Series Preview: The Cardinals need to find a way to scrounge a win against two of the better young pitchers in the League, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. I see no problem with them taking down Jonathan Sanchez on Sunday at Busch.
The Cardinals just came off a four game split against the Giants on the Left Coast over the weekend, a series that did not have a lot of good play from the Cardinals all around, except for the bats of Skip Schumaker, Chris Duncan and Ryan Ludwick. They stand at 7 – 2 at home and should stretch that mark against a lesser talented Giants team.
Another series win will put them up over the .500 mark by 7 games heading into a mini road trip to Milwaukee and the Little League World Series favorites the Pittsburgh Pirates.
April 18th – San Francisco 1 St. Louis 11
I wonder if Matt Cain got the license plate of that truck that hit him on Friday night. Extreme opposites were on display at Busch III on Friday as the Cardinals got that no-hit thing off their back with the 2nd hitter of the game and had run Cain out of the game in the 4th inning, courtesy of an Albert Pujols upper tank 3-run home run on a pitch that really looked like it tied him up inside. Will wonders never cease with that guy?
Plenty of Cardinals got in the act, with Pujols leading the way with two hits and four RBIs. Schumaker and Duncan added two hits and two RBIs apiece, with Duncan going yard as well. In fact, the entire starting line-up sans Wellemeyer had a hit, and all reached base safely at least once.
Wellemeyer had his best start of the season, allowing only one run on 4 hits and only 2 base-on-balls. He also struck out six and seemed in complete command of this stuff the entire game. He is an interesting side-note to this season and will be interesting to watch his continued progression as the season wears on.
April 19th – San Francisco 3 St. Louis 0
As an astute message board post indicated “You cannot win if you do not score.” I guess no truer words have spoken. And no more obvious as well. Mr. Roy Oswalt lite, Tim Lincecum, handled the Birds again and when you look at this guy and his stuff, you wonder how in the world he does get beat. He sits in the mid-90s with his fast ball and touches 97 and 98. He posses a very sharp curve and a devastating change-up that runs around 12 mph off where he sits with his fast ball. A lot of talent in that 23 year old arm.
Joel Pineiro got the start for the Cardinals and was much better than his first start of the season last weekend in San Francisco. I was a bit concerned with his velocity in the early going, but by the end of his start his fast ball was back in the low 90s. He was touched for 3 runs during his 6 1/3 innings pitched. Brad Thompson got out of a jam in the 7th and did a decent job finishing up after Piniero, keeping the game within reach.
Not much on the offensive side, however, Schumaker and Kennedy continued their hot streaks with 2 hits apiece. Once again, the theme of hitting with RISP reared its ugly head. This club absolutely needs to cash in on as many opportunities as they get based upon how they are currently constructed. Rick Ankiel continued his mini-slump, extending it to 2 for his last 14, a line of.143/.200/.214/.414. With a lefty on the mound on Sunday and the hot streak by Ludwick, look for Ankiel to be on the bench and the starting OF to consist of Barton in LF, Schumaker in CF and Ludwick in RF. A stab at the line-up might look like this:
Schumaker
Barton
Pujols
Ludwick
Glaus
Molina
Miles
Looper
Izturis
A win will give the Cardinals another series win and a bounce heading into Milwaukee on Monday.
April 20th – San Francisco 8 St. Louis 2
A lackluster effort by all involved led to the Cardinals experiencing their first series defeat during the 2008 season and pushes them into second place in the NL Central Division, a half game behind the Chicago Cubs.
Braden Looper spit the bit by allowing six straight hits in the third inning, capped by a long bomb by new Cardinal killer, John Bowker. Unfortunately for Looper, the offense decided not to take advantage of a young lefty on the mound for San Fran, a guy that had a lot of trouble locating his pitches and barely made it through five innings to qualify for the win.
They will need to shrug this loss off and come back strong when the start a four game road series in Milwaukee. With the pitching match-ups in Milwaukee, and the two game set that follows in Pittsburgh against a very weak Pirate team should allow the Cardinals to have a winning road trip.
