The Cardinals have won back to back games for the first time since early June. Thats big.

More important than that, however, is the way in which they won yestderday’s game. Down two runs with two outs in the top of the 9th, the Cardinals came back and tied the game against the Astros’ closer Brad Lidge. Izzy came on and locked down the bottom of the 9th. Thats even bigger.

Albert Pujols, the first batter in the top of the 10th, smacked his 29th homerun off Roy Oswalt who had come on in relief of the demoralized Lidge. Izzy, who has been less than solid of late, then polished it off by shutting down the heart of the ‘Stros order earning the win. Put all those tidbits together into one game and its HUGE.

The Cardinals just finished their worst month in recent history. They havent won back to back games since early June. The bullpen (especially Izzy) has been porous and has seen their ERA balloon into numbers you’d expect from the Royals not the Cardinals. Izzy was blowing saves seeminly every other day. Not this time. Not last night.

Spezio blasted Lidge’s pitch out and reminded the Cardinals “Hey, remember the playoffs? We own this guy.” In the top of the 10th Oswalt buzzed Pujols with a “purpose pitch”. You knew right then what would happen. I turned to my fiance and said “That was stupid. You don’t do that to Albert.” And Albert didn’t disappoint. As the Fox camera zoomed in on Albert waiting for that second pitch you saw it in his eyes. That sly little smirk told everyone watching “Oh I got this.” We saw a shot of Gardner who seemed resigned to what was about to happen next. Oswalt’s very next pitch was deposited into the seats and the Cardinals had their swagger back. It was like the suddenly remembered how to win. I had no doubt Izzy would shut it down. He couldn’t do anything less.

In contrast Lidge has once again been demoralized by the Birds on the Bat. Pujols’ homer during last years NLCS was a punch in the gut. Lidge has dealt with questions about the lingering effects throughout the first half of this year. He’s been less than “Lights Out Lidge” and now this. This rips open that wound. Reminds everyone that Lidge can’t shut down the Cards. We own him. As Pedro put it, he can only “Tip his hat and call [the Cardinals] his daddy.”

Sure, we’re only halfway through the season. Sure it was just one game. However, there is no doubt this game meant so much more. LaRusa emptied his bench to win this game. He was willing you use Molina, still suffering from the effects of a concusion. He understood that this one was special. The team might not have bounced back from a loss here and a win, especially in this fasion would ressonate for the rest of the year. “We can come back and win. The game is never out of reach.” After the regular season when the Cardinals look back, they will view this game as the one that got them back on track.

Other Notes: Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood apparently has a torn rotator cuff. Just wanted any Cubs fans that read this to hear it one more time. Who had July 8th in the Woods Injury Office Pool? Hey, give ‘ole KWood some credit. He’s finally living up to Cubbie Nation’s expectations.

Well, this is certainly a big series starting tonight. Houston is gaining ground and probably has played better than anyone else in the NL Central as of late. I’ll keep a running diary as we go.

Top First:
Cards go in order. I have to confess that the thought “It might be a long night” went through my head. You see thats the real affect of the losing streak and the way the Cards have played over the past few weeks. It always there in the back of your head just waiting to say “I TOLD YOU SO”.

Bottom First:
The second pitch to Mike Lamb is DRILLED. Cards fall behind 1-0. Cue the first mention of Jeff Weaver waiting to take Ponson’s spot in the rotation. I give it another two innings before we hear about Sidney’s offseason trouble with the law.
Top 2:
Scotty smacks a 3-1 pitch off the centerfield wall and strolls into second. He stopped a bit oddly, I don’t even wanna think about it.

The Cardinals have just run themselves out of another inning. Jimmy lined out to right and Scotty is gunned down at third. How many times do we need to see that happen before Tony tightens the leash on Oquendo? I know its only the second but I dont like the way this game is going. One wasted opportunity here, one bad pitch there, and we’re 7 innings from me throwing the remote through the TV.

Bottom 2:
Ponson starts things off nicely with a walk. A lazy fly ball to center and a FC have given me hopes of getting out of this inning without a run.

And we’re ahead of schedule! With two outs in the 2nds we are treated to a discussion of Ponson’s legal troubles. I never knew he’d been arrested! Man these guys really do their homework to dig up this stuff…

End of the inning - Cards only down 1-0.

