I don't have a lot of time right now, so this will have to be quick.  I left Spain Tuesday morning and spent the night in France.  Today, I have travelled through 3 countries.  Gotta love Europe!  It's like driving through 3 states in the U.S.  Anyway, I will be out of town for over a week on a video shoot for work.  So, I will try my best to keep up with the games, but the commentary will most likely be few and far between.

But, feel free to leave comments, if something happens that I should be informed about.  I won't have the time I would like to keep up on all the MLB, so I will check this and leave it up to you all to help me out.

See ya in a week or so,
Tiffany

I stand corrected.  Marquis did more than just "keep us in the game," as I previously stated he would.  He pitched a great game, going 7 innings, giving up just 1 earned run.  Unfortunately, he didn't get the run support that I said he would need.  My apologies to Jason.  Great pitching.  You deserve the win.

Oswalt gave up twice as many hits, but surrendered no runs.  I'm pretty surprised they took Oswalt out so early, but I guess they wanted the pinch hitter.  Now that Oswalt's out, we need to start scoring.  We have 3 innings and plenty of at-bats left to do that in.

Runs, runs, runs,

Tiffany

I don't often dwell on too much in my blog that doesn't deal with baseball in some way, but I will today, because I think that it is important.  As everyone knows, today we are celebrating Memorial Day, a day of remembering and honoring those who have died serving our country.  While we always remember and are grateful to those from previous wars, the current Iraq war definitely stands out in front in many of our minds.  Whenever I hear reports about an American casualty, I always think about where they might be from and of their family and friends.  So, even if only a few people read this blog, I want to set aside this part of it, to honor those who have laid down their life for our country.

And, I also want to thank all of the armed forces currently serving.  Some are Stateside, some are in Iraq or other places around the world.  The drive they possess to serve their country is the reason we are a free nation, because it is the same drive that generations before them possessed when they were fighting for our freedom.  I have known many soldiers over the years and not one of them regrets their service time or the time spent in Iraq.  Instead, they are all proud to have served and to have given to their country.  And, I am proud of them.

Thanks for letting me give you my Memorial Day spiel. :)  On to baseball....

If I wasn't the first one to mention Bonds hitting homer 715 in a post, I was certainly in the first few.  But, I still didn't get a mention on the MLBlogs Bonds page.  Go figure.  Probably because I didn't dedicate a whole post to it; instead just mentioning it in passing.  But, that's alright.  I don't think I need to waste a whole post on Bonds.  I've said it a million times.  I wish he would just go away.

On to a subject I like talking about much, much more.  The St. Louis Cardinals.  They suffered two losses at the hands of the reigning NL West Champs, the San Diego Padres.  You always hate to lose a series, but I guess eventually it has to happen.  It's been quite some time since it last happened.  Even if the Padres repeat as champs, they don't scare me in the slightest.  We would have no problem taking them again in the NLDS.

The team we are playing next, however, has scared me a lot in the past.  Both in '04 when we beat them to advance and '05 when we did not, I was scared to death the entire series.  There were a lot of strikeouts, a lot of big plays, walk off hits and homers and in general....just a lot of drama.  And the reason for a lot of my anxiety has to do with a man by the name of Roy Oswalt.  The same Roy Oswalt who is on the mound tonight for the Houston Astros.

Now, overall, the 'Stros aren't nearly as frightening as they once were.  Their team is  aging and aren't the competitors they once were.  Not to mention, their big star, Roger Clemens is semi-retired, not sure if he's going to return to baseball or if he does return to what team.  (Side note:  My money is on him returning, but I'm not sure what team I see him returning to.)  I think that for the Astros to even have a chance this year Clemens would have to return.

They are miles behind the first place Cardinals and this year they are even contending with the newly competitive Cincinnati Reds for 2nd place and a possible wild card spot.  (I guess you could throw the Brewers into the mix temporarily, but don't expect them to keep their current pace.)  Although, I'm staying with my original prediction that the wild card will go to either the Braves or Mets, whichever team falls to 2nd place in the East.

Nevertheless, these are the Houston Astros.  They are one of the great Central division rivals we have had over the years.  Anybody who has talked to me for 2 seconds or who has read the statement at the top of my blog knows my loathing for the Chicago Cubs.  In the past, they had been a decent rival and certainly one that was fun to hate.  But, in the last couple of years, they are barely even making a sound and can barely be considered a "rival" anymore.  The Astros and us, however, have been rivals, going back and forth in wins and all along playing some good baseball.

Every Cardinal fan can surely tell you where they were when Albert Pujols jacked one a mile out of the park against the so-called "Lights Out Lidge" in the NLCS to give us one more day of life and the series back to Busch for one last game.

So, I always look forward to a series against the Astros.  And, I certainly always look forward to a series at home.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that tonight doesn't look good for us when you read Oswalt vs. Marquis.  It doesn't help matters that Houston won both of the 2 game series we played against them earlier this year.

Oswalt's line is pretty average, (5-3, 3.36 ERA), but we all know what he is capable of.  In his last 3 starts, he's give up only 6 runs in over 20 innings of work and still has taken the loss or no-decision each time.  And, of course he dominated the Cardinals in last year's NLCS.  2 of their wins came with him on the mound.  But, he wasn't that commanding during the regular season.  He went 1-2 against the Redbirds during the season with a 5.21 ERA.

So far this year, Marquis isn't looking too great with his 5.12 ERA.  But, as he's shown in recent starts, especially his most recent start, he can keep us in the ballgame.  He may require a lot of run support, but if you give it to him, he can get the job done.

The question is, will he get the needed run support against Roy Oswalt tonight?  A luxury of being a Cardinal fan is you never have to go into a game thinking you can't win.  You may think the odds aren't in your favor or that it will be a tough match, but you know that you have the potential to when any game, no matter who the opponent or who the pitcher.  The Cardinal bats are so lethal that when you guard against one guy or one style of play, the Cards can attack from a different area.

So, of course, I still fully expect a Cardinal win tonight.  So, let's get to it.  We have a little revenge to take care of tonight.

In other news, the Chicago Cubbies made a late inning gasp for breath last night against the hard hitting Atlanta Braves.  The Braves hit the ball out of the park a the rate of a homer an inning, but Chicago kept themselves within striking distance.  They evened up a 4 run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to push the game to extras.  But, in the top of 11th, the Braves added one run and it would be all Atlanta would need.  Chicago did nothing in their half of the frame.

That means another loss for the Cubs and so the score still is:

Albert - 24        Cubs - 18

Number 25 off of Oswalt tonight? (Or Lidge??)

Tiffany

I think the world might be caving in.

The Cubs were losing 12-9 in the bottom of the ninth and they scored four runs to push the game into extra innings.

Bonds also just went deep for 715 to pass Babe Ruth.

San Diego just loaded the bases.

What is going on??  I don't like it.

Tiffany

The Cardinals/Padres game is only in the 5th inning, but they've managed to pack a lot of drama in already.

You knew it was going to be one of those games right away when Jake Peavy struck out Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen both in the first inning to strand a runner on 3rd.  Since, then each of them has struck out AGAIN.  This marks the first time that Pujols has struck out twice in the same game ALL YEAR. 

So, that just shows you how good Peavy is.  He's already struck out 6 in just 4 innings of work.  Of course, he was that good and better in his last start and took the loss. (16 strikeouts in 7 innings against the Braves.)  So, let's hope that trend continues today.

Mulder held his own the first 3 innings.  But, here in the 4th, the Padres took him deep back to back and now it's 2-1 San Diego.

The one Cardinal run?  That's right.  A Juan Encarnacion home run.  In April, I would never have believed I would see a day that Pujols and Rolen would combine for 4 strikeouts and Encarnacion would go deep.  Not to mention the struggling Molina got a base hit.  So, hopefully, the Cardinals can either get their big guys going or get some more from their bottom of the order guys because Peavy is certainly on today.

I think my favorite play so far though came in the bottom of the first.  With runners on first and third and only one out, Castilla hit a grounder to Pujols.  Pujols came home to Molina where he got blasted by Mike Cameron.  I'll post a picture once I can find one.  Molina managed to hold on to the ball somehow and got the out.  Maybe Barrett should take notes on how a catcher makes the play, gets hit and doesn't thrown a temper tantrum when he gets run over.

