May 13th – May 16th vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates (Series tied at one)

Series Preview: A very interesting six game home stand opens tonight as the Cardinals take on the surging Pittsburgh Pirates. Rarely are surging and Pittsburgh Pirates used in the same sentence, unless it is to tout the club that the Pirates are playing. But, that is not the case here. The Pirates come in as winners of six of their last seven games and are sniffing .500 these days. The Cardinals come limping home from a 3 – 5 road trip that ended with a very disappointing string of six games. A lot has happened since the Birds left home:

• Jason Isringhause blew two saves and publicly announced that the club could not continue to run him out there in save situations the way he was pitching.
• The starting rotation blew a tire on the road trip, with all five starters turning in less than stellar performances.
• Yadi Molina did his best Showgirls routine at the plate in Milwaukee and probably will earn an Emmy a suspension for delaying the game and showing up the umpires.
• Ryan Ludwick decided to keep Lance Berkman company on the unbelievably hot list.
• Albert Pujols actually let LaRussa write someone else’s name on the lineup card other than his at first base.

This is a big series for the Cardinals because the Cubs are entering a lackluster schedule coming up and if the Cardinals do not hold serve now, things could get ugly in a hurry. Now onto the pitching match ups:

May 13th – Phil Dumatrait (1-1, 3.86 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) vs Kyle Lohse (3-2, 4,87 ERA, 1.44 WHIP)

Dumatrait comes off a nice outing, granted against the Giants, in his second start since moving to the Bucs rotation. Another lefty, the Cardinals did not fare as well against the lefties on the recent road trip. The Cardinals will need to make him work, get his pitch count up and get him out of the game early.

Lohse was been awful in his last two starts. He gave up more earned runs in his last two starts (15) in 1/3 the amount of innings pitched (10) then he did the entire month of April (9 earned runs in 34 1/2 innings pitched). The Cardinals need Lohse to find his April stuff and get back on track. He needs to be a stabilizing force in this rotation because Wellemeyer and Looper, maybe not Pineiro so much, have not shown to be able to throw up a number of consistent outings in a row.

May 14th – Paul Maholm (2-3, 4.79 ERA, 1.43 WHIP) vs Todd Wellemeyer (3-1, 3.56 ERA, 1.19 WHIP)

Maholm has had two Lohse type outings in his last two starts, sporting a nice 9.00 ERA and allowing 21 base runners in 11 innings pitched. Wellemeyer is coming off a decent outing in Milwaukee and is sporting a real nice WHIP these days, which is counter intuitive when picturing a Wellemeyer start. If this guy could only work ahead in the count, he could actually turn out to be a good starter. But he is hell on the bully when he can only work five innings because his pitch count is nearing 100.

May 15th – Ian Snell (2-2, 4.53 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) vs Joel Pineiro (2-2, 4.05 ERA, 1.32 WHIP)

Snell comes off a two-hit, one earned run effort against the Braves, but did walk a season high six batters. Hopefully the Cardinals will be working on a sweep and can work Snell for base runners and for once get them over and get them in. Pineiro comes off a solid effort against the Brewers in a must win type situation against Ben Sheets after the club come off a big loss the night before in the walk off variety. Hopefully he can build off that start and work his ERA back down under 4.00.

May 13th – Pittsburgh 8 St. Louis 4 (10 Innings)

Thanks Matty Mo. For some reason, you felt the need to up and pitch so poorly this season that you could not hang on for another couple of spins around the rotation and got yourself released. The Cardinals ran into Matty Mo’s rotation spot last night and low and behold a lefty was staring back at them, not Matty Mo, and their season record versus lefties dropped to 7 – 9.

Kyle Lohse started well, breezing through the Pirates line-up without any troubles for the first three innings, but ran into trouble in the 4th as Nate Mclouth took him deep after a Freddie Sanchez single to make it 2 – 0 Pirates. It stayed that way until the Cardinals finally solved Phil Dumatrait in the 6th inning. After walks to Brian Barton and Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus launched a laser over the left-center field wall to put the Cardinals ahead 3 – 2.

However, Lohse could not stand the prosperity and immediately gave back the lead with some poor pitch location in the top of the 7th, allowing a Ronny Paulino run scoring double and a shoe top laced run scoring single by Jose Bautista.

Albert Pujols then extended his hit streak to twelve games by punching a moon shot to the back wall of section 173 for his 8th home run of the season and we were all knotted at 4 a piece.

The Bucs loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but Ryan Franklin worked out of the jam with no damage done. The Cardinals did the same in the bottom of the 9th, but Ryan Ludwick felt the need to swing at the first pitch to fly harmlessly out to right field, even though the bags were filled with base runners that had, you guessed it, walked to get on base. (Should I mention the horrible at bat of Brendan Ryan with a runners at 1st and 2nd?)

Ron Villone started and finished the 10th inning, and in between was quite awful, surrendering four runs in a torture filled 30 pitch outing. The Cardinals went meekly in the bottom of the 10th on their way to their 6th loss in seven games.

The was one they really needed to have in order to gain back some of that momentum they had before they ran into issues on the road trip. Now it would appear, based upon the way they are playing, a .500 home stand for these six games would be fortunate. U-G-L-Y.

May 14th – Pittsburgh 1 St. Louis 5

After looking U-G-L-Y the night before, the Cardinals looked much, much better on Wednesday night, earning a 5 – 1 victory to even the series at a game a piece. The much maligned duo of Cesar Izturis and Troy Glaus led the way in the victory with three hits and an rbi a piece. Rick Ankiel and Albert Pujols followed with two hits a piece, and Pujols stretched his streaks (hitting, on-base) to 13 and 41 respectively.

Todd Wellemeyer looked real good again, limiting the Pirates to just two hits while working a batter into the eighth inning. He struck out five and walked three on 106 pitches and lowered his ERA to 3.27, his WHIP to 1.13, and his batting average against to .216.

The defense flashed some leather as well, with Ryan Ludwick making a nice diving catch and Rick Ankiel doing his best Jim Edmonds impression (since Jim struggles to do his own these days. I wish Jim would have just hung up the cleats. It would be said if he went to Wrigley and showed the same type of production he did in San Diego, both in the field and at the plate) by robbing a home run from Adam LaRoche.