Top of the 3rd:
Scary moment to start off the inning. Molina is plunked in the back of the head. “Clearly this was not a purpose pitch…”. Keep in mind I’m listening to Houston announcers. Don’t think for a minute that TLR cares whether it was on purpose or not. Molina comes off after standing on first for a couple of pitches and the fate of some Astro is sealed. If we don’t drill someone in this game I’m going to request an investigation into the abduction of Tony.

As we wait for Ponson to do something… anything… let me just say I like the Weaver deal. However, I hope its part of a bigger picture Walt is working on. I’d still love to see one or two of our starters dealt and maybe even Izzy (although I have to admit he pitched well his last time out). We need a big productive bat and a top of the line no. 2 pitcher.

Ponson bunts foul for the strikeout but a wild pitch does the job he couldn’t and moves the runner over. Eck flies out to end the Cardinals’ frame.

Bottom of the 3rd:
Double play up the middle gives Ponson a 1-2-3 inning. He’s looking good early but the test for Ponson is always beyond the 5th.

Top 4:
Holy Cow! With Pujols on Jimmy E absolutely killed a ball. No one on the field even flinched on that no doubter. Cards take the lead 2-1! As Tony mentioned in the paper today, the lineup is so much better when Jimmy is producing.

Bottom 4:
Of course the lead couldn’t last long. Ponson walks the leadoff guy, beans the second (I guess we’re even now), and on what should have been a double play ball Miles lets it roll through his legs. One run scores and Ponson walks the bases loaded just on principle. A double play ball gives the ‘Stros the lead but I think at that point we’d trade a run for two outs.

Ponson has walked three thus far but should probably still be ahead 2-1.

Cards behind 3-2.

5th Inning:
I think I slept through it… no no I guess not, both pitchers just seem to be settling in.

6th:
Call it the 5th inning redux. Each pitcher walked the opposing slugger (Pujols and Berkman) and no one was able to make them pay. I would love for Pujols to come up with a chance to win it against Lidge. How sweet would that be?

Top 7:
Edmunds drills what should have been a single… however was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double. That scene looks disturbingly familiar… oh yeah, we’ve done that roughly 105 times in the last month.

Bottom 7:
Well that was an odd inning. With runners on first and second and two outs a balk was called. It was reveresed when the third base umpire let everyone else know he had called time. The runners were sent back and Kinney (in on relief) got the inning ending double play to keep the Cardinals in this game.

Top of the 8th:
I guess this is what I get for complaining about running out of the inning. JohnnyLo cracks a double that probably should have been a triple. After a sacrifice bunt, he’s on third and Duncan is battling with a full count and one out. We need this. This is bigger than just this game.

Duncan strikes out and Pujols is intentionally walked. Notice the balls aren’t even close to the plate. The ‘Stros don’t need Pujols pulling a Miggy Cabrera on them. However, that brings up Rolen who’s batting .380 something on the road. Lidge is in and the Cardinals have another chance to bust up the sketchy closer.

Rolen hits it hard but right at the secondbaseman. Inning over, Cards trail 3-2.

Bottom of the 8th:
Wainwright comes in and promptly commits an error. He throws the ball half-way back to St. Louis and puts a runner on 2nd with no outs. You can’t do that and get away with it and this is no exception as Wilson gets an RBI single. Luckily for the Cards, thats the only damage done.

Top 9:
Game.

The Cards drop another one and for whatever reason, this one hurts more than the blowouts. Between this one, and Reyes’ one hitter, I’m feeling ill. Walt, make a move… PLEASE!

Hey I found this in a file called Sabotage. It looks like some sort of clue…

06-06-06

What better day to blog about Pujols being hurt? Perhaps this is cosmic karma coming back around to all the Cardinal fans who secretly rejoiced when the Cubs lost Derrek Lee to injury. Whatever the case, its most certainly bad news for Cardinal fans.

Albert Pujols has hit the DL for the first time in his career. In the middle of his chase for history, Albert’s body gave out. Apparently the Cardinals were heavier to carry than we thought. The affect is obvious. We lose the heart of our order, the one person who strikes fear into every pitchers heart. We lose our top scorer, our top RBI man, and a huge chunk of our power.

However, there might also be less obvious affects of this injury… The first, the Cardinals might no longer have the confidence of being able come from behind. Without Albert’s big bat in the lineup, players may grow to doubt their ability to win without him, a prophecy which almost always fulfills itself.