Since I've written this, the Cardinals have scored two more runs off an RBI single by Eckstein and one by Rodriguez and still have 2 runners on.  We should be able to get at least a couple more from this.

Tiffany

P.S.  Make that no runners on.  Pujols just went deep. 6-2 Cards.  That makes it:

Pujols homers - 24        Cubs wins - 18

The Cardinals/Padres game is only heading into the 5th inning, but they've managed to pack a lot of drama in already.

You knew it was going to be one of those games right away when Jake Peavy struck out Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen both in the first inning to strand a runner on 3rd.  Since, then each of them has struck out AGAIN.  This marks the first time that Pujols has struck out twice in the same game ALL YEAR. 

So, that just shows you how good Peavy is.  He's already struck out 6 in just 4 innings of work.  Of course, he was that good and better in his last start and took the loss. (16 strikeouts in 7 innings against the Braves.)  So, let's hope that trend continues today.

Mulder held his own the first 3 innings.  But, here in the 4th, the Padres took him deep back to back and now it's 2-1 San Diego.

The one Cardinal run?  That's right.  A Juan Encarnacion home run.  In April, I would never have believed I would see a day that Pujols and Rolen would combine for 4 strikeouts and Encarnacion would go deep.  Not to mention the struggling Molina got a base hit.  So, hopefully, the Cardinals can either get their big guys going or get some more from their bottom of the order guys because Peavy is certainly on today.

I think my favorite play so far though came in the bottom of the first.  With runners on first and third and only one out, Castilla hit a grounder to Pujols.  Pujols came home to Molina where he got blasted by Mike Cameron.  I'll post a picture once I can find one.  Molina managed to hold on to the ball somehow and got the out.  Maybe Barrett should take notes on how a catcher makes the play, gets hit and doesn't thrown a temper tantrum when he gets run over.

Since I've written this, the Cardinals have scored two more runs off an RBI single by Eckstein and one by Rodriguez and still have 2 runners on.  We should be able to get at least a couple more from this.

Tiffany

I've been quite busy this weekend and obviously away from the blog.  I'm preparing to go out of town for work.

In my absence the Cardinals have played two games against the San Diego Padres, losing the first and winning the 2nd.  Also, in my absence, players (and a coach) were fined in the Cubs/W. Sox scuffle.  Most notably, Barrett got suspended 10 games.  I hope they don't reduce it.  And, of course, you have to make mention that the Royals won a game against the Yanks.  So, there you go.

Back to the Cardinals.

In the loss, the Cards got stomped 7-1.  This was due more to great Padres defense than lack of Cards hitting.  The Padres made some very good plays all around the diamond.  And, clearly Suppan was far from sharp.  He surrended 7 runs in just 6 innings, not to mention 3 homers.

Luckily, that game was quickly put behind us and the Redbirds came out yesterday and won 4-3 behind Sidney Ponson.  And this guy is having quite an interesting season.  He's now 4-0, the only Cardinals starter to not have suffered a loss.  And, he's our number 5 guy.  Of course, he can't take a lot of credit for his wins.  He's never gone more than 6 2/3 and most of the time going a lot less than that.  He gives up his share of runs, but has either escaped with a no-decision or gotten the win through a lot of help from the bullpen.  He can take all the credit for his hitting though.  He's batting a ridiculous .375 with a even more ridiculous .500 on base percentage.  But, remember the stat for innings pitched?  Yeah, he's only had 8 at bats.

And of course, major props to Yadier Molina for ending the game on a pickoff throw.  You think runners would learn by now, wouldn't you?

I'm currently watching tonight's game against the Padres and there's been a lot of good stuff so far.  So, I'm sure another post isn't too far behind.

In the meantime......go Redbirds.

Tiffany

The old adage is, "Good teams will find a way to win.  Bad teams will find a way to lose."

Right now, the Tigers are the definition of that "good team."  They are, quite frankly, the hottest team in baseball.  The Royals are.....well....not.  And as the best team in baseball plays a series against the worst team in baseball, there have been some interesting games.

Today was no different

After the Tigers put up a 0 in their half of the first, the Royals countered by putting up 6 in their half of the frame.  More than half of these runs came through back to back to back jacks by their 5-6-7 guys.  This would allow most teams to breathe a sigh of relief. 

But, not the Royals.

They had lost their last 12 games and the Tigers were riding a 5 game winning streak as well as one win away from playing .700 ball.  And, they also saw a similiar lead quickly evaporate in the 2nd game of this very series.  That game they were up 4-0 at one point and ended up dropping the game 8-5.

So, even after being up 6-0 every Royals fan knew that they were a long way from being out of the woods.  And sure enough, The Tigers slowly started climbing back.  They started by cutting KC's lead in half in the top of the 2nd.  They would add 5 more runs on top of that in the next 6 innings to have 8 runs at the end of 8.  KC would muster one run in 4th and one more in the 6th to have a tie ball game at the end of 8.

In the top of the 9th, Detroit would take the lead for the first time this game by getting 5 hits; 3 of them homers to make it 13-8.  KC threatened with a couple of baserunners, but were unable to plate any.

Total homers

KC (4) - Graffanino, Berroa, Mientkiewicz and German

Detroit (4) - Thames (2), Monroe, Rodriquez

This marks the 2nd time in 3 days that KC has hit 4 home runs and still lost.  It shows that home runs don't win games and they certainly don't win championships.  At least not home runs alone.  It takes more than that.

It's the same reason why I'm against a salary cap in baseball.  Everybody complains about the Yankees that they can buy whoever they want.  Now, I really like the Yankees, but do you seem them winning the championship every year?  Nope.  Because, even if you have the best team on paper, it doesn't mean you're going to win it all.

This is also why I get worried when the Cardinals seem to be getting too dependent on an Albert Pujols home run.  If everyone isn't participating, you aren't going to win.

I asked in an earlier post what would it take for the Cardinals to win it all.  I pointed out that for 2 straight years we had the best team in baseball.  So, the best record doesn't equate championships.

And the Royals should serve as warning that a lot of flashy home runs don't necessarily even will the game, let alone a series or even the World Series.  It's about more than that.  It's about a team that depends on each other and knows that when one person is down, someone else will pick them up.  It's about small ball, hit and running, squeeze plays and excuting the easy plays.

The Royals don't seem to be doing a lot of these things and don't seem to be playing a lot of "team ball" right now.

I hope the Cardinals take note of that and stay consistent in their team effort.  If they do, maybe this will be our year.

Speaking of the Cardinals, we play tomorrow agains the San Diego Padres.  Suppan will be first up for the 'Birds, coming off a win in his last start.  It sure would be nice to close out this road trip with a sweep, or at the very least, the series win.

Tiffany

Off day today.  That means I am getting major laundry done and I will also probably check in on the early games throughout the evening.  Those would include:

• Tigers/Royals - The Tigers go for their 6 straight win, while KC goes for their 13th straight loss.  Guess their "players only meeting," didn't solve any problems.
• Phillies/Mets - The Mets will try to distance themselves even more from the 2nd place Philliess.  They're currently 5 games up from the Phils, who are tied with the Atlanta Braves.
• Nationals/Astros - Houston and the Nats are 6 and 11 games back, respectively, and at this point, just trying to stay afloat until the All-Star break.

Another interesting fact.  4 teams are playing .600 ball right now and the Redbirds are one of them!  One team, the Detroit Tigers, are one win away from playing .700 ball.  And, they will likely achieve that tonight playing the Royals.  Very impressive, even if it is early in the season.  I look forward to playing them next month.

.500 ball is currently good enough for first place in the AL West.  Last year, 2 games over that was what it took to make an NL West champ (the Padres), but this year a team playing .506 ball would be in last place there.  Arizona is tearing up the division.

What happens with your Cy Young pitcher can't make his scheduled start?  Fill in with pitchers who can pitch AND hit.

Pitcher Jason Marquis hit a triple in a pinch hit at-bat in the 3rd inning.

Pitcher Adam Wainwright hit a home run in the 5th inning.

Pitcher Braden Looper hit a double in the 9th inning.

And, we currently have a 10-4 lead in the 9th and hopefully still adding to it.  All is well.