Finally, there was an Izzy sighting at Busch as he finished off the ninth in a non-save situation, working a 1-2-3 inning. He showed some movement on this bread and butter pitch, the cutter, and was throwing it at 87, which shows some progress. His curve was also pretty sharp. Maybe he has worked through whatever mechanical issues he was having. Time will tell.

May 9th – May 12th Cardinals @ the Milwaukee Brewers (Brewers win series 3 game to one)

Series Preview: The Cardinals travel to that city of the ‘other Lite Beer’ to face the Brewers. Both teams are going to be looking to get back on track, but the team that needs it much much more is the Brewers, owners of a six game losing streak. And in the Brewers dugout, the players had better stay clear of that one seat that might be smoldering a little. That seat is reserved for Ned Yost, who might be close to join many other Americans in the Unemployment Line.

The Cardinals come in losers of their last two and look to maintain their season long streak of not losing more than two in a row. Additionally, the Cardinals need to start moving their won-loss record on the road north of the .500 mark as they have played a mess of games at home in the early going.

The Brewers have not had a starter not named Ben Sheets win a game since Manny Parra did it on April 5th. Friday night’s game is big as the Cardinals do not want to go into Saturday’s game against Sheets already a game down in the unusual four game weekend wrap around series. THEblindhomer is heading to Miller Park to root on the Cardinals over the weekend. Hope to see a lot of Cardinal red!

May 9th – Todd Wellemeyer (3-1, 4.07 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) vs. Manny Parra (1-2, 5,86 ERA, 1.99 WHIP)

The Cardinals are 4 – 3 in Wellemeyer’s starts and usually Wellemeyer keeps the Birds in the game and the Cardinals have had a tendency to score a lot of runs in his starts. However, his last three starts he has struggled with the command and control that was much better in his first four starts of the season.

Parra usually keeps the opposition at three runs or less in his starts, however, he has struggled with walks and has not gone deep in any of his starts, not lasting into the 6th in any of them. As his WHIP suggests, the Cardinals should be successful in getting guys on base, however, the question will be can they get them to cross the plate.

May 10th – Joel Pineiro (2-2, 4.33 ERA, 1.37 WHIP) vs. Ben Sheets (4-0, 2.29 ERA, 0.89 WHIP)

Pineiro looked like he was pitching batting practice in his last start against the Rockies as they were hitting shots all over the Coors Field and finally knocked him out after only three innings pitched. Now, the defense behind him was not the best, and he did get hit on the pitching hand during a plate appearance, but his stuff was not very good. This start will be one to watch to see if he can turn it around against a team that has struggled against righties so far this season.

Sheets is undefeated and will be tough to beat at home in the late afternoon start. His last start out was the first time this season that he allowed more hits than innings pitched, but was touched up for four earned runs. When healthy, this guy has top of the rotation stuff and is a bulldog on the mound. This one looks like a win for the Brew Crew.

May 11th – Braden Looper (5-1, 3.95 ERA, 1.27 WHIP) vs Jeff Suppan (1-2, 5.22 ERA, 1.56 WHIP)

Braden Looper was MONEY in his last start against the Rockies, coming within 2 outs of his first major league complete game. His ERA took a hit when the bully could not strand two inherited runners, but his last three starts have been pretty good. Look for him to continue to streak against the Brewers.

The Brewers are certainly getting their money’s worth out of Suppan. [Pardon me while I snicker just a bit] Ok, that is better. Yes, Jeff usually keeps the game close, and he has had four quality starts out of the seven times he has taken the bump, but I still don’t get how that is worth the contract he got out of the Brewers. Oh, well, this will be the first time they face him this year, and let’s hope they remind him of how the Cardinals can sometime just roll over guys.

May 12th – Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.25 ERA, 0.96 WHIP) vs Dave Bush (0-4, 6.98 ERA, 1.55 WHIP)

Wainwright continues to impress on his way to being classified as one of the top starters in the National League. He is coming off a nice scoreless effort for seven innings pitched against the Rockies and seems to be at the top of his game right now. Milwaukee better get a bucket of chicken in the clubhouse if they are to have a chance in this one.

Dave Bush is back in the rotation to fill the spot vacated by the injured Yovanni Gallardo. Bush had lost his rotation spot to Gallardo based upon his first four starts of the season and did nothing to indicate that those were a fluke with another flop of a performance against the Marlins on the road. Seems like this one should go the Cardinals as well in a rout.

May 9th – St. Louis 3 Milwaukee 4

The loss. Every major league team must find a way to cope with them. Even the teams that evoke admiration for generations usually lose 40% of there games during the grind of a 162 game schedule.

And then there are those that define a season. Those that are the crossroads. Those losses that either bring a team closer together and sparks the remainder of a high-profile season; or demoralize a team, especially young teams, to fall apart at the seams and sink back into a level of mediocrity.

I do not think that I am overstating things when I say that this particular loss might be that crossroads moment for the St. Louis Cardinals. This one went as some have before; the quick lead in the game followed by the failure to take advantage of opportunities to bury the opponent, thereby taking the life out of them and any attempts to mount a comeback; the key defensive lapse that the starter cannot pitch around; and, finally, the blown save opportunity by the franchise’s leading save leader.

Saturday will be a day of revelations based upon this story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Isringhausen is a leader, but even he knows he cannot continue like this, and, as a leader, recognizes something has got to give. His performance last night was the same as in Coors Field: He lacks confidence in his bread and butter pitch, the one that has made him so devastating to the opposition in the past, his cutter. So, he has needed to fall back upon his other pitches and he does not have the pin point command of his fastball or his curve to be able to locate them in order to produce outs consistently.

So, the question now becomes: what will happen to this team when its closer, the guy at the end that is heavily relied upon to seal the deal, especially in a season that shapes up to the Cardinals playing a boat load of close games, cannot get the job done and coughs up potential victories? Potential victories for a team that was projected to not have many potential victories? One that has gotten off to a strong start and had themselves believing that they not only could compete, but could win, in the Central Division?

I don’t know the answer, but one thing is for sure. I know that I am glad that the guy that wears the sunglasses at night is in the Cardinals dugout. If anyone can lead a team through such a mountain pass of uncertainty, he can.

