Losing 3 of 4 to the Cubs.  All very winnable games.  Make it stop, somebody.

Now, I think time has more than ran out.  It's pretty much......over.  I hate to say it, but the Cardinals will probably not get a chance to defend their title this October.  Now, I will still be watching the games and I will root for the Cardinals all the way until they are mathmatically eliminated.  There's always that chance for a miracle.

However, I know have a big decision to make.  And I'd love to hear your input on it.  With the Cardinals magic number of elimination now at a tiny 7, do I finally concede the season over and start rooting for the Brewers?  Obviously before, I wanted the Cubs and Brewers to lose, so that we could gain ground, but I'm afraid it's too late for that.  However, the Crew just sit 1 game back of the Cubs and could keep them going to the postseason.

What do you think?  Is it over?  Should I switch to a full-time Brewer fan?  (Barring, of course, their series against us....I can't root against the Cardinals.)

Also, a quick side note:  If the Cardinals and the Tigers, do not make the postseason, which is looking rather likely, we will yet again have two new teams in the World Series for the 7th straight year.  The last year one team made a return to the World Series two years in a row were the 2000 and 2001 Yankees.  And the last time a team won it two years in a row were the 1999 and 2000 Yankees.  As for the NL?  The last NL team to make a repeated trip to the World Series in consecutive years were the Braves in 1995 and 1996.  And I had to all the way back to the 70s Reds for the last time an NL team won it all 2 years in a row.

I guess we had it stacked against us to repeat, huh?

All but out of it,

Tiffany

Why can't the Cardinals just win?  Come on.  If they had played even halfway decent lately, we could easily be in first place right now.  Instead, we're still four games back of 2 teams and riding a 6 game losing streak.  It's enough to make you lose your mind.  The Cardinals have got to win this game against the Reds to avoid falling any further behind.  A win here would put them no more than 4 back and possibly less, depending on the outcome of the Cubs game (the Brewers are off today) and still within striking distance.

The problem is, there is less and less time for striking.  The Redbirds must get hot and must get hot right now.  Sitting 4 games in back of Chicago, a sweep of the Cubbies this weekend, would have us tied with them.  Not to mention the 3 game set against the Brewers next week.  That's what's keeping us in this hunt.  We get to play 7 games against the team we're chasing.  Our destiny is in our hands.  Let's go out and get it!

Avoid the sweep,

Tiffany

It's coming down to the wire. A little over a month of baseball left with no off days. The Cardinals are in third place, 1/2 game behind the Brewers and 2 games behind the Cubs. The performance of all three fo these teams over the next moth will determine who the division champ is, as this is clearly still up for grabs.

And the Cardinals are not the only ones feeling the excitement of catching up. New York has now taken 2 straight from Boston to pull them back within 6 games behind the Sox and are currently leading 2-0 in today's game. The Phils have taken 3 straight from the Mets and now only sit 3 games behind them and are also winning 5-3. Also, the Padres have won their last 3 games from the D-backs and are now tied atop the NL West (or are in first if you go by their percentage).

This is by far, one of the most exciting years of playoff races that I can remember. Almost every day I have several games I would love to watch, but instead have to settle for box scores. This is definitely what September should be all about.

Tonight the Cardinals take on Houston for the rubber match in this 3 game set. Getting out of tonight with a win and therefore going 2-1 in this series would be huge.  I can't state enough how important it is for the Cardinals to simply just to win each series as it comes.  Sweeping a team would be a bonus, but just winning each series should be more than enough to propel us to first in this division of .500 ball teams.

Of course I always love for the Cubs to lose regardless, but if you look at the standings, the ideal was probably for the Brewers to win 2 of 3 games.  If that happens and the Cardinals win tonight, then that means we would remain 1/2 behind the Brewers and be just 1 game back of the Cubs.  Either of those teams sweeping would not have been as good for us in the standings.

The Cardinals are currently all tied up 1-1 with the 'Stros and as I watch them, I'll continue to keep one eye on the other games to see who just might be our competition in the postseason.  That's right....our competition.  I still feel this division is ours for the taking and will continue to feel that way until one of the other teams wants to prove me otherwise.

Go Cardinals!

Wanting a Brew Crew win,

Tiffany

I talked yesterday about how the Cardinals don´t need to win every game the rest of the season, but need to concentrate on winning each series that they play.  They have now won 4 out of their last 5 series.

However, after dropping the first game in this series to Atlanta, they are now in danger of losing another series.  They would have to win both of these next two games vs. the Braves and to do that, they have to go through Tim Hudson.