Good-hitting pitchers are awesome,

Tiffany

I was just finishing up my post about yesterday's game and I lost it.  I hate that.  Tonight's game has already started because the Cards are playing early (yay!), so I will briefly sum up what I said in the post.

Basically, if you look at this game compared to Monday's game that we dropped to the Giants, there was a huge difference.  During Monday's game we continually frustrated any positive attempts that had been made.  Hitting into double plays, botching hit and runs, not taking advantage when we could.

Yesterday was the complete opposite.  We stacked up on the hits and took major advantage with the help San Fran gave us in the way of walks and errors.  When a team makes mistakes like that, it is key to make something happen.  You never know when you might get another chance.

And, of course Pujols went deep.  Number 23!  And, Bonds.....well, he hit nada out of the park.

The only thing that bothers me in our wins lately is that it seems that we need Pujols to start the scoring.  If he's having an off night, we don't win as often.  I understand he's a great player, but when he's on, it seems the other guys are also.  It would be nice if they were on when he has a bad night.  Luckily for us, he's Pujols and doesn't have too many bad nights.

So, we've now hit 30 wins.

I turned the game on a little late, so I have no idea why Thompson is starting tonight instead of Carpetner.  Hopefully, it's nothing serious and just the flu or something.  But, I'm going to see if I can find out.  (EDIT: I just found out that he has an inflamed something on his right side.  Apparently, he thinks he will be ok, but until they can find out more, Thompson gets the start tonight.  He definitely has big shoes to fill, but I think he's up for it.)

And, because I decided I can't be too mean to the Royals (I really do like them), I'm going to start playing Pujols vs. the Cubbies instead.  So, tonight's score:

Pujols - 23     Cubs - 18

Also, a BIG happy birthday to my niece who is 3 today.  I miss her tons and wish I was there to help her celebrate.

Well, we're losing so far tonight, so I better go start cheering harder.

Number 24 for Pujols,

Tiffany

Hmmmm.  Last night's game against the Giants was awful.  We were spoiled, playing the Royals, getting fat off of KC pitching, errors and lack of scoring.  Then, we go to San Francisco and get killed.

The worst part of the game, of course, is that we took away about every scoring opportunity we had away from ourselves.  After the first few innings, I had a feeling we were not going to be winning this game.  Not because the Giants were winning.  In fact, we knocked in the first run and we were tied until the 5th.  Their big inning didn't come until the 8th and by that point, we had already removed ourselves from this game.

It started in the first inning.  David Eckstein wiggled himself out of an 0-2 count by taking a couple of balls, fouling a couple more off and eventually getting hit by the pitch.  The next batter, Larry Bigbie grounded into a double play.  Granted, Pujols struck out in the next at-bat.  But, Rolen, now leading off the 2nd, hit a double.  If the double play hadn't happened, you would have that double possibly scoring Eckstein from first.

If that only happened once, we'd be fine.  But, this kind of play happened again and again, the entire ballgame.  We'd get a couple of guys on and then hit a live drive straight at the first baseman.  Instant double play.

Bigbie was the culprit again later in the game when he botched a hit and run play.  That is not going to help him with LaRussa who seems to consider the hit and run his bread and butter.  Eckstein barreled hard into 2nd, but with no contact made, it turned a hit and run play into a strike 'em out, throw 'em out.  We all know how great Matheny's arm is after all.

So, it's not that we didn't have opportunities.  We just didn't cash in on any of them.  7 guys were left stranded throughout the night and that doesn't count the guys who were erased on double plays or botched hit and run plays.  We had eight hits, the same amount that the Giants had and were playing pretty even with them for awhile.  Then, in the 8th inning, they unloaded on our relief guys, Tyler Johnson and Braden Looper.  They strung together walks, hits, a sac fly and eventually a home run to put up 6 runs for the inning.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, couldn't chase Jamey Wright, until the 9th inning.  Wright pitched an incredible game, going 8 strong innings and only giving up 1 run.  He only struck out 4, but he induced outs when he needed them, especially ground ball outs and he kept the Cardinals heavy lineup in the park.

Speaking of which, did you know that Albert Pujols has never homered at AT&T Park?  I didn't know that until I read this article today.  If you didn't already know, I love baseball stats, so of course I immediately had to go find which park Albert has hit the most home runs in.  I was pretty sure I already knew because I knew he had hit more home runs in this park than any other visiting player.  And, it was the park I was thinking of.  Anyone else care to take a guess at it?  I'll let you know tomorrow if you're right.  This is the series that Pujols needs to break that streak.  I'd really like to see him go yard at least once during this series.

That's all the bad news from yesterday.  The good news is that Bonds didn't homer.  Inevitably, will he pass Ruth?  Of course.  But, every day he doesn't, means it's less likely that he will pass Aaron, which ultimately is more important to me.  It's pretty obvious that Bonds will not return next year as a positon player.  He could barely bend down to try to get a ball that Pujols drilled past him yesterday.  But, he could always return as a DH.

Tonight's game worries me a little on the Bonds home run front.  Jason Marquis is going to the hill for us.  He and his 5-4 record have already given up 10 homers this year.  (Last year, he was tied for ninth for giving up the most homers in the NL.)  But, I'm hoping he can keep Bonds this side of the fence.  Although, I've decided that when he does go to 715, I hope it's at home and I hope it goes to McCovey cove.  I think the scramble for that ball could become quite interesting.

We will be going against Morris tonight, which is definitely sad.  Matty was a Cardinal forever and did a lot of great things as a Cardinal.  Even though he was struggling at the end of his time with us, I was never excited about trading him.  Still, now that he's a Giant, I have to face the fact that he is definitely a hittable pitcher.  Sure, he has a fantastic game now and then, (as he did when he was a Redbird and as he did in his previous start), but, overall, he gives up a lot of runs.  And, it's important that this continues tomorrow.  We really need to win the 2nd game to even this series out.  We were playing .500 ball away going into the KC Series.  We swept them and raised our away average.  So, taking 2 of 3 from the Giants would be another step to keep improving that record.

But, I predict a slugfest for one or maybe even both teams tonight.  With pitchers as up and down as Jason Marquis and Matt Morris are, the chances of both of them having an "on" night on the same night while facing each other seem rather slim.

Congratulations to the Tigers for being the first team to reach 30 wins.  Hopefully, we'll follow suit tonight.

And, for those of you keeping score at home, the Royals lost again yesterday.  So, the score remains:

Pujols homers - 22

Royals wins - 10

No homers for Bonds,

Tiffany

I wrote this a long time ago with the intention of posting it on an off day and kept forgetting.  So, here it is now, slightly revamped.  I am mostly posting it (even if it isn't as applicable now), to hear your opinion about the question at the bottom.

My original point was to show why I thought the Cardinals were more than capable of winning 100 games this year for the 3rd straight year.  This is less than a hard feat to believe now than it was at the beginning of the year, with the Cards already having racked up 29 wins.  With 43 games left to the "halfway point" of All-Star break, all the Redbirds would have to do is play .500 ball (which they are currently playing way over) to win 21 and be at 50 games....halfway to 50.

Still, there are less games after the break than before, so the Cardinals would have to win the 2nd 50 in less games.  I still think this is not only possible, but pretty probable.

I read a lot of articles during Spring Training and even after the season started that declared there would be no way that the Cardinals would win 100 games again this year, as they did in 2005 and 2004.  Fellow blogger and Cardinals beat writer, Matthew Leach says it won't happen and ESPN predicts it's not likely.

So, in case already having 29 wins in only 44 games still hasn't convinced some of you; here is the post I wrote the first week of the season.

Obviously, there are some big differences between this team and those of the past two years.  But, I don't believe those differences translate into more losses.  So, these are my thoughts on why I believe the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals will be a 100 win club again this season.