Or, the Cardinals could rally. With Albert gone, the rest of the lineup will realize they must step up. Jimmy and Scotty will know more is needed from them and rise to the occasion. Maybe Encarnacion will finally come around and begin to produce in clutch situations. Maybe we will get more small ball out of the top of the lineup and see more agression in Tony’s moves. If Albert’s injury does not linger, he could return to a lineup that would certainly welcome him back, but would no longer be relying on him to win ballgames.

Sure Albert’s injury could be damning. The Cardinals could flounder in self pity the way the Cubs have since losing Derrek Lee. However, I refuse to believe any team coached by Tony LaRusa would be allowed to lose faith. Tony knows how to win ballgames whether its by the brute force of home runs, or the scrappy squeeze-play-calling small ball that spills over to attitudes on defense.

So, just as we must wait to find out how long Pujols will be out, so too must Cardinals fans watch and wait to see how the Cardinals will respond to the loss of their MVP.

Now, let me take a moment to pimp a couple of other sites. I enjoy both of these sites immensly and you might too. The first is The Wicked, a web-based riddle game. I must warn you that if you at all enjoy riddles, clues, or puzzles, you will be nearly istantly addicted to this game. The second site is realSabotage. Sabotage is a new reality show that is currently accepting applications to its casting call. The game itself will be part Mission Impossible, part Sherlock Holmes, part Oceans 11. There apparently is also going to be a contest in the spirit of The Wicked that will award winners an automatic pass into the semi-final round of interviews to appear on Sabotage. I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I did.

Ok… I understand that its only May and that a Major League Baseball season is a marathon not a sprint. Having said that… how scary good is Albert Pujols? I mean seriously. He just smacked his 23rd long ball of the year. 23! He is currently on pace to hit 82 home runs. Now I realize being “on pace” means nothing (on April 10th, the Cubs were on pace to win 145 games) but we are approaching the quarter season mark. This is more than just a great first week. This is a trend. If that trend continues, Pujols would break not only the single season home run record, but also the single season RBI record. Thats two thirds of the triple crown in records!
On a more interesting note, as I was looking through career stats, I came to a startling realization. Ruth, Aaron, and Bonds all played for 20+ years to get their amazing career HR totals. Using Albert’s first 5 years as a guide, he would only need to play 18.8 years to break Aaron’s mark. Since he broke into the league at the age of 20 (two years younger than Bonds), Albert is on pace to break the record at the age of 39. As we have seen with Bonds, life after 40 can be rough on a hitter. Now sure, the hormones and chemicals he pumped into his body are probably taking their toll, Bonds is not the only hitter we’ve seen struggle post 30’s. Lets take a look at the stats…

As you can see, Aaron’s home run production dropped by 50% after the age of 40. Bonds was a bit of a freak hitting 45 four-baggers at the age of 40, however his injury plauged season last year dropped his yearly home run average by the same 50%. Ruth (who most likely suffered from his own chemical induced health problems) was only able to play in 28 games at the age of 40, hitting just 6 home runs.

Am I saying that Pujols will break both the single season and career home run records? Its too early to tell but one things for sure, Albert’s a quarter of the way towards both and its going to be fun to watch.

Ok guys and gals, I know I’ve said this before but I really am going to start updating this more often. I have received renewed interest in the site and also have more time on my hands. I think I’ll start my renewed posting by posting some pictures of me at a recent game. Enjoy!

Well thats all for now. I’m sure there will be more to follow!

What is it with pitchers over 40? According to conventional wisdom, Greg Maddux should be in the twilight of his career… not coming into is prime. Apparently the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitters don’t agree with that line of thinking. Maddux pitched seven shut out innings as the Chicago Cubs avoided the sweep winning 7-3. “Mad Dog” is off to the best start of his career with a record of 4-0 and a tiny ERA of 0.99. While I’m not ready to hand Maddux the Cy Young award just yet, its impossible to ignore the old man’s performance today.

It seems that Albert Pujols does everything with flair. Not only did he tie Todd Helton for the second quickest player to 1,000 hits, he did it by hitting his MLB leading 11th home run of the season. Yeah, he’s pretty good. Pujols’ first inning homer staked the Cards to a two run lead and set the stage for what quickly became a trouncing. In the second, four different Cardinals combined to drive in 5 runs as Pujols drove in his third and fourth run of the game and MLB leading 24th of the season. Did I mention he’s good? The seven run lead was good enough for Mulder as he coasted to his way to his second win of the season. As if that weren’t good enough, the win came against the Cubs who had seemed to have the Cardinals’ number recently, continuing the troubling trend from last year. Here’s to hoping that’s all behind us now.