May 10th – St. Louis 5 Milwaukee 3

What a difference a day makes. Ned Yost had his own Izzy moment and subsequently moved Eric Gagne out of the closers role for the time being.

It was a must win type situation after the Cardinals gave one to the Brewers the night before. Facing Ben Sheets, however, would make it a very daunting task. The Cardinals jumped out on top in the third with a Molina single and a Ryan double leading to a Schumaker run scoring ground out. Missed in the shuffle was a Pineiro missed bunt opportunity that possibly could have turned the inning into a two run inning, but let’s not pick on him that much, because he was baffling the Brewers on the mound. The Cardinals padded their lead with an Ankiel single and a Duncan home run off the foul pole in the 4th.

The score stayed that way until the 7th when Pineiro, who had allowed only four base runners through six innings, got into a bases loaded jam with only one out and was relieved by Kyle McClellan. McClellan, who has been pretty solid coming out of the pen so far, coughed up two runs by walking Jason Kendall and Mike Cameron.

Ron Villone then served up a tater to Prince Fielder in the bottom of the 8th and it was a new game.

Enter Eric Gagne to pitch the 9th. Two singles and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Ryan Ludwick and he produced with a 2-Run single to bring home the winner.

May 1th – St. Louis 3 Milwaukee 5

Jeff Suppan did nothing to improve his season WHIP and the Cardinals continued their season long issue of not getting the big hit when needed with runners on base and runners in scoring position.

Braden Looper could not figure out Ryan Braun and his pink bat (hey, now, that is not what I meant (not that there is anything wrong with that, right Jerry Seinfield?,!) It was in support of the Susan G Koman foundation and the fight against breast cancer.)

And, in addition to not coming up with the big hit, the Cardinals also ran themselves out of a number of base runners, with El Hombre being the biggest offender.

That should have been OK, since the Cardinals would be facing Dave Bush the next with their Ace on the mound in Adam Wainwright. Garnering a split of the series would have meant a .500 road trip and kept them a game above .500 on the road for the season. However………..

May 12th – St. Louis 3 Milwaukee 8

Adam Wainwright took about his ‘ C’ game to the mound at Miller Park and got pounced on, primarily by that guy again, Ryan Braun. Nothing about this game was Cardinal friendly, except for Rick Ankiel’s home run in the first inning.

Other items of note in this clunker:

• Troy Glaus walked three times
• Cesar Izturis had two hits (hey, I said it was a clunker)
• Albert Pujols did not play

• And the grand-daddy of them all was Yadi Molina’s blow up at home plate umpire Paul Schrieber.

A Memphis BBQ – And Not the Good Kind

Another dud of a rehab outing probably had John Mozeliak reaching for the Tums in order to settle that queasy feeling he had heading out to his hotel room after watching Mark Mulder allow 13 runners on 9 hits, 2 walks and 2 HBPs that led to 7 big time Earned Runs.

He tossed 90 pitches, 61 of them being strikes, which is a pretty good strike to ball ratio. But the reports have him sitting at between 85 and 87 with his fastball, and that seems to not be getting the job done with the AAA’ers.

This certainly upsets the apple cart as far as the Major League rotation. We have seen the seams on the staff recently, as Pineiro and Lohse have tossed out a few clunkers recently and Wellemeyer has joined them in a lack of quality starts. Now that it appears that Mulder is likely headed back to extended spring training, that is going to put more pressure on four guys not named Adam Wainwright to keep this on all four wheels and moving forward. Can they handle it? Stay tuned.

UPDATE!

After I wrote this entry, it was announced that Mulder was on his way from Memphis to St. Louis to see the good Doc Paletta about what he described as “shoulder fatigue” he experienced in the later stages of his last outing at Memphis. After Mulder saw Paletta, the Cardinals announced that Mulder would be shut down for seven to ten days to calm down a mild shoulder strain. Mark Mulder cannot catch a break, and if he cannot, neither can the Cardinals. I hope that this is just a small set back and he can finally work his way back to the active roster in June [even though he agent claims it is not a set back. Okey Dokey Gregg Clifton] as this guy does have the talent to be a #2 and would bring a different look to an all righty rotation currently for the Cardinals. Time will tell.

May 5th – May 8th @ the Colorado Rockies (Cardinals split series 2 games apiece)

Series Preview: The FIRST PLACE St. Louis Cardinals head to the Colorado for another four game series in the Rocky Mountains. The Cardinals split a four game series in Colorado last season, with Kip Wells and Braden Looper getting roughed up in the first two games and Todd Wellemeyer and Brad Thompson providing good outings to get the split. The Rockies are struggling, losers of eleven out of their last fourteen games. Their pitching staff is scuffling, and the Cardinals will face three starters with ERAs around 6 or higher. However, they will face three left-handers in this series, and the Cardinals are only 6 – 5 versus lefties so far this season.

Here are the pitching probables for this series:

May 5th – Joel Pineiro (2-2, 3.75 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) vs. Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2, 5.90 ERA, 1.93 WHIP)

Pineiro is coming off his best outing of the season, a nifty seven inning, one hit scoreless effort against the Cincinnati Reds. A thing to watch is that Pineiro experienced back spasms over the weekend and it is possible he might either not make the start or will go as long as he can, with recent call-up Mike Parisi waiting in the wings.

Jimenez has yet to recapture the form he displayed down the 2007 stretch drive for the Rockies. His main issue: free passes. What have the Cardinals done better than any other team in the major leagues so far this season: draw free passes. This could get ugly for Jimenez. His silver lining is his only win came in his only start this season at home against the Braves.

May 6th – Braden Looper (4-1, 3.86 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) vs. Mark Redman (2-2, 6.99 ERA, 1.52 WHIP)

Looper is coming off a solid six inning effort versus the Cincinnati Reds in which he earned his fourth win of the year. Here is the thing to watch for with Looper: Coors Field has not treated him well in the past, as he has posted a very large 9.53 ERA over the past three seasons. Ugh.

Redman is back in the rotation after a brief relief appearance in his last outing. He has had some solid outings and his overall record is skewed by a disastrous outing against the Dodgers in which he allowed ten earned runs in six innings.