In no particular order:

• Starters - A couple of gold glovers and a couple that will be before their career is over.  It's like watching a highlight reel almos every time the Cardinals take the field.
• Depth - Of course everyone already knows the Cardinals starters are amazing, but what about the bench guys?  The depth of the Cardinals organization continutes to amaze me.  A team without depth will crumble after the All-Star break.  When you have guys like Luna, who can play multiple positions, get on base, hit homers and steal bases and doesn't get the everyday start.....that says something about the guys who are starting.
• Returning Players- There's been a lot of talk about the guys who are gone and the restructuring the outfield has gone through.  But, look at it this way.  The Cardinals had 6 All-Stars last year.  And all 6 are back.  6 guys who went through the ups and downs of last season and are ready to lead the new guys to a championship.
• Pujols - Enough said.  The guy ranks in the top 5 among active players in batting average, slugging and on base percentage.  Last year alone, he ranked 1 or 2 in all of those categories, plus runs, hits and total bases among players in the NL.  He hits homers like it's nothing.  The guy's a machine.
• Pitching/Rotation - Cards pitchers ranked number 1 in ERA and wins last year among NL teams.  And, while there has been a bullpen revamping, you're essentially looking at the same starting rotation.  The exception is Ponson instead of Morris and from the stats so far this year, it doesn't appear to matter.  (But, I still love Matty!)  We came in number 2 in saves, with Izzy bringing in the bulk of those with 39.

Of course the Cardinals have had all of these things before and you could even argue, they had more.  On paper the Cardinals have looked to have all the right pieces.  And, for two years straight they have had the best record in baseball, but the championship has somehow alluded them.

I would forfeit the 100 wins in a heartbeat if I could see a World Series championship brought to St. Louis.  But, I don't think that's necessary.  I think that we can easily see the Redbirds pull in another 100 wins and still win the World Series.  And, this is the year it can be done.

I think we finally have right combination of superstar power, determination, drive to win and aggressiveness that it takes to win it all.  But, as they say, "anything can happen in baseball," which is what makes the season so fun to watch.

But, enough of my opinion.  I'd like to hear if you agree or disagree and why.  And, mostly I want to hear what you think is the missing link (even after 100 wins) for the Cardinals to pull in the Championship?  Clearly, they are talented and are more than capable, but they have been both of these things the last two seasons.  What will it take?

Here's to another 100 wins and the World Series,

Tiffany

I'm so getting this shirt.

Thanks to everyone who came and read the liveblog as it was going on yesterday and to everyone who has come to read it after the fact today.  I noticed that yesterday (and today is on pace to be the same) I had about 3x as many hits as I had been averaging.  So, apparently people like to read live blogs.  My counter website recorded that I now have had 750+ total visitors to my site, but the counter you see on my site has only recorded barely 600.  So, I'm not sure why the discrepancy.

Anyway, the live blog was a lot of fun.  Reid did a fantasic job of the Royals side and I hope to do one again soon.  Is your team playing the Cardinals soon?  If so, let me know and we'll talk about doing a live blog.

I previously mentioned some things that happened around the league yesterday, but let me elaborate on a couple of them now that I have some time.

• The Cubs/Sox boxing match

I still haven't gotten to see the whole thing, because for some unknown reason, I am still being blocked by MLB.TV for yesterday's game.  That's right.....YESTERDAY'S GAME.  These games are supposed to be free of blackout restrictions shortly after the games are over, so whatever.  But, from the quick highlights that I saw, I was pretty amused.  A.J. was pretty worked up afterwards and was cracking me up.  I hope all the Cubs players are suspended indefinitely.  Maybe then they will lose.  Oh, wait.  They're already doing that.  Poor Cubbie fans. ;)

• Bonds hitting #714

First, here's the best post his home run that I've seen so far.  Second, I'm glad this part is over.  I know it won't happen, but I just want him to go away.  I mentioned in a post about Barry that on MLB's 'milestone tracker' page Barry was due to hit #715 against the Cardinals in the upcoming San Fran series.  It took him so long to get to 714, they have sinced moved back the estimation for 715 to May 26 vs. Colorado.  The fact remains though, that he could hit 715 at any time.  And, it very well could be against the Cardinals, but I hope it's not.  Clearly, he won't be able to DH against us, so we will see how many of the series he participates in.  I imagine all since he will want to break the record in front of a home crowd.  I watched the post game interview.  He said, "Now you all can go watch Albert Pujols."  Thanks, Barry.  We will.

• Minnesota/Milwaukee game

Both teams put up some high numbers with Minnesota coming out on top of the free-for-all.  Here's the line score from the game.

	Minnesota		6		0		0		5		1		0		1		2		1				16		15		1
	Milwaukee		2		0		0		2		0		0		0		3		3				10		13		3

16 runs on 15 hits for MN and 10 runs on 13 hits for Mil and 4 errors total.  Pretty unbelievable.  The even bigger fact is that Minnesota only hit one home run.  But, they had plenty of singles, sac flies and Milwaukee errors to eventually bang home 16 runs.  In addition, every Brewer pitcher used gave up at least one earned run.  That's a problem.

Last, but not least, the Cardinals/Royals.  As I'm sure most people know by now, we swept them.  That in itself is not a big accomplishment, because as one astute Cardinal fan pointed out....Albert Pujols has more home runs than the Royals have wins.  (22 Pujols homers to 10 wins.)  I enjoy this stat so much that I think it may become a regular feature around here.

Regardless, we swept them and played some good baseball along the way.  We also played some not-so-good baseball, but since we won, I'll skip that part.  Pujols went deep in all 3 games.  The thing with Pujols is that I try to talk about other guys a lot because everyone contributes and plays hard and everyone else talks enough about Pujols, but you can't help it.  The guy is amazing and his numbers beg to be talked about.  He is literally crushing everyone in the home run and RBI categories.

The lineup was also a bit unorthodox for this 3rd game of the series.  According to the Royal announcers yesterday, even though Spiezio was DH-ing for the 2nd straight day, LaRussa had promised a "surprise DH" in the lineup today.  Well, it was certainly a surprise to me.  I had been gone and hadn't even read about Chris Duncan's callup, so it was quite a surprise when I turned on the game and saw he was in the lineup.

And, he came through with a home run in the 5th.  That was after Pujols jacked his 22nd homer of the year and before Luna also went deep.  Edmonds was also inches away from the long ball, but it was brought down at the fence by the left fielder.  He came through later, however, when they intentionally walked Pujols.  He hit a 2 RBI single to right field.  Later, the Royals would walk Pujols again.  I know he's a dangerous hitter, but the Cardinals are doing a great job of making pitchers pay when they dare to intentionally pass Albert.  But, they keep walking him.  I guess it's kind of a lose-lose situation for the opposing pitchers.

Going back to the unorthodox lineup for a minute.  This probably looked less like a typical Cardinal lineup than any game thus far.  Getting a day off were Eckstein (with Luna in his place) and Rolen (wiht Spiezio in his) and Encarnacion (with J-Rod in his), and Molina (with Bennett in his).  On the other side of the outfield was Bigbie and then, as already mentioned, Duncan was the DH.  Some of these reserves get more playing time than others with Spiezio filling in just about everywhere and Bennett playing more and more for Molina these days, but of what is considered the "typical Cardinal starters," the only ones in the lineup were Miles, Pujols and Edmonds.

Yet, a look at the ending score doesn't tell you that story.  Crushing the Royals 10-3 was more of how I felt a 1st place team vs. last place team score should look than the feeble numbers we put up yesterday.  It's also important to know that the RBIs for those 10 runs were passed around, with 7 different guys racking up at least one.

Soup turned out a solid outing to raise his performance to 5 wins and Flores and Thompson both contributed from the bullpen.

All in all, a good day, a good series to raise our record to 29-15.  We would have the best record in baseball if it wasn't for those pesky Detroit Tigers who keep winning.  They have won 9 of their last 10 and we remain a half game behind them in the standings.

I look forward to playing San Francisco tomorrow, where we will see several old familiar faces playing in Giants uniforms and where we will hopefully keep Bonds at bay.

I'm going to start a new post for the top of the 6th, since my first post was getting a bit on the long site.  See the previous post for innings 1-5.

Top of 6th

2:38- Pujols leads off the 6th.  I'd like to see him go long again tonight.  He hit number 20 last night.

2:40- Nice play by Blanco (Royals shortstop...it's his first game) to get Pujols.  He is practically playing on top of the 3rd baseman though.

2:44- Edmonds hits a sharp hit up the 1st base line.  Mientkiewicz made a nice stop, but then let the ball trickle away from him.  It's recorded as a hit for Edmonds.

