Slipping Away

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa wipes his eyes as he sits on the bench as his team was losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning of the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Daniel McCutchen, have you ever heard of him? He was the one the gave up the start to the Brewers when being blown out 20-0, also last time he threw against the Cardinals, the Pirates lost 11-1. That wasn't the case on Wednesday as this unknown 2-5 pitcher threw six shutout innings against the cold batted St. Louis team, he picked up his teams 5-2 victory.
This is not a good sign for a team on the bubble.

By the numbers:

4: The St. Louis Cardinals have lost there last 4 series to teams under the .500 radar. If the Cardinals can not win against teams like the Cubs, Pirates, and Brewers how are they going to be able to even stand a chance against the teams like the Reds, Phillies, and Braves.

22: 22 of the Cardinals last 32 games will be played against teams under .500 In a normal situation any team would want this schedule, St. Louis has just about the greatest advantage of any team in the hunt, but for the is at an advantage or a weakness?

1: One game can change the fate or destiny of the Cards outcome of this season. Being only one game back and a Phillies loss all the Cardinals need against against the Nats tonight is a win and a Giants loss and the Wildcard is theres for the taking.

1: One more big fly for Allstar first baseman Albert Pujols to be just the third youngest player in history to reach the milestone of 400 homeruns. Can he do it tonight?

Pitching tonight on the mound will be the 14-4 Cardinals veteran Chris Carpenter who will be facing off against Jordan Zimmerman who is making he first appearance for the first time since Tommy Johns surgery last August. It shouldnt be a problem for the Larussa's hopefully deadly offense.

After Philly loss will the Cards finally manage to take control of the wildcard or will they fail to do so for the fourth straight day. Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that St. Louis losses two out of three to the worst team in baseball.

Well tonight is the night for them to change my mind that they havnt totally slipped away from playoff contention. Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, starts now.

Go Cards!!! Dont disappoint me.

Opportunity came knocking, but Lopez was not home

St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Holliday, center, is greeted by teammates in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

You would never had thought that a Cy Young pitcher would take his eighth loss from a team that has double the amount of losses than wins. This happened tuesday for now 17-8 Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright in St. Louis's 4-3 loss to Pittsburg. He failed to become the leagues first to 18 wins for second time in a row, this giving the Bucs only there third win in sixteen games. "I felt good from the the first pitch on," Wainwright said. "I had good stuff; I just didn't put a few guy away when I needed to."


The Cards had another early start to the ball game as Matt Holliday parks a pair sending St. Louis up 2-0 in the early stretch. The early lead have become something of a tradition as the Cardinals have scored first in there last five games winning all but one, and for the second game in a row the Cards have had a multi run blast in the first, today with Holliday, yesterday with Pujols. If the Cardinals can keep this up and there hitting and pitching comes together they wont lose too many ball games.

Wainwright looked good through five with six strikeouts, but the Pirates dug deep and found the last of the energy there team could muster up, and in the sixth inning the lead-off man reached and it hurts when this runner is leading his team in stolen bases because he swiped second off Molina like it was his job. With two outs in the same inning Wainwright left one of those no-no balls up in the zone and Pittsburg's
Jose Tabata who prompted sent it right into the corner for a standup rbi triple. After a single that plated Tabata, Pitt was right back in it. A two run single in the seventh sent Wainwright to the pine.

St. Louis's ace Adam Wainwright pitched seven full giving up four earned runs, and believe or not that is  as many runs as he has given up in 30 innings in his previous starts. He is an incredible pitcher and regardless of if he wins this years Cy Young or not he is most definitely the best pitcher in NL at this level no matter which way you slice it. Its hard to win a ball game when your offense can only score two runs a game. Come on RASMUS get off the DL this team needs you.

St. Louis's hitting has been up if you ask me, but it is too spread out there hitting is productive, if they want it to be productive Tony Larussa will have to set the right lineup card and get his hitters to hit gap to gap and get in scoring position. Everyone in the majors can get hits, that is why they are where they are, but it is the situation where you need to get those hits, small and smart baseball.

However, on the Pittsburg side the bullpen no doubt shutdown the Cards entire lineup yesterday. Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek pitched lights out on the bump. Meek converting only his second save of the season in eight opportunities.