May 7th – Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.60 ERA, 0.98 WHIP) vs. Jeff Francis (0-3, 5.26 ERA, 1.41 WHIP)

Even though some out there on the message boards (and you know who you are!) do not want to give Waino the credit he deserves as the ACE of the staff, this guy is one of the top starters in the league and a horse to boot. His last start was the first of the season that he did not last at least seven innings, but that had more to do with his previous outings pitch count (a hotly debated topic for sure) than the trouble the opposition was giving him. This was also the second game of the young season that he left with a lead and the bully yakked it up. The guy is money, and if you got the cash, lay it on him.

Francis in the past has given the Cardinals fits in the past, but he certainly has some of the same inconsistency the rest of the Rockies’ starters have displayed thus far this season. I think that the Francis mystic over the Cardinals is over.

May 8th – Kyle Lohse (3-1, 3.79 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) vs. Jorge De La Rosa (0-1, 20.25 ERA, 3.00 WHIP)

Lohse tossed out a clunker his last time out against the Cubbies. He lost touch with reality in the fourth inning after he looked untouchable for the first three innings. Actually he lost touch with location and the Cubbies made him pay. Look for Lohse to get healthy against the free swinging Rockies.

De La Rosa somehow, someway, got ANOTHER Major League opportunity. The numbers speak for themselves. He tossed 100 pitches in only four innings pitched against the Dodgers and gave up nine big earned runs. Knowing how this works, he will probably shut out the Cardinals in order to prevent them from sweeping the Rockies.

May 5th – St. Louis 6 Colorado 5

When my head hit the pillow last night, it was tough to get to sleep. Reason being was the Cardinals victory over the Rockies, a victory they earned when the pushed across a runner from 2nd base on an infield out. So many thoughts rolled through my head, but the one I kept coming back to was that this was the type of game that the Cardinals found a way to lose, not win.

So many things stacked up against them. Joel Pineiro threw batting practice to the Rockies in his short three innings pitched. I think that the Rockies actually demoted anyone that did not hit a line drive off Pineiro. Chris Duncan flashed some stone hands in left field which lead to an unearned run. His two gaffes certainly provided fodder for the message boards and IT nerds across the country had the pagers ringing, with their servers asking for more power.

Finally, home plate umpire Bob Davidson had a flashback to another game in another dimension when he decided that Yadier Molina did not beat an off line throw on a drawn in infield in the eight inning that should have given the Cardinals a 6-4 lead at the time.

But, they did not quit, they did not give up, and they persevered. Mike Parisi had a pretty good MLB debut in relief of Pineiro, and Ron Villone continued to tell Father Time it is not yet time for him to leave the game. And the boo magnet that is Jason Isringhausen nailed down his 11th save with a pretty solid showing in the 9th.

Albert Pujols provided the “moment” when he deked the Rockies by acting like he tweaked his back going back into the bag at 2nd base on a pick off play after he had doubled with one out in the top of the 9th. AP took off on the next pitch for 3rd, a pitch that Rick Ankiel grounded meekly toward the second baseman. The Rockies second sacker never looked at AP as he rounded 3rd and made the play on Ankiel at first. That gave Pujols just enough time to slide in ahead of Todd Helton’s throw to the plate.

Observations/Suggestions:

Mike Parisi – Stay within yourself man. I know you were facing heavy hitters in Holliday and Helton, but it appears when you overthrow your fastball, it flattens out. Trust your stuff and you will be fine in that role.

Jason Isringhausen – That cutter will get someone hurt. Matt Holiday almost killed your SHORTSTOP last night with the laser he hit to lead off the 9th. Trust your stuff, meaning your fastball and curveball until you can command the cutter. You threw two last night, and the first had basically zero movement, and second Holliday almost made disappear into vapor.

Adam Kennedy/Yadi Molina – whatever you are eating, whatever you are drinking, whomever you are doing, keep it up.

May 6th – St. Louis 6 Colorado 5

WOW! WOW! WOW! Some real great individual performances added up to an exciting Cardinals victory Tuesday night and moved the Cardinals to a season high 10 games over .500.

The victory was led by Braden Looper, who came within two outs of his first major league complete game. Looper was good, not great, in his 8 plus innings, and his four earned runs is a bit deceiving as Ryan Franklin had a hiccup in the 9th that cost Looper two runs.

Ryan Ludwick hit clean-up and did his best Albert Pujols impression, going 4-4 and reaching base all five times plate appearances with two singles and two doubles.

But those performances could not hold a Yankee Candle to what Rick Ankiel did on the field. Not only did he go 2-5 with a solo home run that padded his league lead in game winning hits, but had not one but TWO eye-popping outfield assists that will make the season’s highlight reel and be shown time and time again. Simply amazing.

May 7th – St. Louis 3 Colorado 4

For seven innings, it was hard not to get carried away and start daydreaming. <starting dream sequence – NOW> The Cardinals gaining ground on their two nearest competitors, the Cubs and the Brewers, who suddenly are stinking up the joint; the Cardinals moving 11 games over .500 and a real shot at sweeping the series tomorrow; could I get away with wearing red to the celebration of 100 years of futility on the Northside as I ready my travel plans for the playoffs…….> then SNAP! whipped back into reality when the Cardinals could not get out of their way in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Oh sure, the message board maniacs were collecting the torches and pitchforks and heading over to Izzy’s house, but this was a TEAM LOSS. Plenty of guys other than Izzy had opportunities to lead the team to victory. Albert left a boat load of runners on base AND ole’d a foul pop up that would have limited the Rockies to one run in the bottom of the 8th; Rick Ankiel grounding into a double play with the bags juiced, continuing a disturbing trend of him not getting the runner in from 3rd base with less than two outs, Kyle McClellan and Randy Flores bringing the gas to the mound and not reminding Izzy to leave the matches in the bully.

Don’t get me wrong, Izzy deserves blame as well. What really confused me is that Jason LaRue called seven straight fast balls to Ryan Spilborghs. Don’t you have to at least show the guy a different pitch? The curve, the dreaded cutter, something to at least mix it up? And Izzy can think for himself, so if that means calling off LaRue, then by all means, do it.

Anyway, a fantastic opportunity went by the boards as the team continued the season long trend of not getting key hits with runners on and runners in scoring position, leaving 10 runners stranded as a team.

