{"id":1634,"date":"2009-09-22T14:09:12","date_gmt":"2009-09-22T21:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/22\/cardinals-solve-the-mystery\/"},"modified":"2009-09-22T14:09:12","modified_gmt":"2009-09-22T21:09:12","slug":"cardinals-solve-the-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/22\/cardinals-solve-the-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Solve the Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry for the delay in today’s post, but the power went out at my house last night and, as far as I know, hasn’t returned yet.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps I need to have Mark DeRosa<\/strong> come by.<\/p>\n

You knew it was going to be a good night<\/a> when the Cards scored three runs off of Wandy Rodriguez in the first inning.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, the Cards had only scored six runs total off of Rodriguez in his four other starts against them, so they were figuring him out early.\u00c2\u00a0 Then DeRosa came along and smacked two home runs, reminding people just why the Cards did trade for him.<\/p>\n

Even Albert Pujols was able to solve Rodriguez, coming just inches away from his first long ball against him.\u00c2\u00a0 You know that he’s going to be studying these at-bats this offseason, trying to make sure that he can tag Rodriguez sometime in 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 However, AP is still three HR from 50, as he’s not gone deep since his two home run game against Milwaukee on the 9th.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s still been producing since then, of course, but at a .306 BA\/.444 SLG rate, not quite up to his norms.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s hit three doubles in the last two games, so he’s probably just about ready for a hot streak.<\/p>\n

You also have to like what you saw out of Kyle Lohse last night.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, he gave up two homers, but it was in Houston, not necessarily known as a pitcher’s park.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus they were solo shots.\u00c2\u00a0 He limited the damage, enjoyed his lead, and came out with a successful appearance.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously, he hasn’t earned back his #4 starter role for the playoffs yet, but he did take a big step toward that.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that management is going to be really looking for reasons to give him that slot so they can use John Smoltz as a reliever, so if he can have another two starts that are similar to this one, he’ll probably get the job.<\/p>\n

Looking at last night’s game, it’s hard to pick a Goat.\u00c2\u00a0 Lohse and those that followed him, Jason Motte and Kyle McClellan, pitched well.\u00c2\u00a0 Motte continues to make the case that he’s turned the corner and can be a bit more trusted than he was in the middle of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Every St. Louis starter had at least one hit, and DeRosa, Pujols, Skip Schumaker, Jason LaRue and Matt Holliday had two or more.<\/p>\n

So it’s pretty much a make-up call, but I’m going to apply the tag to Ryan Ludwick<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 My fellow UCBer from Stan Musial’s Stance<\/a> took issue with him not being the Goat Sunday, with good reason.\u00c2\u00a0 So since he just went 1 for 4 in this one, we’ll give it to him.<\/p>\n

Lots of discussion right now about the future of TLR.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff Gordon says that he’d leave one of the best jobs in baseball behind<\/a> if he did call it quits.\u00c2\u00a0 TLR says he’s too busy to think about it<\/a>, though you expect it’s crossed his mind a few times.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to think about anyone else running the ship, but I guess we’ll find out at the end of the year whether that’s an adjustment we need to make.\u00c2\u00a0 Personally, it works either way for me.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s done a great job here, but losing some of the drama wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.<\/p>\n

If they’d get some help from Milwaukee, the Cards might be able to cut their magic number to one (which would be a tie for the title, something that LaRussa won’t acknowledge).\u00c2\u00a0 Joel Pineiro takes his turn on the bump against Yorman Bazardo.\u00c2\u00a0 Pineiro has struggled with the ‘Stros hitters historically<\/a> and has struggled so far in September<\/a> as well, so even though he’s had a good bit of success against Houston this year, there’s no assurance that will continue into tonight’s game.<\/p>\n

Bazardo hasn’t ever faced the Cardinals before and is sporting an 8.50 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s given up 24 hits and 13 walks in 18 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve followed the Cardinals for any length of time, you know that this is a script for the youngster to throw six scoreless innings at the club.\u00c2\u00a0 If they can be patient, they’ll be able to figure him out or get runners on.\u00c2\u00a0 Patience, however, is not necessarily what they are known for.<\/p>\n

Daniel Shoptaw is the founder of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153C70 At The Bat,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where he regularly writes about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals.\u00c2\u00a0 You can find more of his work here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry for the delay in today’s post, but the power went out at my house last night and, as far as I know, hasn’t returned yet.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps I need to have Mark DeRosa come by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}