The bad news in this game was having Philly and Cincy both getting losses the Cardinals could have taken a game up on the Central and the wildcard, but in the ninth inning with the bases juiced Jose Lopez was going to become the hero giving St. Louis the Lead in the Wildcard, but....... Pop out. On tuesday the door was open, but Evan Meek shut the opportunity down for the cards.

Now they will have to come back today to face Daniel McCutchen of the Pirates. If we flash back to July 31st of this year, St. Louis faced this same guy and guess what? They ate him up winning 11-1. If they can do half of what they did to him then, then St. Louis will come out on top.

With Albert Pujols just one HR away from the 400 mark, can today be the night for the Cards to take control of the Wildcard and get Albert to be the third youngest player to reach 400 bombs. Tune in to see.

Pirates Beat Wainwright, Cardinals

Thanks. Go Cards!!! MOTTE and RASMUS back next week. Hurry up Fellas

Lohse gets the win, Cards one closer to wildcard

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols, right, rounds the bases in front of Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Ronny Cedeno after hitting a three-run homer, the 399th of his career, in the first inning of the baseball game in Pittsburgh, Monday, Aug. 23, 2010.

Cardinals win, St. Louis back on track with a three game winning streak. After destroying Pittsburg 10-2 at home pitcher Kyle Lohse picks up his first win since May 17th, this being only his second start since being on the disabled list for almost three months. I actually though he pitched a pretty good game even though it was against the Pirates, but he needed a win on his belt to get started. Despite the two run bomb in the sixth  by Garret Jones, Lohse pitched five solid shutout innings before being hooked in the 6th.

The Cardinals rallied in the first to set the tone of the game, something St. Louis does well. Pujols with another big game going 3 for 5 with a big three run blast in the first off Sean Gallagher's first pitch in relief for injured 1-11 Pittsburg starter Ross Ohlendorf. After a 7-0 lead the Larussa's bench started to kick in, two or the last 3 Cardinals runs were scored by bench players.

The Good:

Rookies: John Jay, when St. Louis first started him in the lineup I thought we were done, but he has shown me more than enough to accept him for someone on the team. He isn't a big power hitter but that .363 batting average over 66 games definitely sets him on the top of this lineup. Colby Rasmus, rookie of the year is in sight for this superstar, but does his ability have a limit? Colby needs to avoid injury. Jaime Garcia, 11-6 Era under three, he is everything you want in a rookie pitcher. If not for Wainwright and Carpenter he might be considered the star of the central.

Schedule: With not many games left to lose in the race for October, the cards have pretty fair schedule to end it out, with nine out of the twelve series they play being under the .500 radar it seems to me like the Cardinals should be able to catch the red hot Reds for the division title.

Big 3: The unbeatable power punch of Carpenter, Wainwright, and Garcia is 57-27 when starting for St. Louis and only 18-27 without these heros on the rubber. The cards would be the best team in the playoffs because you only need three decent starters to make it a long way, but Dave Duncan's big three rotation isn't good its so great its unbelievable.

Additions: Two great players were added this year, veterans Jake Westbrook and Houston's Pedro Feliz. Westbrook 3-0 Era under three. Feliz batting over .400 under the roof of Busch Stadium. Done.

P.S. no need to talk about Pujols, 33 homers, leading the league in rbi's, they speak for themselves.

The Bad:

Shortstop: St. Louis has no starting day in day out ss. Brendan Ryan batting under .240 now Larussa has Lopez playing short since the addition of Feliz and he only has 3 hits in the last seven games. Larussa will need to short this out if they want there lineup to be aces.

5 spot: Injury, this should not be a problem for a rookie, not a good sign. Colby Rasmus St. Louis's number five hitter is on the DL with a strained calf and will likely miss a handful of games before returning to this young gun lineup. The cards have no natural number five hitter without him they are lost with him, unstoppable.

Other 5 spot: Hawksworth, Suppan, Penny, Lohse all with a losing record and Era over five when starting in the five spot. Cause for concern Mr. Duncan?