And, finally, another wasted strong start from Adam Wainwright. Wainwright now sits 6th in the NL in ERA and is to the point that you expect him to go at least seven innings every time out and that you can count on him leaving the game with the lead. The kid has come a long way in a very short period of time.

May 8th – St. Louis 3 Colorado 9

The second piss poor outing in his last three starts by Kyle Lohse has the red flag a flying. Is this an anomaly and he will revert back to the form that he displayed over his other five good starts, or is this more of what we should come to expect moving forward? If that is the case, Mo has got a job to do along with Duncan.

The only Cardinal to show up for this one was Ryan Ludwick. Ludwick continued his hot streak with a couple of solo shots to run his homer total on the season to seven and his RBIs to 21. Other than that, not much more to say except, moving on……

May 2nd – May 4th vs the Chicago Cubs (Cardinals win series 2 games to 1)

Series Preview: As of this writing, the Cubs have a couple of games remaining in their three game set at home against the Brew Crew. They stand at 16 – 10 before the outcome of those games, a half game against the Cardinals. So, they might come in as the Division leaders, or in second place.

They are expected to be the class of the Division, and they have showed some flashes of that so far this year. Two unproven MLB level players have done well in the early going. Koskuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto are both batting above .300 and have OBPs above .400. In fact, the Cubs have six regulars that have OBPs above .375. They will be a huge test for the Cardinals pitching staff, the most talented offensive team that they have faced all season. If the Cardinals expect to do well in this series, they need to keep the Cubs’ offense contained, and the Cardinals need to bash the back end of the Cubs rotation. Another exciting installment of the best rivalry in baseball. [Yea, I am biased. So sue me.]

Here are the pitching probables for the series:

May 2nd – Rich Hill (1-0, 3.79 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) vs. Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.79 ERA, 1.01 WHIP)

Hill is coming off a five inning no decision on the road against the Rockies in a game the Cubs rallied to win. In every outing that he has had, he has been tough to square up. Hill’s problem has been his lack of control that tends to compound his problems, elevates his pitch count, and leads to short outings. Wainwright is coming off a complete game victory over the Astros in which he allowed three solo home runs during a 126 pitch outing. He does get an extra days rest due to the off day on Thursday, but still look for him to be on a reduced pitch count of between 90 to 105 pitches. Let’s hope that he is sharp, as in the past he has had some rough outings against the Cubs.

May 3rd – Ted Lilly (1-4, 6.46 ERA, 1.50 WHIP) vs. Kyle Lohse (3-0, 2.36 ERA, 1.17 WHIP)

Ted Lilly has been a big disappointment so far this year for the Cubs, though he has shown signs of recapturing his 2007 form in his two outings. On the face, it would appear that this would be a mismatch, but it will depend on which Lilly shows up for the Cubs. Pujols has been tough on Lilly in the past, look for him to be in the middle of things if the Cardinals are going to take this game. Lohse rebounded from a tough outing at Miller Park with a solid six inning effort against the Astros for his third win of the year. However, some of the Cubs are touting huge, I mean huge, numbers against Lohse. He will need to be on top of his game in order to combat that.

May 4th – Jason Marquis (1-1, 4.45 ERA, 1.62 WHIP) vs. Todd Wellemeyer (2-1, 4.14 ERA, 1.19 WHIP)

Jason Marquis returns again to Busch III and the Cardinals are looking to reverse last year’s trend of not getting to him early and often. Marquis was 3-1 against his former mates, much to the dismay of Cardinal nation. Marquis is coming off a roughing up at the hands of the Brewers, taking the loss after giving up five earned runs and 10 hits while only working five innings. Look for the middle infield to consist of Izturis and Miles in this one, as both are hitting over .400 against Marquis. Wellemeyer had his second straight outing of six innings pitched while allowing 4 runs. I would gladly sign up for that right now. There is not much of a track record of the Cubs versus Wellemeyer, so this will be a crap shoot as to how he might perform against the Cubs.

May 2 – Chicago 3 St. Louis 5

I certainly hope that Jason Isringhausen bought Skip and Adam the biggest, most expensive steak he could find at about 11:30pm on a Friday night in the 314. More on that later.

Boy, how good is Adam Wainwright? Wainwright lowered his ERA to 2.60 on the season after limiting the Cubs to four hits and one walk over six and a third innings pitched while punching out 5 little Cubbies. Including in those mixture of hits was at least one broken bat flare by the “Big Z”, or Zambrainless as I like to refer to him. Tony opted to pull Wainwright after only 85 pitches in the 7th. I thought he might let him finish out the 7th, but I also had speculated that they would get him out early based upon his last outing, 126 pitches in a complete game effort over Houston.

Sweet Lou did not have the same problem to deal with for the Northsiders. He pulled Rich Hill after 27 pitches in the first inning, 17 of which were balls. He was pulled after walking Yadi Molina with two outs and the bags juiced, forcing in the first run of the ballgame. Sweet Lou will certainly get some second guessing on this one, taxing his bully by bringing them into the game in the first. Would Hill have retired Cesar Izturis, the next Cardinal hitter in the lineup? Who knows, but given that Izturis was certainly the weak link in that lineup last night, why not let Hill try to work out of the jam against him? Now he is faced with Ted Lilly heading to the bump after a quick turnaround, and if Lilly does not have it, Sweet Lou will have some arms dragging by the time he gets to Sunday’s ESPN broadcast.

Adam Wainwright’s lead off double in the 2nd led to the Cardinals 2nd run, and Alphonso Soriano, putting on his best little leaguer performance in LF, essentially handed the Cardinals an additional run in the bottom of the 7th with his two fielding gaffs. An overlooked part of that inning was the failure of Troy Glaus and Ryan Ludwick to at least advance the two runners from first and second. That cost the Cardinals a run when Molina’s “ground rule double” bounced into the stands.

Leading 3 -1 heading into the 9th, Izzy came on for the save. A fastball running inside supposedly caught Reed Johnson on the arm. To me, it looked like it hit him on the hand as he was checking his swing, which, I have always thought, is that the hand is part of the bat in those situations. Be that as it may, Izzy then made Daryl Ward look foolish on a curve ball and it set the stage for Johnson on 2nd with one out.