Hudson, a former 20·game winner, as part of the Big 3 in Oakland, has never really hit his stride in a Brave uniform.....until this year.  He leads the league with 15 wins and is 6th in ERA.  He´s one place behind his teammate John Smoltz, who.....oh yeah.....we faced last night.  Honestly though, I think Hudson´s most impressive stat is that he´s only allowed 5 home runs all season.  Almost every one of our relievers either has that many or are well on their way there.  And our starters?  They had that many probably in May sometime.

Still, our offense is good with everybody is on and lately they have seemed to be clicking.  The key to this game will be two things.  The two things that we have not the last two games.  The first is a solid outing by our starter.  Tonight it´s Joel Piñeiro.  If he can keep us in it, I´m confident that our offense will be able to get to Hudson. 

And two, the defense.  All of the errors the past two days have really hurt the Redbirds.  They will need to regain their defensive ability in order to not let the game get out of hand.  They have eight errors the past two games.  EIGHT.  That´s ridiculous.  For a team that has the likes of Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, this shouldn´t be happening.  And those eight errors aren´t even including the four passed balls that Yadi had.  Are you kidding me?

Game time in 2 minutes,

Tiffany

I can´t ever say that I´m happy about a loss, especially by 8 runs.......however, I am willing to look past it.  It´s obvious the Cardinals aren´t going to win every one of their games from here on out.  To make up the ground in the central, they need to concentrate on winning each series.  They´ve been rather successful at this lately and I hoping it stays that way.  So though we lost last night, I am content in knowing that we got the series win against Florida.

Our next series begins tonight and it´s against Atlanta.  This is no easy task because the first two pitchers we have to face are John Smoltz and Tim Hudson.  Both can be very, very dominant pitchers when they are on, have ERAs just barely over 3 and are on club that is also fighting for it´s life to have a playoff spot.  The Cardinals are 3 games behind the division leading Cubs (it pains me to say that) and the Braves are 3 back of the Wild Card, currently led by the Pads.

I stayed up to watch this first game of Wells vs. Smoltz, but it´s currently on a rain delay.  The Cubs and the Brewers are on way too late, so I guess I´m going to have to catch up on all of my baseball tomorrow.

The Crew and Cubbies switch up opponents tonight, so that the Brewers are now taking on the Giants and the Cubs move on to the D·backs.  Hopefully, the West leading Arizona can squash the Cubs and give us a chance to gain a couple of games on them.

But in order to do that, we have to have to take at least 2 of 3 from Atlanta.  And in order to do that, we need to play tonight.  If we get rained out again, I don´t know when it would get made up.  We only have one more off day and it´s Monday, when the Braves are playing the Marlins.  So maybe at the end of the season.  But I´m getting ahead of myself because perhaps it won´t get rained out at all.

Time to take on Atlanta,

Tiffany

Last night's game was so great. The Cardinals continue to play hard, old-fashioned, scrappy baseball like they've done ever since I can remember. Even though i don't think it's a good habit to continue to fall behind in order to get a come-from-behind win, that's two in a row now that the Cards have done just that. And to be honest, they do feel pretty good. Really, as long as it doesn't happen every game, it can be a good thing. It's a testament to a team that doesn't give up, who plays a hard 9 ever game and expects good things to happen no matter who is at the plate or who is pitching. Everyone particpates. Everyone makes things happen.

Last night a lot of guys made things happen. It's getting to the point that it's hard to even know who to pinpoint as being the key to the game.  So I figured I would just take it by category.

Offense

Several guys contributed here. 

• Albert Pujols´ hit was the spark plug that started it all.  It was his 5th straight home run per game.  He continues his torrid hitting during this important stretch run of the season.
• Molina is a completely different hitter this season.  Last year he hit .216 for the whole season with only 4 home runs. Then in the postseason, he turned it up, getting better with each series.  He ended up hitting .412 in the World Series against Detroit.  Overall, he hit .358 for the whole postseason, with 6 extra·base hits, including 2 home runs.  One of those home runs, of course, was the game winner that sent us to the Series in the first place.  This year he´s right back there, hitting .282 and already has four home runs, including his first multi·homer game.  Last night he not only hit 4th home run of the season, he hit the double that tied it up.  Very clutch.
• Jimmy Edmonds.  What can you say about him?  It seems like he´s either striking out or hitting a home run.  But he has come up at some very big points in his tenure with the Cardinals.  And tonight was yet again one of those times.  He came in as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning, and corked a ball deep to the outfield stands for the eventual game·winning RBI.

Defense

• Ryan Ludwick made a really nice catch against the wall in left.  Last year we had Duncan out there, who couldn´t catch a fly ball in a bathtub and now we have this amazing surplus of outfieldes.  First Ducan´s fielding has improved a ton.  He still doesn´t look the most graceful, but he catches almost everything he can get to now.  Then you have Ankiel´s arm, which he has already showcased quite a bit.  And then Ludwick.  All viable options.  You add that to Encarnacion, Edmonds, Taguchi and other guys in the system like Rodriguez or Schumaker and we´re sitting pretty well.  Someone´s likely to get traded next season, if not before the deadline.
• Ryan Franklin did something unusual.  He gave up runs.  That doesn´t happen very often and his 2.01 ERA proves it.  But he didn´t let it get out of hand.  He picked a guy off of first and got out of the inning.

