

On Twitter, Matthew Leach, Andrew from Pitchers Hit Eighth, and I discussed Garcia's role with the team.  Leach said that his preference was to have Garcia go down to Memphis, be the staff ace, and be ready in case anyone faltered or was injured.  Andrew was ready for him to take the fifth slot, something that I championed in the offseason.

I think I'd still like to see Garcia in the last slot in the rotation, but I can understand the concern that he won't be able to give enough innings that way.  I'm really expecting to see him go north with the team, but as the long man in the bullpen.  He won't get many innings behind Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, but the rest of the rotation could use a solid long reliever behind them, I think.  I know Tony La Russa has mentioned possibly using him as they did Wainwright, letting him be the bullpen guy before transitioning into a starter role.  And, hey, that's the way the Cardinals do it, right?  Always taking from the pen to fill the rotation?

Apparently Washington figured out something.  After 11 walks on Sunday, they didn't issue a single pass in yesterday's game.

Bill DeWitt is happy with the team and feels that it is deep enough to be successful.  He's got a point, since Memphis did win the PCL last year.  Of course, any injury to Albert Pujols would be a major blow, but there's no way to get enough depth to offset something like that.  There seems to be enough in the middle infield, especially since Brendan Ryan really does look like he'll be back for Opening Day, and the back end of the rotation and the bullpen should have some spare parts hanging around in Memphis.

What was most welcome to hear out of that article was the fact that the Cards are planning to spend quite a bit of money on the draft.  I think they've really learned their lesson from the Rick Porcello/Pete Kozma decision and they've seen what spending on a top player can get for them in Shelby Miller, whose stay in his first Cardinal camp has been much more extended than expected.  So root for some talented players to slip through on signability issues!

Let's take our next two in the Cardinal Approval Ratings, Matt Holliday and Cardinal broadcaster Al Hrbrosky.  Obviously, Holliday wasn't asked about in the prior year, as he was sitting in Oakland (even thought St. Louis had pursued him).  I was interested to see how fans would balance his production and his return against his big money contract and his holding out for the same.

The contract, etc. may have had an impact, but Holliday still comes in with an adequte 84.5%.  For a guy that has yet to establish a huge connection with the best fans in baseball, that's not too shabby and it will probably go up next year.  A couple of 100s for the guy, with a low of 50 out of the 67 voters.

Hrbrosky did get a rating last year, a low mark of 53.9%.  That was actually the worst rating anyone got back in 2009.  So, another year of Al in the booth, and how did people take to it?  Not well, it would appear.

Hrbrosky dropped to a 46.2% level this year.  It looks like there are a lot of people that mute the TV when they are watching FSN.  Out of the 64 that registered an opinion, there were at least three zeros and only one 100.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone.  I have to say, I am so glad that the Cards are off today.  I seriously hate those green jerseys and hats they break out for this day.  If you want a more reasonable way to get in the mood, check out Fungoes today!

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