Back up a minute to let me rant on something. The Cardinals essentially let Johnson take second by playing behind him while Ward was batting. I really detest this move. I mean, what if after Johnson was allowed to take second, Mr. “My name will never appear in the same sentence with the word speed unless there is a “does not have any” appears in front of it” Ward hits a tailor-made double play ball right at the second baseman? No double is in order because Johnson is standing on second. I guess that is why I am posting this and not in some dugout somewhere.

Anyway, back to the scenario, and you just had that feeling, given Soriano had made those gaffs in LF. 3 Straight cutters later and the game is tied on a two run bomb. Now, to me, Molina should share in some of this blame IF he called for all three cutters. IF Izzy shook him off, that is another matter. But how in the world, after throwing two good curves to Ward, does Soriano NOT get a steady diet of the off-speed stuff when he looked absolutely lost on the breaking stuff in his two prior at bats? Especially in that situation? Don’t get it.

Kudos to Ron Villone, who picked up the win, for bailing out Izzy in the 9th and pitching a solid 10th and 11th inning. He was able to save at least two guys [Springer and Reyes] for duty today.

In the bottom of the 11th, Aaron Miles did his thing with a lead off single, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Chad Fox, was sacrificed to third by Brendan Ryan, and brought home on a walk-off bomb by Skip Schumaker, who saved Izzy’s bacon with the blast.

The biggest question going on with the Cardinals? What is wrong with Izzy? We know that he was worked a lot during the first three weeks of the season (appearing in 12 of the Cardinals first 24 games). That was the initial prognosis to his latest struggles. However, he was just coming off a nice 1-2-3 inning on 13 pitches against the Reds on Wednesday and had an off day in-between. Izzy says it is execution with his cutter. No shit? Here is the thing, though. He has a Major League fastball. We saw it last night when he was hitting 92 on the gun with his 4-seamer. He also possesses a Wainwright plus curve ball. If the cutter is not working, he has other quality stuff that he can work the hitters with. Is he hurt? Tough call, and hopefully Izzy learned something from 2006 that he cannot let himself and his teammates down if he is hurting. There are other options available and if a DL stint would help, he needs to speak up. Otherwise, he needs to not fall in love with the cutter, especially one that is not working.

I hope those steaks tasted good, Misters Wainwright and Schumaker.

May 3 – Chicago 9 St. Louis 3

Well, it was one of those that was essentially over in the blink of an eye, the hunter mercilessly put its prey out of its misery swiftly.

But this event came as a complete surprise, because Kyle Lohse had breezed through the first three innings against the visiting Chicago Cubs, and it appeared that the Cubs’ hitters would have a tough time during a very bright day at Busch III figuring out Mr. Lohse.

But then came the 4th innings. The brutal 4th inning for Cardinals’ fans. Lohse lost his edge very quickly, missing location on pitches to Fukudome, Soto and Fontenot badly that lead to run scoring doubles for Fukudome and Soto and a crushing 3-run home run by the non-slugger that is Mike Fontenot. [Interesting side note, as I watched the Fox Sports National telecast, their graphics actually flipped the score from 3-0 Cubs to 6-0 a pitch before Fontenot hit the home run. Was the "fix" in? ;-o ]

The Cardinals never mounted much of an offensive attack against Ted Lilly, just a couple of solo home runs by Yadi Molina and Albert Pujols and a run scoring double by Ryan Ludwick. Pujols has expanded his strike zone on a couple of different occasions in the first two games. I know he wants to make something happen, but the problem is these types of situations haven’t been ones where you see him taking the ball the other way to right, but trying to pull the out of the zone outside pitch. I know that the Cardinals have not been the best in hitting with runners on and in scoring position, however, I think AP still needs to maintain his patience at the plate and accept those walks. If he starts to press, I think that flows downhill to the rest of the team. Yesterday broke an eight game streak in which AP drew at least one walk, and the team’s record over that stretch was 6 and 2 with the two losses both being the one run variety.

The series heads to a rubber game on Sunday. Hopefully Wellemeyer can limit the damage from the Cubs offense and the Cardinals can figure out how to get to their old pal, Jason Marquis.

May 4th – Chicago 3 St. Louis 5

Todd Wellemeyer was wild on Sunday night. However, he also was stingy with the hits, allowing only three over his five innings pitched, and he walked away the winner to push his season record to 3-1. The Cardinals finally figured out their old teammate Jason Marquis, touching him for five earned runs in just five and one third innings, pushing his season ERA over 5.00.

Timely hitting got the Cardinals on the board in the second on four consecutive hits by Wellemeyer, Cesar Izturis, Skip Schumaker and Adam Kennedy. That answered two runs by the Cubs in the top of the second on consecutive doubles by Geo Soto and Reed Johnson, and a sac fly by the NL’s ultimate hot dog, Alphonso Soriano. Nice to see Alphonso raise that average to .173.

The Cardinals tacked on two more when Marquis walked Adam Kennedy on five pitches and had to face Albert Pujols, who smashed a double down the third base line to score both Kennedy and Izturis who was on with his second hit of the game.

Izzy pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and looked mighty good doing it, setting down the top of the order in Soriano, Theriot and Lee, with Lee on a punch out to end it.

The Cardinals took two out of three from the Cubbies and moved to 12 and 7 versus the National League Central. The Cardinals also possess the second best record in all the Majors. Now onto the eight game road trip.

April 28th – April 30th vs. the Cincinnati Reds (Cardinals Win Series 2 Games to 1)

Series Preview: The Cincinnati Reds fly across the country from a series win against the Giants to renew their rivalry against the Cardinals with an interesting twist in the dugout and in the GM’s office. Dusty Baker and a newly hired Walt Jocketty come back to St. Louis with the Reds. The Reds have been a disappointment at 11 – 15, four games under .500 and it has not been necessarily been their pitching. Their offense has been missing in action, coming in at 13th in the NL in runs scored before an 8 run out burst against Barry “Wow, Look what you get for the $$$” Zito. The Cardinals will come off winning three of their last four and look to continue their home cooking, sitting at 10 – 5 at Busch III. Here is a look at the pitching probables for the series:

April 28th – Bronson Arroyo (0-3, 7.56 ERA, 1.84 WHIP) vs. Todd Wellemeyer (2-0, 3.77 ERA, 1.13 WHIP)

Arroyo has been a big disappointment so for in 2008 as the Reds were counting on him to anchor the 2nd spot in the rotation. He has failed to make it a full six innings in any start thus far and took a beating at the hands of the Astros [3 2/3, 8 ER and 10 hits allowed]. Look for Tony LaRussa to work Ryan Ludwick into the lineup against Arroyo, he of the insane 1.911 OPS against Arroyo, thanks to four hits in seven trips, including two doubles and a bomb. Wellemeyer has been tough of late, working at least six innings in his last four starts, though he did not earn a quality start his last time out. The Cardinals are 3-2 in his five starts and have a good habit of scoring runs in bunches when he takes the mound, the perfect recipe with Arroyo facing them.