Pitching

• A lot of people mocked the Braden Looper idea.  They said he was a lousy reliever and would make an even worse starter.  Yet, Looper has been one of the main staples of our rotation.  When other guys have been hurt long·term or have been out of sync for awhile, Looper has come through.  He´s one of two Cardinals with 10 or more wins and last night he provided another solid effort.  He went 6 innings, giving up 2 runs, striking out 5 and walking none.
• Izzy continues to be as good as he´s ever been.  He´s bounced back better than I could have ever hoped from surgery and last night he got his 25th save of the season.  He´s 4·0, with a 1.56 ERA and has only blown 2 saves all season.  This year when Izzy gets on the mound, I trust him, unlike last year when I would just cringe with fear.

So, with all that combined, it provided us with our 3rd win a row and a guarantee of a series win in Florida.  The Brewers lost, so we now sit a mere 2 games behind them.  However, those pesky Cubs won yet again, so that kept us at 3 back from first. place.

Tonight, however is a different story.  The Giants already beat the Cubs, so this is a huge chance to gain some ground.  All we need is a W for the series sweep and to only be back 2 games in the standings.  We´re counting on Anthony Reyes to make it happen for us.

Fish sweep,

Tiffany

I haven´t had a chance to watch the Cards game from yesterday yet, but I´ve watched some highlights and read the recap.

It´s nice that the Cardinals didn´t stay down after dropping the series at Chicago.  Instead, they came in fighting and won a come from behind game against the Marlins.  That has to provide some momentum for the Cards going into the next two games against the Fish.  And although the Marlins can be a scrappy bunch, the Cardinals are playing at home, where they have played well, especially lately.

I also noticed that Pujols went deep AGAIN.  That´s his 4th dinger in as many days and 29 on the year.  The bad news is that also for the 4th time he only got 1 RBI for his efforts.  Come on guys......you need to get on base ahead of Pujols.  With 4 home runs, the most RBIs that Pujols could have right now is 16 and the least is 4.  Somewhere in the middle would be nice, but instead he only has the minimum.

The young kids also continue to tear up the competition.  Brendan Ryan, playing in order to rest Scott Rolen, went 2 for 3 to raise his average to .349 and Ryan  Ludwick, who came in on the double switch, hit a 2·run shot for his 11th homer this year.  In just a little over 200 at·bats, Ludwick is the 3rd highest Cardinal in terms of home runs.  Ludwick´s home run was huge for several reasons.

• It came at the exact right time, in the 8th inning, when the Cardinals were running out of at·bats.
• He also did it with two outs and two strikes on him. We´re going to continue to need that kind of clutch hitting from him if the Cardinals are going to be a legitimate post·season threat.
• He made the Marlins paid dearly for their mistakes.  Juan E. should have been out at first for the last out of the inning.  Instead, an error by the Marlin shortstop allowed him to move to 3rd and kept the inning alive.  After base hits by Molina and Miles, Ludwick continued to pour salt on the wound by delivering the 2'2 pitch into the left field stands.

Also big props to Adam Wainwright.  He keeps the good stretch of pitching the last couple of weeks going by allowing only 2 runs in 6 innings.  He also had 7 Ks on the night.  Springer, Percival and Izzy combined for the last 3 scoreless innings.  And how good has this bullpen been?  Once, a huge question mark, the Cardinal bullpen has been a huge force in keeping opposing teams at bay.

The only thing that put a damper on this great day was that the Cubs and Brewers also won.  So the Cardinals remain 3 games back in this very tight division race.  A lot hinges on this next week of baseball.

Going for the series win tonight,

Tiffany

I think it was pretty universally acknowledged in Cardinal Nation that the Cards needed pull off at least a 5-2 road trip in order to still be in conention by the time the trip was over. It seemed a difficult, if not impossible task for two reasons. 1) We had not fared well on the road so far this year and 2) We would be playing the very two teams who had played well enough to be ahead of us in the division.

But the Cardinals came out of the gate with a startling urgency. With some of the younger players wanting to make a good impression and fighting for possible starting spots next year and the veterans of the club starting to turn it on, the Cardinals downed the Brewers in 3 straight games. After which, came our most hated rival, the Cubs. The Cubs squeaked by with the first two wins of the series, which meant that with a sweep we would be right back where we started. Following a rainout, however, the Cardinals came back and won a hard fought game against the Cubs, making it a 4-2 road trip. Not quite the 5-2 we were hoping for, but with the rainout, I'll certainly take it. It puts the Cardinals squarely in conention, sitting a measly 3 games back of the Brewers and the Cubs who are both tied for first.