2:45- Encarnacion grounds out to end the inning and now Bautista has gone 6 innings.  In his previous two starts, he went 6 and 5 innings respectively.  So we'll see how they treat him in the 7th.  He's pitching well and his spot isn't due up for awhile.  2-3-4 hitters lead off the 6th for KC.

Bottom of 6th

2:47- Grudz is up.  I don't normally say things like this because, as a girl, you always have to fight to prove you know something about baseball, but he has really really pretty eyes.  I'm sure all the guys will be totally disgusted. :)

2:49- After Grudz grounds out to Miles, Mientkiewicz gets a base hit.

2:50- The Royals closer is warming up in the bullpen and Tyler Johnson is warming up for the Redbirds.  Both pitchers are pitching well, but in a 1-0 game, I'm sure the managers will be taking no chances.  Bautista has hit the 100 pitch mark and Reyes 81.

2:52- GREAT play by Miles and good scoop by Eckstein to get Sanders to ground out into a fielder's choice.  And, now a pitching change.  Johnson is coming in.  If LaRussa is going to do this, I'm surprised he didn't do it before Sanders.  Maybe Johnson wasn't ready...I don't know how long he's been warming up.

2:54- Johnson throws a ball high and inside that gets away from Molina.  It's ruled as a passed ball and rightly so.  Molina should have had it.  That's his 3rd of the year.

2:56- Johnson totally freezes Stairs to strike him out and end the inning.  Way to go!

2:58- They're showing Baustia in the dugout, so it looks like he's gone.

Top of 7th

3:00- Sure enough, they brought Burgos in.

3:01- J-Rod hits a dribber back up the middle that Burgos can't feel cleanly, but Grudz is still able to get to it an gets Rodriquez out at first.

3:03- Burgos gets the next two and the Redbirds go down in order.  I love pitching duels, but I don't know that this one classifies as one, so much as a lack of hitting.  Probably not the game I should have chosen to live blog, eh?

3:04- Reid made a good point.  The announcers called Burgos the "former closer."  Twice.  I called him the closer earlier in my live blog.  So, who is their closer then?  I thought it was Burgos.  Shows what I know, apparently.

Bottom of 7th

3:06- Cardinals bring in Braden Looper to start off the bottom of the 7th and he gets his first man.

3:07- One thing I hate about getting the KC video feed is that they tell you all this stuff about your team that you already know.  Looper came from the Mets, he was a Cardinals draft pick, etc, etc.  It's the Royals I need to hear more about as I obviously don't follow this as close.  Rolen makes a very nice play at 3rd, but again, it looks easy.  He's amazing.

3:09- Looper gets them 1-2-3.  The pen's doing great.  Everybody's doing their job.  I wish the Cardinals had given Reyes some more runs, because then he would probably still be in there.  But, with a 1-0  lead LaRussa's not going to leave in the rookie, no matter how good he's doing.

Top of 8th

3:13- Burgos walks Eckstein and he does his usual hustle down the first base line.  I'm sensing an offensive barrage of runs coming.

3:16- That was so funny.  Spiezio  hit a towering shot to very very shallow left center.  Grudz ran back and basically was under the ball forever while he watched Costa come in on a really long run.  And, it dropped between both of them.

3:18- Number 21, baby!  Pujols went deep.  I knew it.  I have a 6th sense for these sort of things.  Get this.  There were more cheers for that home run than for when the Royals scored.  Remember, folks....we're playing at Kauffman Stadium, not Busch.  They even tried to get him to curtain call, to no avail.

3:20- Rolen gets a base hit and there's still no one out.

3:21- Burgos worked back from being 3-0 to the count now being full.  I hope Edmonds doesn't strike out.  It would be great to get a few more hits, a few more runs.

3:22- Edmonds grounds out, but at least no double play.  Rolen moves to scoring position.  If I'm not mistaken I believe that the Royals, on the other hand, have only had 2 or 3 runners in scoring position all game.

3:24- Burgos intentionally passes Encarnacion who's 2-3 on the night with a walk to face So Taguchi for the first time tonight.  Taguchi came in at left when the Cardinals switched pitchers.  Never mind, Burgos won't face Taguchi as Bell makes his way to the mound and brings in Joe Nelson.

3:27- Nelson has pitched all of 3 innings this year, but he's at 2 strikeouts and 2 walks during that time.  He gets Taguchi reaching way out on a ball in the dirt for the strikeout.

3:28- Molina flies out to end the inning and lowers his average to .160.  WHY, WHY, WHY can he not get going.

Bottom of 8th

3:31- Looper's back in and Blanco bunts his way on to lead off the 6th.  He beat Looper in the race to the bag.  Pujols made a nice play, but did not lead Looper to the bag and that extra half second cost them not getting the runner.  This is exactly what Spiezio did last night that sparked the Cardinals offense to get going.  Hope it doesn't do the same for KC tonight.

3:33- Maybe LaRussa thought the same thing.  Or maybe he just wanted the pitcher/hitter matchup.  In either way, LaRussa brings in left Randy Flores.

3:35- 2-2 count.  We could use the double play right now.

3:36- It's a basehit instead by pinch hitter Esteban German.  And, things continue to get interesting in the 8th inning.

3:38- Grudz punches the 3-1 offering through the hole on the left side to notch his first hit this series against his former team.  It scores Blanco from 2nd for KC's first run.  The announcers comment on my earlier observation about Spiezio's bunt for hit last night and Blanco's tonight.  Maybe they read my blog. :)

3:41- Flores strikes out Mientkiewicz for the first out of the inning.  That's huge, because now a double play ends it.  Pitching change....Josh Hancock comes in.

3:43- I don't like Hancock a whole lot because when I went to Busch a couple of weeks ago, he wouldn't give my nephew or me a baseball.  He was warming up Encarnacion and from behind I thought it was Brad Thompson.  They're built the same and he had a warmup jersey on, so I yelled Thompson.  He turned around and gave me a dirty look.  Right away, I realized it wasn't Thompson, but he wasn't about to give us a ball after that.  Ok, warmup's done.  Sanders is up.

3:47- Sanders creams a double over Taguchi's head and German scores.  Grudz completely runs through the stop sign over on 3rd and he's thrown out on a great relay throw by Eckstein.  Lol.  Reid is gonna love that!!  He's a big fan of Mark's "battle theory," I've learned tonight.

3:50- Stairs grounds out.  Inning over.  Throwing out Grudz was big.  If he stops at 3rd on the play, then he maybe scores on the Stairs groundball, Sanders moves over to 3rd and it's 4-3 with only 2 out.  Instead, it's out number 3 and a 4-2 ballgame.  Awesome.

Top of 9th

3:54- Miles starts off the 9th by lining out to Graffanino over at 3rd.  They just showed Izzy warming up in the bullpen.

3:55- Eckstein lines a ball off the pitcher and it squirts away.  Blanco makes a great attempt with a barehand pickup and hard throw, but there's no way you're going to get Eck after it bounced off the pitcher.  He's ALL hustle.

3:58- I hear some drunk Royal fan yelling at Spiezio, but can't quite make it out.  Payoff pitch to Spiezio.  Strike 'em out, thrown 'em out.  I bet the Royal fans are happy about that with Pujols on deck.  Bottom of the 9th coming up.  Let's see if Izzy can save it.

Bottom of 9th

4:02- Cardinal fans know that Izzy sometimes likes to make things interesting, but he's done really well as of late.

4:03- Guess he's going the interesting route tonight.  He walked the leadoff hitter.  I know it's the Royals, but I'm slightly nervous.  A double play would make me feel a whole lot better.

4:04- The last time I called for a double play it didn't happen, but this time it does.  Only 1 more out.  Let's go Izzy!!

4:05- Izzy gets 2 strikes on pinch hitter Paul Bako and the crowd goes wild.  Lol.  We are at Kauffman, right?

4:07- Big curve ball in the dirt and Bako goes down swinging.

Game Over.

Well, if anyone kept up with the blog, thanks.  If you read it later, I hope it's easy to follow along.  I'm going to go back and add which inning is what.  I think that will make things a little easier.  I would love to hear reader response, though about my first ever live blog....things you liked or things you didn't.

Let me also thank my live blog partner Reid.  I was able to read snipets from his site between innings once in awhile, but basically the game zoomed by, so I will go check it out more in depth later and I encourage you to do the same.