April 29th – Johnny Cueto (1-2, 4.05 ERA, 0.87 WHIP) vs. Joel Pineiro (1-2, 5.29 ERA, 1.41 WHIP)

Cueto is the new hot thing on the scene. At age 22, scouts say he pitches beyond his years and possess electric stuff. His last start was a bit choppy (5 ER and only 2 strikeouts) and the Reds have a trend of not scoring runs for him. It will be interesting to see how Cardinals hitters fare against him, given he has an above average change that he works off an above average fastball. Pineiro looked like the guy the Cardinals wanted back after his eleven starts in 2007 against the Pirates his last time out, working seven strong innings, allowing only a single run on four hits and a walk while striking out six. The Reds haven’t had a lot of guys see Pineiro, but the ones that have have put up a collective OPS of .905 against him. Let’s hope that Busch III holds in some of his mistakes.

April 30th Aaron Harang (1-3, 2.76 ERA, 0.99 WHIP) vs. Braden Looper (3-1, 4.05 ERA, 1.24 WHIP)

A tough game here for the Cardinals. Hopefully they have found the ways to take the first two because Harang is a tough nut to crack. He has pitched in some bad luck this year, but his numbers are solid and you can usually count on staring out at the mound in either the 7th or 8th innings and still see Harang in the game. He is properly classified as one of the “Aces” in the Central Division. Looper comes off a start he needed to have. With Mark Mulder’s rehab clock winding down (May 15th is D-Day), Looper looked to be the odd man out after his up and down first four starts. But he laid a beauty on the line his last time out, hurling seven scoreless against a hot Astros squad, allowing only two hits and a walk before he left with the lead. An Izzy meltdown in the 9th prevented Looper from notching his 4th win of the season.

April 28 – Cincinnati 4 St. Louis 3

Todd Wellemeyer was not sharp through the first three innings, and he paid for it with his first loss on the year. His defense factored into the decision, but the bottom line was Wellemeyer did not make pitches when he needed to on the night. He finished strong after the slow start, working six full innings. allowing four runs, all earned, giving up seven hits and 2 walks against five punch outs.

The Cardinals chipped away at the Reds 4 – 0 lead and had a scoring opportunity to tie the game at 4 – 4 squashed by an outstanding grab by Edwin Encarncion, the Reds third baseman. After two were out, Duncan and Glaus singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Yadi Molina laced a grounder to Encarncion’s left in the hole between short and 3rd that Encarncion dove for, gloved and scrambled to his feet to nab Glaus at 2nd for the force out.

Ankiel, Pujols and Duncan all had two hits, with Glaus, Ankiel and Izturis garnering the RBIs, with Ankiel’s coming on his fifth home run of the year.

April 29 – Cincinnati 2 St. Louis 7

The hot new thing took the mound for the Reds in this game, but Johnny Cueto did not last long on the mound. The Cardinals knocked Cueto around for seven runs [6 earned] on eight hits and a free pass in only an inning and a third. Adam Dunn also treated us to a moment of jocularity when he decided to attempt the Statue of Liberty play with Corey Patterson and forgot to inform Corey that he was going to make the throw on a Glaus double at the wall sideways. Funny stuff Adam!

Plenty of hitting stars for the Cardinals as they banged out fifteen hits on the night. Skip Schumaker led the way with a four hit night, while Ankiel added three hits and 2 RBIs; Glaus added two hits and 3 RBIs, and Kennedy and Izturis chipped in with two hits apiece. The only guy that did not get in the act was Albert Pujols, who had his nine game hit streak snapped, but did extend his opening season streak of reaching base to 28 games.

Joel Pineiro led the pitching staff that allowed only three hits on the night. Pineiro had a shaky first inning, and was facing a runners on 2nd and 3rd situation with only one out when the Reds decided to help him out. Brandon Phillips grounded to Glaus at 3rd and, with Patterson breaking on contact, was easily caught in a run down. Keppinger, however, made a huge mental error when he abandoned 3rd base and tried to make it back to 2nd base, and he was subsequently doubled up.

Good team victory against a tough young pitcher.

April 30 – Cincinnati 2 St. Louis 5

A strong pitching performance and some timely hitting paced the Cardinals to another series win, this time against the Reds.

Braden Looper was certainly not as sharp as his last outing, but did make it through six innings, allowing two runs, both earned, on seven hits and two free passes against four punch outs. He made pitches when he had to and left with a slim 3 – 2 lead. The bullpen trio of McClellan, Franklin and Izzy made that stand up, with Izzy scoring his ninth save.

The offense added some insurance runs in the 7th, and the guys in the middle of it were Miles and Ankiel, the guys that paced the offense with 2 RBIs apiece. The offense continued its onslaught from the night before, with thirteen hits and four free passes. Ankiel and Miles had multi-hit games.

A nice series win that looked in doubt after the tough loss on Monday night, a game that they probably could have won. The 18-11 Cardinals look to entertain the Chicago Cubs over the weekend as the calendar turns to May.

April 25th – April 27th vs the Houston Astros (Cards Win Series 2 Games to 1)

Series Preview: The Astros come in hot, winners of their last five games and scoring over 40 runs in those wins. That will be the biggest variable of this three game series, the Cardinals starting pitching versus the Astros beefed up offense. Earlier in the year the starters, sans Thompson’s short outing, handled the Astros offense in a series win in Houston. Here are the pitching matchups:

Shawn Chacon (0-0, 2.77 ERA) vs. Braden Looper (3-1, 5.49 ERA) – Chacon comes into this game off four straight quality starts, but does not have a win to show for it, in fact, he has yet to have a decision this year. The Astros have lost three of his four starts, including a 5 – 3 loss at the hands of the Cardinals on April 8th. Looper is coming off his worst outing of the year, a three inning loss to the San Francisco Giants. Looper has not given the Cardinals full six innings since his first start of the season. Looper needs to start to feel the heat, as Mulder is on the horizon and will take a roster spot that is currently held by either Todd Wellemeyer or Looper.