But it's certainly far from over. As the Astros found out last year around this time, it's easier to hold a team off than to catch them. Not to mention we are chasing two teams, which, obviously, is much harder than chasing just 1. Still, the teams we are chasing are having a terrible August that might just continue long enough to get us into the lead. So far in August the Cubs are 7-11, the Brewers are 6-12 and the Cardinals are 9-9. Just by plaing .500 ball we are looking good compared to the other two teams. Just think where we'd be if we had played good against those last place teams. And even though the Cardinals are .500 in August, they're starting to turn it on as of late. In the last two weeks, they are 9·4 and have won 3 out of 4 series. And that´s basically how we have to get back in this thing......winning one series at a time.

We close out the month with the Marlins, the Braves and the Astros. Of those teams, only the Braves are playing .500 ball. Florida and Houston are both 13 games under, so hopefully we win both of those series, at least. Especially if our big guys keep producing.

In his last 7 games, Pujols is hitting .464 with 4 walks, 4 home runs, 5 RBI and 9 runs. The only thing bad here is that he only has 5 ribbies on 4 homers. That´s way too many solo shots. Guys need to be getting on base ahead of him, so that he can really do some damage. He´s had home runs in his last 3 games.

In his last 7 games, Rolen is hitting .367, with 5 extra·base hits, including 1 homer and 6 RBI. Who is this guy? Rolen´s really turned it on in the last week or so. I hope there´s more where this came from.

In his last 7 games, Edmonds is hitting .286, has 3 extra·base hits, including one home run, 7 RBI and 3 runs. And .286 is actually down for him. He´s hitting .371 for the month of August and slugging .474. That´s pretty good for a guy who was hitting a measly .250 in July and slugging a mere .143. If these guys keep this up and really start to get in the groove at the same time, it should be a good rest of the month.

Ankiel also went deep last night for his 4th home run since his August 9th call·up. That´s 4 dingers in 9 games for a .750 slugging percentage. And he´s hitting .313 to boot. I certainly don´t expect him to keep hitting home runs at this pace, but it´s provided some nice pop in the outfield for now. And best of all is his arm. I´ve stated for a long time that we really need another good arm in the outfield. Edmonds defense in center is great and he can definitely throw guys out, but when he´s not in the line·up, our outfield seriously lacks the ability to throw guys out at the plate or anywhere else for that matter. But after Ankiel gunned Ryan Theriot out at 3rd yesterday, more teams are going to be careful running on him. It´s sort of like Molina. Your reputation takes away half of would·be base runners.

Only 3 games out,

Tiffany

The rain cleared and the game will be finished.  Another scary moment in 8th with two aboard and one out, but Izzy made some good pitches and got out of it with a double play.

Now, it´s the bottom of the 9th and we are just 3 outs away from being 3 games out of first place.  No one would have believed it just a few short weeks ago.  Now we just need a loss from the Brewers to go with it.

Just 3 outs to go boys,

Tiffany

(EDIT: They did it!  And this means that we are now squarely in the middle of this pennant race!  More commentary to come tomorrow.)

The Cardinals have not been behind in this game, yet I am quite nervous.  As I stated a couple of posts ago, things just seem to have a way of going wrong when we´re playing in Chicago.

It seemed things were going to go good tonight from the start with first·time leadoff hitter Brendan Ryan and Rick Ankiel getting on base in quick fashion.  Rolen completed the rally with a double, getting the Cards off to a 2·0 start.  After that, the Cardinals always stayed tied or ahead.

Rolen has had a fantastic night going 3 for 4 and knocking in the first 3 Cardinal runs.  That combined with solo shots by Pujols and then Ankiel, just last inning.  The Cubs have gone deep a couple of times themselves, but have also let numerous opportunities escape them, which is why the Cardinals are still ahead in this ballgame.

There has been a few tight spots, but the Cardinal pitching has been good enough to keep their offense in this game.  The 6th inning felt more like the 9th inning.  A home run by Derrek Lee and another runner getting to 3rd got me kind of nervous.  But after walking a runner, Ryan Franklin wiggled out of the jam and I was able to breathe again.

The rain that was predictd again today finally just started coming down, so the game is now paused in the middle of the 7th.  The Cardinals are up two runs and are likely to win this game no matter what happens.  But I would just as soon have the game called and get it in the books.  That would be an extra day of rest for some of your relievers instead of having to go through the entire pitching staff.

Being 3 games out would be a great position to be in and we are extremely close to having that happen.

2 1/2 innings to be 3 out,

Tiffany