The Starting Lineup is:

SS – Rafael Furcal RF – Carlos Beltran LF – Matt Holliday 1B – Lance Berkman 3B – David Freese C – Yadier Molina CF – Jon Jay 2B – Daniel Descalso P – Kyle [...]]]> We’re just minutes away from the 2012 Cardinals Season. Let’s Go Cards!

The Starting Lineup is:

SS – Rafael Furcal
RF – Carlos Beltran
LF – Matt Holliday
1B – Lance Berkman
3B – David Freese
C – Yadier Molina
CF – Jon Jay
2B – Daniel Descalso
P – Kyle Lohse

Cards WIN

Chris Carpenter turned in another outstanding start down the stretch for the Cardinals with 8 shutout innings in the Sunday Night Game of the Week last night. Albert Pujols and Allen Craig provided all of the offense via the long ball. Albert is standing at exactly .300 and got two [...]]]>

Cards WIN

Chris Carpenter turned in another outstanding start down the stretch for the Cardinals with 8 shutout innings in the Sunday Night Game of the Week last night. Albert Pujols and Allen Craig provided all of the offense via the long ball. Albert is standing at exactly .300 and got two more RBI for a total of 95 on the season so far. With 10 games remaining, a successful Cardinals team will depend on Albert picking up at least 5 more RBI and remaining above .300. The Cardinals, who now very much must keep winning have another date with the Phillies tonight, who have Roy Halladay pitching.

That was a short 24+ hours of hope, only 4 games back in the wild card that the Cardinals would continue to rise while the Braves continued to fall. In the eighth inning, Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski failed to do their jobs. Joel Hanrahan almost failed to do his agains the [...]]]> Cards LOSE

That was a short 24+ hours of hope, only 4 games back in the wild card that the Cardinals would continue to rise while the Braves continued to fall. In the eighth inning, Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski failed to do their jobs. Joel Hanrahan almost failed to do his agains the Cardinals in the 9th, but he was successful in striking out the big slugger Corey Patterson, who is hitting below the Mendoza line since joining the team. You could almost blame the loss on Colby Rasmus, he was traded for all three of the aforementioned players. This was a bullpen failure that really wasn’t necessary but seemed unavoidable as it happened. The Cardinals are still 4.5 back of the Braves and now 6.5 back of Milwaukee who didn’t play yesterday. Good news on the Albert Pujols front though – a HR and 3 RBIs gives him 92 on the season and brings his average up to .298. He was standing on deck when Corey Patterson struck out with the bases loaded to end the game.

The Cardinals swept the Braves today to attain their first five game winning streak of the season. Jake Westbrook pitched well enough until the Cardinals scored for him and then the lush September bullpen took over from there. Jason Motte made a nice save appearance as well. The Cardinals are now four [...]]]> Cards WIN

The Cardinals swept the Braves today to attain their first five game winning streak of the season. Jake Westbrook pitched well enough until the Cardinals scored for him and then the lush September bullpen took over from there. Jason Motte made a nice save appearance as well. The Cardinals are now four and a half back of Atlanta for the Wild Card and six back of Milwaukee who beat the Phillies today. The team is now a respectable 12 games over .500. A three game series in Pittsburgh starts tomorrow. The Brewers host Colorado and the Braves host Florida. Albert Pujols was 1-4 and his batting average stands at .297. He got 1 RBI to bring his total to 89 for the season. Yadier Molina was 3-3 with 3 RBI and his avg is at .295.

The Cardinals couldn’t buy a timely hit last night and Jaime Garcia didn’t make it out of any of the jams he pitched himself into unscathed. A quirky strike zone that seemed to be in the favor of whoever was ahead in the count didn’t help anything. For the record, I’m not [...]]]> Cards LOSE

The Cardinals couldn’t buy a timely hit last night and Jaime Garcia didn’t make it out of any of the jams he pitched himself into unscathed. A quirky strike zone that seemed to be in the favor of whoever was ahead in the count didn’t help anything. For the record, I’m not a fan of the strike zone box that FSM is using on the screen now. I can tell if the pitch is in the strike zone without a computer, and it just gluts up the screen and makes it like an instant replay of every pitch. This game was another similar to the two losses against the Brewers, pitching that gave up a few too many runs, that however didn’t really matter because the offense couldn’t seem to scratch out enough runs anyway. The Cardinals are surprisingly the ESPN Sunday Night Game tonight (the Red Sox and Yankees must have taken a week off) and can still win the series. The problem is with Milwaukee having lost only 2 of its last 17 games (both the losses against the Cardinals) just winning the series doesn’t seem to be enough and now the Cardinals find themselves 5 games back with just a month and a half to go.

Pitching, pitching, pitching. That’s the key to the Cardinals second half. Chris Carpenter pitched 8 innings of 1 run baseball last night and all the Cardinals needed was Albert Pujols on the offensive side. The Cardinals escaped making 3 errors and Carpenter got out of a jam in the 8th to hand [...]]]> Cards WIN

Pitching, pitching, pitching. That’s the key to the Cardinals second half. Chris Carpenter pitched 8 innings of 1 run baseball last night and all the Cardinals needed was Albert Pujols on the offensive side. The Cardinals escaped making 3 errors and Carpenter got out of a jam in the 8th to hand the ball over to Fernando Salas who came in after last night’s debacle and got his 17th save. The Albert Pujols offensive juggernaut is heating up, if the Cardinals can stabilize their pitching through better performance or trade (hopefully both) the race for the NL Central will continue to include them. Pujols’ average is above .280 and he has 3 HR’s in the last 4 games, none of them have been solo shots either. The Pirates lost and Milwaukee won yesterday, so the Brewers are .5 games back, the Pirates 1 and the Reds 4.

One out away, Fernando Salas gave up the walk off 2 run HR to Brandon Phillips. A very disappointing way to start the second half, this would have been a clear +1 game as the Cardinals came from behind twice to lead, Albert Pujols providing the power in the 8th [...]]]> Cards LOSE -1 (-3)

One out away, Fernando Salas gave up the walk off 2 run HR to Brandon Phillips. A very disappointing way to start the second half, this would have been a clear +1 game as the Cardinals came from behind twice to lead, Albert Pujols providing the power in the 8th inning. The Cardinals were in a rough spot when Salas came in for the 9th, with just a one-run lead he was the last pitcher in the bullpen. Had he given up just one run (which wasn’t out of the question with Joey Votto and others coming up) and extra innings followed the Cardinals would have been in even bigger trouble. So at least that didn’t happen. The case for Heath Bell just got a little stronger, but I’m not sure if the cost of that will be worth it. An effective LH reliever to replace Trever Miller is a necessity. The Cardinals are now tied with the Pirates for first, half a game ahead of the Brewers, so they have to do something. Winning games is the best place to start.

With [...]]]> The NL won the All Star game!! Two years in a row, this means if the Cardinals make it to the World Series they’ll have home field advantage. I was glad that the Cardinals couldn’t lose for the last three days, however they still managed to be the victims of another double play.

With the trade season heating up, the Brewers made the first move, trading for Mr. 59 Francisco Rodriguez to shore up their bullpen and create a closer controversy. What will the Cardinals do? I hated watching Chris Perez in an Indians jersey at the ASG, where was Mark DeRosa?