Other notes from the game…

So the Brit went to the game tonight, much to my dismay. I asked him for his take on tonight’s game. Here’s what he said (cut him some slack, he’s British and you shouldn’t expect too much).

Albert’s a machine this year. I mean everyone in the place felt he was going to hit it out every time he stepped to the plate.

Mulder was interesting. He’s basically throwing junk. 86MPH fastball and a 65MPH knuckle curve by the looks of things.
But… the differential in speed is causing hitters nightmares.

The HR [Mulder gave up] was an overthrown 89MPH fastball that he left up in the zone… not a good thing to do to Michael Barrett. [You taking notes Izzy?]

It’s early but we look a much better ballclub with J-Rod batting in the 2 slot and Juan Encarnacion in the 6 slot [or maybe on the bench? Just a suggestion].

Well Brit, I’m crazy jealous that you were there but if your gonna rub it in, thanks for at least giving us your take on things.

Cubs’ DL now on DL
What’s the worst news a Cubs fan could hear? Ok other than having to repeat the last 97 years over again in some sort of sick twisted baseball oriented Groundhog’s Day, I would have to guess it would be losing Derrek Lee for 8-10 weeks to a broken bone. Well Cubs fans… as much as I hate to see a player hurt, I love seeing you disappointed more… and just in case you’ve been living under a rock recently… Derrek Lee broke his wrist in last night’s game against the Dodgers. Not just one bone, but two. As my buddy the Brit said… “The Cubs were just served an excuse for the entire season on a golden platter.” He pretty much hit the nail on the head… I mean seriously… could you imagine losing Pujols? I will now chop of my hands for having typed that.

Lee is pretty much the heart and soul of the Cubs lineup as well as a Gold Glover at first. The only bright side to this injury is that it happened at the beginning of the season and will not put Lee out for the year. The Cubs are currently only half a game out of first but the rest of the lineup will need to step up and fill the void if the Cubs are going to avoid falling behind the rest of the division (well ok maybe not the Pirates but come on).

Catching Up

Keeping with the Derrek Lee news, the Cubs locked up their now injured slugger for an extra 5 years for a total of $65 million. As a Cardinal fan, I wish Lee had ended up with another team (maybe an outfielder for the Cards?) but this is the best move the Cubs have made since trading for Lee back in ‘04. Oh, and for anyone who worried before the season about the Cubs keeping Todd Walker… he’s batting a cool .406 and has an OPS of 1.065 (Both team leading totals) so I guess that was a decent move or lack there of huh?

Well, for the second game in a row, the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals. Excuse me for a moment as I bang my head against the wall….

Now, I have never managed a Major League team, nor would I want to question Tony LaRusa’s expertise… well no, actually that’s exactly what I want to do. WHY!?! Why are Cardinal pitchers throwing to Lee? Anyone? I didn’t think so. In today’s game Derrek Lee came up with the bases empty in the eighth inning of a tie ballgame. He then proceeded to crank out his second home run in as many days against Cardinal pitching.

Benjamin Franklin once said that “the definition if insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Ben gets it, why cant Tony?

Let’s hope someone in the Cardinals dugout figures it out in time for the Cards to salvage tomorrows game and avoid the sweep. With the Cubs sending a starting pitcher to the mound who spent most of last year in AA-ball, I would hope the Cards would be able to score some runs and avoid any more Derrek Lee-inflicted losses.

Other odds and ends: The Cubs have extended General Manager Jim Hendry’s contract for another two years. To be honest, this comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. Hendry has done a great job with the lineup (getting Lee, Pierre, Ramirez, etc) but many Cub fans were upset with Hendry’s lack of action this winter in regards to the club’s starting pitching. As mentioned earlier, with Wood, Miller, and Prior on the shelf, the Cubs are sending a rookie who hasn’t pitched above the Double A level to the mound in tomorrow’s game. Most Cubs fans aren’t exactly thrilled with that prospect and many felt that Hendry should have made a move to shore up the injury plagued rotation.

With Hendry’s extension done, Dusty Baker’s status becomes the next focal point for the organization. If ownership is satisfied with the club’s performance enough to give Hendry and extension, I’m guessing Baker is probably off the hot seat barring a worse than usual Cub-like collapse during the course of the season.