Bullpen: Hopefully the Cardinals all-star rotation will be enough to put Franklin on the spot without breaking into the banged up bullpen. With all the injuries out in that spot past the left field fence, St. Louis no longer can rely on just Miller, Boggs, Macdougel, and Franklin. Can they heal in time or will they have the entire offseason to rebut?

Lets see if Albert Pujols can keep the thunder in his bat the rest of the series having ten homers in the Cards last nineteen and eight homers in twenty two games against the Pirates. "Alberts good everywhere," manager Tony Larussa said. "If he's not good in a series or two, he will be. It isn't anything about this ballpark or this pitching."

Tomorrow St. Louis will face off against Pirates ace Paul Maholm while sending there Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright to the hill, Wainwright is 4-0 against can he stay undefeated? After Philadelphia's 3-2 loss to Houston tomorrow is the night for Cardinals to take control of the wildcard. Just a sidenote, but the Cardinals are 6-1 while facing the Pirates this year.

Thanks for Reading. Go Cards!!!!

Jaime shutsout Gaints to end homestand

August 21, 2010 -- Cardinals' Pedro Feliz (right) reaches third with a run-scoring triple as San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval (left) waits for the throw in the fifth nning during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Mo. Chris Lee clee@post-dispatch.com

Cardinals rookie sensation Jaime Garcia pitches a complete game shutout sunday caping off a disappointing 3-5 home-stand. After only pitching 37 and a third innings last year in the minors St. Louis did not want to overuse his arm this year, but after only throwing 89 pitches in his first complete game 9-0 victory over the Giants he said "I didn't even peek at the pitch count, all I wanted to do was focus on the next pitch and hope to get things done". Of the three hits surrendered by Garcia Sunday they were promptly erased by Jose Guillen's two double play balls. Personally I think Jaime Garcia is great pitcher and working well in this stacked Cardinals rotation. It will be nice to see him pitch like this again in his upcoming starts with the crew.

Rookie teammate Allen Craig was 2 for 18 before hitting his second career blast today off losing pitcher Barry Zito, who only pitched four innings before being pulled by manager Bruce Bochey, however his 5 earned runs were enough for first baseman Albert Pujols, who had an rbi of his own off Zito in the third, and the hometown Cards to pull off a much needed 9-0 victory.

St. Louis isnt fully out of the race for October but, they will need to make up 3.5 games on the Reds, who won 5-2 over Joe Torre's Dodger squad today. A much anticipated three game early September series between these two clubs will likely decide the NL central victor. For me the wildcard seems like a better road for the second place Cardinals. Being only two games behind the city of brotherly love, Larussa's team looks to pick up a game on Philly tomorrow as the Phillies take on Houston at home. Hopefully the power of this St. Louis team can give them the ability to go with seven other teams to compete in the month of October.

St. Louis's Pedro Felize a great pickup from Houston went 2 for 5 in todays game improving to 6 for 13 since signing with Larussa. Feliz has done nothing but help this struggling Cardinals lineup both on offense and defense, in the first he snagged a line shot by Buster Posey of the Giants and assisted the two other plays that inning to help Garcia to perfect first inning.

Going into Pittsburg this week Tony Larussa will make a few changes to the lineup card for superstition and faith. First the veteran manager will bring up Garcia to pitch on four days rest ahead the shaky Kyle Lohse who has lost in his last three appearances. Garcia will pitch on monday against the Pirates. I think that this move will pay off because if you look at Jaime's season stats he is the best rookie pitcher in the league and Lohse is having an off season, granted Lohse is 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA against Pittsburg,
Garcia has the consistency that the organization is looking for. Secondly, Larussa in the past has batted his pitcher eight to get an extra position player behind Pujols in the lineup, but he has hit him ninth in the past two games which they ended up winning. So look to see the Cards have the there man on the mound bat a position back for the upcoming series.

St. Louis is 50-27 when Garcia, Carpenter, or Wainwright start, 17-27 with others. You will see two of these three fantastic pitchers in the Monday to Wednesday series against the Pirates in Pittsburg. We will see if the Cardinals can pick up some lost room from either the Reds or the wildcard leading Phillies.
Thanks for reading. Go Cards!!!!


Jaime Garcia, Cards Blank Giants