I had a lot of fun with this, so the offer still stands....if anybody else wants to live blog their team when they play the Cardinals, let me know.

Well, it's not 4:09am here in Madrid and I have to get up fairly early tomorrow, so I'm going to head to bed.

Goodnight,

Tiffany

1:09- The first pitch is in just a minute.  What you need to know about the Cardinals lineup is that Spiezio is DH-ing again and that Miles is playing instead of Luna tonight at 2nd.

1:10- First pitch is a strike.  In fact the first two pitches are strikes.  There are some casual cheers from the Royals fans.  They aren't that loud, but that accounts for the large amount of Cardinal fans in attendance.  Ecksein is thrown out.

1:14- Nothing too spectacular about the first half inning.  Cardinals go 1-2-3.

1:16- Between innings, let me point out a couple of things.  First, the Cardinals have 6 out of 9 hitters, hitting over .300.  The Royals have 2.  That says something.  Also, let me encourage you to head over to Reid's site to check out the game from the Royals side.

1:20- Reyes looks ok to start out the game.  He took care of the first two Royals in quick fashion....both on ground balls.

1:21- I was just going to say something about his hat and the announcers beat me to it.  I hate that hat.  He looked like last year too and in his MLB photo.  Somebody show Reyes how to bend a hat properly.

1:23- While I was talking about Reyes' hat, he gives up a hit.  That's what I get.  Sanders is up.  He hit a homer off last night off Carp.  Let's hope Reyes can keep him in the park.

1:24- Great play by Miles to get Sanders.  I thought for sure it was a hit, but Miles reached up with all 5'8" to snag the ball.  Speaking of which, did you know Eckstein was 5'7"?  That is a short middle infield.

1:27- Bautista hit Rolen on a 3-1 pitch.  I guess we're starting to see some of that wildness that we've heard so much about from this guy.  Let's turn it into something.

1:30- When this guy pitches a ball, IT'S A BALL...way out of the strikezone.  I bet we see some wild pitches before the night is through.  If he had better control, he could be a decent pitcher.

1:31- After Edmonds flied out to right, Encarnacion gets a base hit.  Runners on 1st and 2nd.

1:32- J-Rod is up.  He's only hitting .388 now.  He was hitting over .400 not too long back.  This guy is doing great this year.  Check out Reverend Redbird for some reasons why.

1:35- Well, J-Rod made a liar out of me.  Struck out.  That won't happen every at-bat though.  Bautista gets Molina and the Royals get out of it without a scratch.  I expect more when you hit the leadoff guy.

1:37- I'm a fast typer, but this can be hard to keep up.  I don't want to miss any pitches, so I have to type between pitches.  Fly out to center.  They're talking about Edmonds and a great catch he made with the Angels.  Have they seen some of the catches he's made with the Cardinals??

1:40- Brown singles on a ball that falls in front of Edmonds.

1:41- Molina catches one in foul territory for the 2nd out.  The guy may be hitting .165, but he's got such a great glove it's ALMOST easy to overlook that.  Though, I do wish he'd get going offensively.

1:44- While the announcers spend their time making fun of Reyes, he strikes out Buck to end the inning.  I'm so sick of getting the other team's announcers.  They're almost never in the game, especially when it's a bad team.

1:46- Top of the 3rd coming up now.  If you stop by, leave a comment.  You don't have to say anything witty...just let me know you stopped by.  It will make me feel good. :)  And, leave a comment for Reid too.

1:48- Miles did nothing, but Eckstein followed by hitting a double on a ball left wayyyy up in the zone.  Good job, Eck.

1:50- That almost was a wild pitch.  I told you we would see one eventually.  If there wasn't two outs, I would wager that LaRussa would put down a suicide squeeze, even though Pujols is up.  He like to do strange stuff like that.

1:54- They just showed some guys holding signs that spell out, "We have '85" in reference to the '85 series the Cardinals lost to the Royals that year in a 7 game series.  Whatever helps you sleep at night, boys.

1:57- 2 outs here in the bottom of the 3rd with Grudz up.  He went hitless last night in 5 at-bats as well as his first bat earlier today.  As well at this at-bat apparently.  End of 3.

2:02- Full count on Rolen and he goes up the middle for a hit.  It didn't look like it was too hard hit, but nobody got there.

2:04- You know how most guys get a hit, they'll smile once they get on first?  Chat a little with the 1st baseman?  I NEVER see Rolen smile.  That's ok.  He's still my favorite player.

2:05- Ball 3 to Edmonds on a ball that was pretty close, but we'll take the ball.  Bautista battles back and brings the count full.

2:06- The announcers just mentioned that it would be a gamble to send Rolen with Edmonds up because he strikes out a lot.  Edmonds does strike out, but Rolen is easily safe at 2nd.  Apparently, they forgot Buck can't throw.  It's wild and Rolen moves on to 3rd.

2:09- Base hit!!  Encarnacion send a ground ball past a diving Blanco.  And, the Redbirds strike first.

2:10- Wow, that pitch made J-Rod look bad.  Good thing he fouled it off.  Buck out to talk to Bautista again.

2:13- Man, Molina gets thrown out by a ball that could have been a base hit.  It's too bad when something like that happens to a guy who's already been struggling.

2:15- Ok, I looked up Buck's throwing stats, because I didn't know them off hand.  Before tonight, he had only nailed 3 runners out of 12 attempts.  So, now it's 3 out of 13 (23%).  Compare that with Molina who has caught 6 of 7 attempts (86%).

2:17- Nice play by Rolen to get Doug.  He makes it look easy. 1 down.

2:18- Sanders hits a ball on the same line it was pitched in on.  Only 3 hits for the Royals tonight.  Reyes is eating up these innings, which is great.  As long as he can hand it off to the bullpen with our lead still intact, I'll feel good.

2:20- They showed a clip from last night about the mascot and made the exact same comment.  Come on, guys....can't you be a little original here?

2:21- Brown made me sweat for just a sec.  He hit it pretty deep, but foul.  Now, he's walked by Reyes.  I will take that rather than the homer.  There's 2 outs though.  The test for Reyes....can he get out of it?

2:26- Between innings, I try to get over to Reid's site to sneak a peak.  He's doing a good job of keeping up the Royals side.  Ok, top of the 5th now.

2:29- Miles and Eck go down quick and now it's up to Spiezio.

2:31- Apparently, it took the announcers 4+ innings to notice that Spiezio has a red goatee on his chin.  Full count.

2:32- Strike out to end the inning.  I'm kind of depressed it's only 1-0.  We should be opening this game up.

2:34- Reid suggested to the Royals players to take more pitches against Reyes, but they're not listening.  Buck just led off the inning by flying out to Encarnacion on the first pitch.

There have already been a few interesting things happen tonight in the world of baseball.  Among the examples:

• The Cubs and White Sox got into a bench clearing brawl.  You gotta love it when Chicago-ians and their athletes turn on each other.
• Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth in homers.  Whatever.  I'm tired of hearing about it.  I wish he would just go away.
• The Yanks/Mets series went into extra innings.

But, the game that is going to be getting all attention around here is the Royals/Cardinals game.  The game starts in a few minutes and so will my live blog.

So, let's get it started!

Tiffany

I have been avidly promoting my live blog here tonight of the Cardinals/Royals game and then in my last post I put the wrong time down.  Neat, huh?  Well, I have since put the corrected time in the post, but I thought I would also repost the corrected time, so it's completely clarified when the game is.

The Cardinals/Royals game

4:10pm Pacific Time

6:10pm Central Time

7:10pm Eastern Time

1:10am (where I live, in Madrid, Spain)

Tiffany

How about that.  Most of my questions from yesterday are no more.

• I asked why we were losing to the Royals 5-0 after 3 innings.  We came back and beat them 9-6.
• I asked why our NL Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter and his 1.98 ERA gave up 5 runs to the last place Royals.  He only gave up one run after that.
• I asked why Carp didn't have his best stuff.  His breaking ball wasn't breaking and he was leaving a lot of stuff up in the zone.  No matter....he got the W.  He was good enough to win.
• I asked why Albert Pujols was slumping 0-13.  He hit a home run in his next at-bat and had 2 hits on the night.

So, basically life is good.

