April 23 – St. Louis 4 Pittsburgh 7
Todd Wellemeyer went 6 innings, but could not stay away from the long ball and that cost him a quality start, and a win. Welly only allowed one base on balls, however, his pitch count did him in from lasting longer in the game as he was not as efficient as his last start.
The culprit of this one was, once again, the LOBs. The Cardinals jumped on Ian Snell by batting around in the 1st inning and putting up a nice 4 spot. However, they would never add to their lead and would leave 12 runners on.
Anthony Reyes circa 2007 showed up in the 8th inning. Reyes and the middle infielders somehow combined to botch a tailor made double play back to Reyes, and it got ugly after that. After the botched play, Reyes was staring down Adam LaRoche, Jose Bautista, and Brian Bixler. All were batting under .200 when he faced them. He induced LaRoche to fly out, but, as we saw time and time again last year, he was unable to finish off guys he should, and he gave up the go ahead RBI to Bautista on a jam job to RF, then gave up a double down the 3rd base line to Bixler, and Doug Manasomething finished him off with an oppo field single to drive in two.
A very, very disappointing loss.
April 24th – St. Louis 6 Pittsburgh 2
Joel Pineiro to the rescue. The pen, still overworked from the Brewers and Giants series, needed some time off, and Pineiro gave it to them by tossing 7 strong innings, striking out 6 batters and only giving up 5 base runners off 4 hits and one walk.
Brian Barton came through just when you thought that the Cardinals were not ever going to get to Tom Gorzelanny. Gorzelanny has been brutal so far this year, and was brutal in this one, walking 7 and just barely making it through 5 innings pitched. He walked the bags full in the 5th and Barton singled in two and then AP singled in another.
Memo to the Pirates: when your guy on the mound is struggling to locate his fastball, and your catcher calls for one inside to Pujols, well, lets just say the people in the left field stands are glad he did not get it elevated.
Another memo, this one to Brian Barton: Son, the very worst thing you can do is to get yourself picked off while AP is batting. That will not get you additional playing time.
The Birds head back to Busch for a big 9 game home stand against the Astros, Reds and Cubs with a record of 14 wins against 9 losses. A 6 and 3 mark would be mighty, mighty nice before heading out to Colorado for 4 and then back up to Milwaukee for 4. Who the hell makes up this schedule, anyway?
