Location: St. Louis, Mo. | Ballpark: Busch Stadium (46,861) | Spring Training: Jupiter, Fla.
Owner: William DeWitt, Jr. | GM: John Mozeliak | Manager: Tony La Russa | World Championships: 10
A homestand that had started so promisingly for the Cardinals -- they beat San Diego four straight games to start it -- could wind up at .500 if they don't beat the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night in the finale of a four-game series.
"We need this one (Thursday)," infielder Brendan Ryan said.
After letting mediocre pitchers Seth McClung and Jeff Suppan off the hook in the first two games of the series, the Cardinals had no chance with CC Sabathia on Wednesday. The Cardinals had just three singles, and only two runners reached second base.
"He's got a great changeup and then a slider, and it seemed like with two strikes, he had that 95-96 (mph fastball) in his back pocket... so he's filthy," Ryan said.
Troy Glaus had had a .348 career average and two homers against longtime American League foe Sabathia, but he was blanked in three at-bats Wednesday.
"He's a Cy Young Award winner (2007) for a reason," Glaus said. "That was just one of those nights when you catch a Cy Young Award winner on top of his game."
Braden Looper battled through 104 pitches in five innings but gave up just one run. Looper (9-8) failed to win for the fifth consecutive start.
"They kept fouling off a lot of really good pitches," Looper said. "I battled all night to get out of trouble and made a lot of good pitches. It's just unfortunate that their guy pitched a good game."
Looper thought he could have gone longer but didn't disagree with manager Tony La Russa's decision to lift him.
"He's been around a long time and forgot more baseball than I know," Looper said.
BREWERS 3, CARDINALS 0: RHP Braden Looper gave up a fifth-inning homer to J.J. Hardy, and the Cardinals never bounced back. They had two runners on base in the same inning just once. In the sixth inning, SS Brendan Ryan and RF Ryan Ludwick both singled with two outs, but 1B Albert Pujols flied to deep center.
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Who wins the series? Half the voters in the StLPD picked a split, and I don't think they're far off.
I am extremely bored at work, so here is my analysis...
Game 1: Neither of these pitchers is great, obviously. But Pineiro is ridiculously streaky, and since his last start was a debacle, I'd think he's in for a decent start tonight. McClung is good on the r
St. Louis (AP) – That sound you hear is the simultaneous exhalation of breath from Cardinals Nation. With the Brewers and the Cubs opening an arms race by trading for top of the rotation starters, Cardinals Fans
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Anyone see his press conference last night? He got irritated (which is always entertaining) at a question about the bullpen. He said the bullpen is not the problem -- the problem is that our offense doesn't score enough runs. (This after we scored 30 runs in four days against the Padres...)
Has anyone heard anything about Matt Clement. I thought he was making some rehab starts in the minors, and that is the last I heard. Will he be coming back anytime soon, or did he have a set back in one of his rehab starts.
In a perfect world the Cards could get back a healthy Carp, Wainy, Loshe, Clement, and Pienero.
According to MLBTradeRumors the Cardinals are still looking at Marte and now Grabow. Big deal, right? I mean the Cardinals should be looking at everyone. The thing that interested me the most was that two of the players that Pittsburgh was interested in were
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