As good as Carp is, he's bound to have not-so-good starts every now and again.  I'm just glad he timed his iffy outing for yesterday when we were playing the Royals, a team that is known for its uncanny ability to blow games recently.

I've hollered all season long about the Cardinals inability to produce runs for Carpenter.  Here, you have one of the best pitchers in the game and he's 3-2, depsite having a lot of amazing starts and a 1.98 ERA.  But, last night they made it up to him.  He gave up 6 runs over 6 innings, but the Cardinals did 3 better.  It looked like it was going to be a night of the Royals bashing the Cards because at one point they had a 5-0 lead.  But, the Redbirds took it in stride and played some great baseball to get back in the game.

There was some hit and running, a tremendous bunt for a hit by Spiezio (that started the offensive production) and of course longball #20 for Albert.  That's how you break out of a 0-13 "slump" in style.  Spiezio was hitting because he played the DH last night.  Even though, in general, I'm in favor of the pitcher hitting and helping himself out, I like to watch the DH during these interleague games.  It was sure nice having Spiezio go 3-4 instead of Carp go 0-1 with a couple of sac bunts, if that.

It was great baseball and it was great to come in and take this first game.  It doesn't matter who you're playing.  It's just important to get wins.  And, even if you play 162 games a year, you shouldn't be dropping games against the Royals that you can win.

And, because we won, I can be happy for Sanders that he went deep.  Grudz was 0-5 on the night, but he got a lot of action in the field.  In the first few innings it seemed as if everything was hit to him.  I'll tell you, I thought we had adequate replacement for Sanders (and we do), but I thought we would not have anybody that could replace Grudz, when I heard who we were getting.  I was sooo wrong.  Between Miles and Luna, 2nd base is more than adequately taken care of.  They will turn a few less double plays (Eckstein and Grudz were amazing in that department), but the hitting is better and the fielding is still good enough to get it done.

The next game starts tonight at 6:10pm Central Time.  That's 7:10pm ET and 4:10pm PT.  I'm givng you all these times because Reid  and I will be live blogging the game tonight.  Come, help keep me awake because it will be 1:10am Madrid time.  But, it will be worth it if we can get the win.  If you have aim messenger and want to chat during the game, email me with your screename and I'll send you a message.  If not, just leave comments and I will try to respond as quick as I can during the live blog.

Hope to see a lot of people stopping by and commenting!

Live blogger,

Tiffany

P.S.  I'm pretty sure how I'm going to tackle this whole live blog thing, but I'm still willing to take suggestions from former live bloggers since this is my first one.

Can someone explain to me what's going on here?  I have a few questions

• Why are we losing 5-0 to the Royals after 3?
• Why are they scoring runs off Chris Carpenter who has a 1.98 ERA?
• Why does Carp look like he doesn't have his best stuff tonight?
• Why is Pujols in an 0-13 slump?

I am not too worried yet, though.  The Royals have blown enough games that I think we have plenty of time to recoup five runs.  Still, I am not happy about losing to the Royals.  Hopefully, this will change very soon.

No more Royals runs,

Tiffany

I've added a couple of things to my blog recently.  I put a "photo album" of when I surprised my family at Busch Stadium.  You can read this post if you want to hear the story.  Tecnically, maybe it shouldn't be called an album because there's only 5 pictures, but I thought I would just test out the photo posting to see how it all works and if people are even interested in seeing photos.  I know a lot of pictures have been posted of the new park all over the place.  If there seems to be an interest, I might put some more up later.  Althogh, I mostly took video.  I wish I knew how to upload that to my site.  I know enough to convert my video to a quicktime or a wmv file.  So, if anyone knows how to post that, let me know.

I also put categories on the side of my page.  These are mostly the various teams that I talk about on ocassion, usually when they play the Cardinals.  However, there are a few other categories out there.  Again, let me know if this is something that you would like to use to access different topics, because if it's not or no one cares, then I'll take it down, because there's no point in having it up otherwise.

So, basically, I'm just trying some different stuff on my site and seeing if it works or what everyone thinks.  Any feedback would be great, especially from people who read my site on a regular basis.  (All two of you, lol.)

Feedback?

Tiffany

My first view of the new park....beautiful.

Just a pile of dirt now. Apparently, this area is going to be some kind of "Cardinal Village" in the future.

I have no idea what he's looking at.

I believe that's self-explanatory.

These great looking people are my parents and my oldest nephew. Diehard Cardinal fans all the way.

We've had a couple of video shoots lately, so I've been pretty busy and I'm afraid this week doesn't look a whole lot calmer, but I will still try to keep up with my blog as consistently as I can.  Thanks for those who have commented recently.  It makes me more inclined to check back and update my blog.

The Mets series was far from perfect, but it went well overall.  It ended up exactly like I said it would, which isn't too surprising.  Most people could figure out that we would probably lose against Glavine and then beat Trachsel and Lima.  What most people probably didn't predict (including myself) is what a pitcher's duel there would be in the second game of the series.

Trachsel pitched incredibly well and was only just edged out of the win, but an even stellar performance by Mulder.  Mulder pitched a shutout over 8 1/3 innings.  Trachsel only gave up that 1 run on an RBI hit by Rolen.  If anybody else saw the game, you will know that it really wasn't Trachsel's fault.  Maybe he shouldn't have walked Pujols, I guess (after all Pujols hadn't had a hit the whole series), but it is PUJOLS after all.  But, the RBI hit.....that was just a tremendous at-bat by Rolen.  The ball literally came in at his ankles.  It was unbelievable.  Somehow, he golfed it up and put it in the gap.  I was disappointed that Mulder couldn't get the complete game, but after he hit that guy, no way LaRussa was going to keep him in there.  It was easy to read his lips afterwards.  "I can't believe I did that."  But, I was happy for Izzy.  And, for all the early season Izzy critics, how'd you like the 9th?  There's no greater pressure than coming into the 9th with the bases loaded.  And, to strike out Wright?  That game was one of the most exciting I've watched in a long time.

Then, yesterday we were all over Lima.  Big surprise.  When are the Mets going to get rid of him anyway?  The Mets bench coach got ejected and I'm still not really sure why, but he and the homeplate ump really got into it.  Kind of fun.  So, if anyone else heard or read what happened, let me know.  It was also nice to win without Pujols, but again, it was Lima.  So, who really cares?

Next up....the I-70 Series.  This should be fun, but it would be a whole lot more fun if it wasn't the first place Cardinals against the last place Royals.  If we win, we've only done what we were supposed to.  If they win, they will have bragging rights.

It will be nice to see some of last year's Redbirds play, even if it is for the other team.  I like to keep tabs on Cardinal alumni, but I don't always get to watch them play.

I think that starting against the Royals is what Carp finally needs to get a win.  The run support that is always the issue shouldn't be a problem, because we're not going up against a Maddux or a Glavine.  We're facing Mark Redman, a pitcher who is  0-3 and has a 6+ ERA.  Come on, now.  We better crush him.  I read in Matthew Leach's pre-game pitching matchup that he walks a lot of guys.  That's great for us!  We have guys that are great at seeing the ball and love taking walks when they're being handed out.  And, if he walks a lot of guys, then you know at some point some of them will be driven in.

Saturday is not only the 2nd day of the Royals series.  It's also the day that I do my live blog.  I will be live blogging from a Cardinal fans perspective while Reid (Baseball is Heaven's Gift to Mortals), will be live blogging a.....Royals fan perspective???  Ok, not really Royals fan maybe.  But, still for the Royals.  So, be sure to come by, check those out and leave lots of comments about how we're doing.  Hopefully we'll get a win out of all of it.

The Cardinals will be starting Anthony Reyes that day.  Normally, the number 5 guy due up (Sidney Ponson) is on the DL.  He landed there May 9th after he hurt his right elbow pitching.  There were reports of him throwing the other day, playing catch.  I would hate to lose him for a long period of time, but the reports all sound like he's doing okay.  We'll probably know his status a little bit better next week once his 15 day are up.

I am interested to see how Reyes will do.  He's doing okay down in Memphis with a respectable record (1-1) and ERA (3.65), but he also hasn't pitched in the big leauges yet this year.  The one thing that does impress me about Reyes was that he has 40 strikeouts in his 44+ innings, with only 5 walks.  That means he's striking out a man nearly every inning that he pitches.  And, that's important.