Roy Oswalt (2-3, 6.00 ERA) vs. Adam Wainwright (2-1, 2.73 ERA) – Oswalt seems to be coming around, having won his last two starts, allowing only four earned runs over 14 innings pitched. Additionally, Oswalt gave up 30 hits over 16 innings pitched in his first three starts, but gave up only 11 hits in his last 14 innings pitched. I watched some of his start versus the Phillies and his velocity was back up in the 93-94 range, so it appears that the demise of Roy-O might not yet be occurring. Wainwright was not as sharp in his last start, a no decision against the Brew Crew. He was coming off a 115 pitch effort before that start and it appeared to sap a little off his normal assortment of pitches. However, showing that he has the make-up of a true #1, he still pitched seven innings and provided his team an opportunity to win the game, which they did in the 9th that day.

Brandon Backe (1-2, 4.15 ERA) vs. Kyle Lohse (2-0, 2.54 ERA) – Backe has been pretty good outside of a start versus the Phillies at Philly. Certainly the sub-plot for this one will be Backe against Albert Pujols, considering their brush up when the Cardinals were down in Houston. Not a good thing for Mr. Backe, AP is 3 for 10 with 3 walks against Backe, and those three hits were all bombs. Lohse had his shortest outing of the year his last time out against the Brewers and needs to recapture his early season form against the Astros.

April 25 – Houston 3 St. Louis 2

Wow, what a tough loss. This one will sting quite a bit if the Cardinals cannot turn around and beat their nemesis Roy O. Braden Looper, in need of a strong outing, delivered big time. Seven strong, allowing only 2 hits and one walk. Franklin covered the 8th and Izzy was brought in to close it out. If only it worked that way. Izzy, after striking out Matsui, gave up an oppo field single that just scooted under the glove of 3rd sacker Aaron Miles [Miles was in to relieve Troy Glaus, who obvious was having problems with his eyes during his two plate appearances, constantly stepping out to wipe them] and then a triple to Tejada that gave the Astros their first sniff of scoring. A Berkman sac fly to tie the game was followed by a bomb by Carlos Lee [who can now officially call Izzy his beotch], and Izzy was on the hook for not only a blown save, but also the loss.

The Cards showed some fight, as Brendan Ryan lead off the 9th with a single, stole second, and moved to third with one out on Skip Schumaker’s ground out to 2nd. But Rick Ankiel continued a disturbing trend, striking out on a pitch in his eyes and leaving his 7th runner at third with less than 2 outs. AP was then walked and Chris Duncan popped out to short after being sawed off.

Tough, tough loss. Once again, as was seen in Pittsburgh against Ian Snell, the Cardinals had a starting pitcher on the ropes but could not get them out of the game. Shawn Chacon actually ended up putting up his 5th straight quality start, even though he was absolutely shaky from the start.

April 26 – Houston 3 St. Louis 4

A walk off victory is always good for what ails you, and that is just what the Cardinals got when Skip Schumaker delivered in the bottom of the 9th to make a winner out of the Cardinals established number one, Adam Wainwright. Brian Barton pinch hit for Jason LaRue to lead off the bottom of the 9th and walked. Ryan Ludwick was on deck when Barton walked, but he was called back and Wainwright hit for himself in a situation that called for the sac bunt. However, Wainwright pushed the bunt too hard up the first base line and the left-handed fielding Berkman was able to nip Barton at second for a force out. Brendan Ryan (are we sure that Cesar Izturis does not need to go on the DL?) singled to center to push Wainwright to 2nd, and Izturis then pinch ran for him. That set the stage for Schumaker’s first walk off hit, a solid single to LF that Carlos Lee ole’d.

The Astros struck first in the game on a Kaz Matsui homer off Wainwright in the first. The Cardinals got to Oswalt in the 3rd on a two RBI double by Pujols and a sac fly by Troy Glaus for a 3 to 1 lead. Wainwright, a bulldog to the end, surrendered solo home runs to Berkman in the 4th and 7th innings. LaRussa stayed with Wainwright all the way through for a complete game, even in the face of a mounting pitch count and struggling with control in the 9th. A nice strikeout of Hunter Pence [I think Hunter fits in San Fran] set the stage for the 9th inning rally.

Tidbit #1: Look for Wainwright to be pulled at between 90 and 100 pitches in his next start.

Tidbit #2: Look for the Cardinals home run drought [homerless in their last 8 games] to end in tomorrow’s tilt against Brandon Backe.

April 27 – Houston 1 St. Louis 5

A nice series win over the Astros after losing a heart breaker on Friday night. Kyle Lohse rebounded from his short four inning start against the Brewers at Miller Park with a strong six inning effort at Busch III to move his record to 3 – 0. Lohse allowed one run on four hits and a walk while striking out three. A second Kyle, McClellan, finished off three innings for the old time save, allowing no hits while adding two strikeouts.

Troy Glaus moved off the snide with a 5th inning bomb to the grass in center field that followed up a 2-run double by Ryan Ludwick (hey, look, somebody made an opposing pitcher pay for walking Pujols!). Pujols capped the scoring with a bomb to dead-center in the 7th inning, extending his current hit streak to eight games and his season-opening stretch of reaching safely to 26 games.

Brandon Backe continued to act like a little punk wannabe in the 5th after being tagged for four runs. With Molina at the plate, the home plate umpire (Jim Joyce) called time out just before Backe moved into his wind-up. Thinking it was Molina that made the move, Backe started jawing with Molina. The very next pitch was high and tight to Molina, and a bench clearing shoving match ensued. Someone on the Astros might want to gag that boy at some point in the future. [Insert your own Hunter Pence joke here]

Good series win, especially in light of the Cubs series loss to the Nats and some tough pitching match-ups in the upcoming Cincy series.