The Cardinals opened up a 3 game series against the Washington Nationals over the weekend at Busch Stadium.
Game 1 – Washington 4 St. Louis 5
Bradon Looper made his first start of 2008 a successful one against the Nationals, holding them to a single run over 6 innings pitched. He pitched around some trouble in the 2nd inning, and gave up the run in the 4th inning, but ended that uprising with back to back strikeouts. Overall a nice outing of 95 pitches, 62 for strikes, while allowing only 8 baserunners.
Russ Springer started the 7th and did not finish it, and eventually landed on the DL the next day with elbow soreness. He certainly looked as if he was not right, with his velocity down and his location being off. He allowed a lead off dinger to a resurgent Christian Guzman, and left with runners on 1st and 2nd and no one out.
Ron Villone came in and failed to get his assigned batter out, walking Nick Johnson to load the bases. In comes new fan hero Kyle McClellan, and he did a reasonable job with the bags juiced and no one out. He seemed to overthrow his breaking ball early in the inning, but righted the ship later in the inning. A base hit off Troy Glaus’s glove did not help matters, and makes one wonder how that was not an error, but a play like Izturis ranging on the 2nd base side of second base to attempt to field a slow roller in the opener is deemed an error.
Anyway, McClellan did enough to keep the lead at 5 – 4 heading into the 8th, and Franklin and Izzy finished it off.
Brian Barton started in LF and was in the lead off spot in the order and put up a nice 2 for 4 evening, flashing his speed with a leg double in the first inning that was followed by a Rick Ankiel bomb. Pujols and Glaus both hit rockets that looked like home runs but turned into doubles and Cesar Izturis had two hits and a run scored.
Cards now sit at 3 – 1.
Game 2 – Washington 4 St. Louis 5
The bullpen was looking a bit tired and run down, so Adam Wainwright completed an extremely solid run through the rotation with 8 strong innings pitched, giving up 2 earned runs on 8 hits and 1 walk. Anthony Reyes gave us a peek back at 2007, giving up a 2 run homer in his 2/3 of an inning in the ninth, and Randy Flores finished off the Cardinals 4th win of the young season with a one pitch outing for his first save of the season.
Wainwright was in pretty much control of the entire game, with a short misfire in the 4th that saw him allowing a run and needing to come back from a 3 – 1 count with the bags juiced and 2 outs to avoid any more damage. He allowed a solo homer to Nick Johnson, who paced the Nationals attack by going 3 for 4 on the day.
Yadi Molina paced the Cardinals fourth win in a row with 2 hits and 2 rbis on the day. Cesar Izturis had a hit and an rbi, as did Rick Ankiel, however, Ricky also showed the reason some do not want to have both feet on the bandwagon just yet with 3 big Ks. And Albert Pujols had his 4 game hitting streak snapped with an 0 for 3 with a walk.
Cardinals move to 4 and 1, their best start to a season since 2000.
Game 3 – Washington 0 St. Louis 3
The Cardinals swept the Nationals out of town with a splendid pitching performance from Kyle Lohse, more offensive from Rick Ankiel, and a solid team defensive effort. The Cardinals now sit atop the NL Central with Milwaukee at 5 – 1.
Lohse threw 7 strong innings, giving up only 4 hits and a lone walk. He threw 102 pitches, however, only 56 for strikes, but it seemed when he needed a strike, it was there.
Ankiel drove in Brian Barton [who had walked to lead off the 1st] with a ringing double to the opposite field, and then homered with two outs in the third, once again to the opposite field. Glaus added a double and Ludwick a triple, with Yadi adding the last rbi after Ludwick’s triple leading off the 8th inning, hitting a sac fly to center field.
Something to watch for moving forward is the team’s lack of timely hitting. It has been evident this entire early season and continued in this game as the box score reads 19 runners left on base. Certainly the starting rotation will not continue to baffle opposing clubs to less than a run per start, so the offensive needs to capitalize when handed these opportunities.
The Birds now hit the road for 3 in Houston and 4 in San Francisco. This road trip smells like 5 – 2 and it will be interesting to see the rotation a second time around, especially on the road. Stay tuned!