I would love to hear Mets fan's thoughts about the previous series and Royal's fans thoughts about the upcoming series.

For Missouri bragging rights,

Tiffany

First, a quick comment that's off topic of my main subject:  the internet continues to just astound me.  With my new counter, it's awesome sto see where everyone visits your site from.  In the almost five days I've had it installed, I've had visitors ranging from 31 different states and 7 different countries.  That floors me.

Ok, now that I have that out of the way...on to the Cardinals/Mets game.

I predicted yesterday that we would take 2 of 3 from the Mets and that the one we would lose would be the one against Glavine.  And, sure enough, we lost to Glavine.  So, my hope now is that my other predictions will hold true and that we will indeed take the next two from the Mets.

Glavine pitched a good game tonight, there's no doubt about it.  But, I hate games like this where I feel that we could have won, but didn't play smart baseball or even good baseball, like I know we're capable of.

The final score (8-3) is somewhat misleading.  I think it was a much closer game than that.  After all, it was 3-3 going into the 7th inning.  There were a lot of mistakes made by the Cardinals and just all around sloppy baseball.  This happened recently against the D-backs and I thought it was out of their system, so I was rather disappointed to see it happen again tonight.

The 6th was by far our worse inning.  We scored one run when we should have had a lot more.  Edmonds struck out on a pitch (with 2 on an 1 out) that looked like ball four to me, but with two strikes on, you don't take anything that close.  At least foul it off and make sure that the next pitch is actually ball four.  Then, Bennet singles and Encarnacion was thrown out by a mile at 3rd base in the 6th.  I'm not sure what happened there.  I don't know if he got a late jump, but the better solution would probably have been to stay at 2nd base.  It would be different if the pitcher were up next.  Then, I would have said go for it.  But, Luna was up and hits well; he hit .500 last night.  An end of the inning rally killer like that really gets the momentum going the other way.

Luna and Pujols both made errors in the game. The error Pujols made at first was especially hard.  You make that play and not only do you get another out, but you stop Wright from scroring from 3rd.

Basically, every time we made an error or just a mistake in general, the Mets capitalized on it.  Which is why, without all of our bad plays, we still might have lost, but it would have been (and it really should have been) a much closer game.  Maybe 5-4 or 6-4 instead of 8-3.

And, the hitting was definitely lacking.  As I said yesterday, we have this thing that we can't hit great pitchers.  And, it's killed us repeatedly in the postseason.  And, seeing as how there's a good chance that we could face the Mets in the postseason this year, we better figure out a way to hit Glavine because Pedro sure isn't going to get any easier to face.

I thought we were getting our act together in the fifth.  That inning they weren't going out trying to take Glavine deep.  Instead, they played some excellent small ball....going deep into counts, base hits, sac bunts.  Unfortunately, they completely fell apart in the 6th inning and we lost the game.

I have much higher hopes for the rest of the series, going up against Trachsel and his 2-3 record tonight and Lima on Thursday.  The Cardinals have great bats and I think we'll see them come alive against these pitchers that aren't of the same caliber Glavine is.  At least I'm hoping because, as two recent commentors(Jack and  Edward) pointed out, with the Mets, it is especially important that we hit Trachsel and Lima hard early.  They have a pretty good 'pen and a great closer in Wagner.

But, what it comes down to is....do you ever bet against Mulder at home?  No.  Not only is he 3-0 there this year, he was 7-3 there last year.

In other news, don't forget about the live blog right here on Saturday for the Cardinals/Royals game.  Although, I have to say, I'm kind of nervous about it now.  You pick a team like the Royals to live blog; you would think you're guaranteed a win.  But, since our normal number 5 guy, Sidney Ponson (who is 3-0), is on the DL, the Cardinals have slated Anthony Reyes to pitch on Saturday.  Reyes, who pitches for our AAA team and hasn't thrown the ball once this year in the big leagues.  So, the Royals will definitely have their chance.  Anyway, I'll talk more about Reyes once it gets closer and I'm 100% sure he's the starter.

All about Mulder at home,

Tiffany

As I said at the end of my previous post, I am very excited about the upcoming Cardinals-Mets series.  It's a 3 game series beginning tonight and all should be great to watch.

They are the two best teams in the National League, with essentially the same record.  The Cardinals 24 games to the Mets 23, but we've also played one more.  Both teams have lost 14 games.  But, that's where the similiarities end.  We are beating them in many pitching (more wins, better E.R.A., less home runs given up, less walks, less total earned runs given up, more saves) and hitting (more runs, more RBIs, more walks, less strikeouts, better on base percentage and better batting average) categories.

With all of these stats though, the one that interests me the most is strikeouts.  The Mets pitching staff is leading ALL of Major League baseball in strikeouts with 314.  The St. Louis Cardinals lineup has had the fourth fewest strikeouts in the Major League and the fewest in the National League with 197.  So you have some of the best strikeout pitchers in baseball facing David Eckstein and Albert Pujols, some of the hardest guys to strike out in all of the Majors.  The good news here is that we won't have to face Pedro, the current strikeout leader, because he just pitched last for the Mets.

I'm not too worried about Wednesday's or Thursday's games because I am confident that the Cardinal lineup can crush most National League pitching.  But, we have this thing that we can't seem to hit really good pitchers.  Even though we have one of the best lineups and the last few years have been top 5 in pretty much all offensive categories, we are unable to hit guys like Greg Maddux.  The lack of hitting is why we lost in 2004 to the Sox and why we lost in 2005 to the Astros.  We would get it done against Pettitte, but would be completely be shut down by Oswalt.  Oswalt held the Cards to 2 runs in 2 NLCS starts.  We absolutely freeze against great pitching a lot of the time.

We were 5-2 against the Mets last year and my guess is that we will at least take 2 of 3 in this series because their other starters aren't anything special.  If we beat Glavine tonight, then I think we definitely have a chance for the sweep.

None of the Cardinals pitchers (with the exception of Carp) will compete to be the best pitcher in baseball and we'll likely not have that strong of a 1-2 punch that some other teams seem to have.  But, as I've said before I do believe that we have one of the deepest rotations in the game.  When you look at what kind of numbers Ponson puts up as our number 5 guy, I think that we always have the chance to beat just about anybody.

One thing we do have going our way tonight is the momentum that Suppan is carrying into this game.  He has won his last four starts, giving up just 7 earned runs in those games, with a 2.40 ERA.  Additionally, Pujols and Rolen have hit Glavine well in the past hitting .529 and and .360 respectively against him lifetime.

As I said earlier, there should be no doubt that this series will be a fun one to watch, especially this first game.  It will certainly be a test for both teams, to see how they fare playing another 1st place team.

And I can't wait to watch.

5th straight for Soup,

Tiffany

P.S.  Any other responses from Mets fans?

I love my new counter that lets me know how many people are reading my blog.  (The downside, of course, being that it also lets me know how many people read without leaving comments.) 

One of my favorite aspects is seeing what google searches people use to reach my site.  I've only had the counter a little over 3 days and already 6 people (so who knows how many before that) have found my site by some of the following searches:

• problems with MLB.TV
• how to get MLB.TV to work
• MLB.TV blackout restrictions

And, my personal favorite.....

• MLB.TV knows where you live

Since half of these people live outside of the United States, I decided to write the following post.  Enjoy.

If you've read my blog for any length of time at all, you would know that I subscribe to MLB.TV because I live in Madrid, Spain and cannot see ballgames on the TV here.  (And, as soccer is hands down the predominant European sport, that doesn't look to change anytime soon.)

Reading my blog, you would also know that I have not always had the kindest words for MLB.TV.  I have ranted and raved about it for quite some time on my blog. (here, here and here for a few examples.)

So, why all anger directed at MLB.TV? 

It's not the quality.  Quality of it is great.  I started using MLB.TV during the post season last year and was amazed at clear everything was.  Sure, it's smaller compared to the TV I am used to, but when you blow it up on your computer full screen, it's actually quite big.

It's not the streaming.  It streams awesome.  I know a few people have complained about the streaming due to having a lower connection speed or computer, but with the computer I have, it streams great.  I get everything in (nearly) real-time and I love that.

So, why?

Well, it was the fact that I was blacked out of every game I wanted to watch, even though I am clearly (in Madrid, Spain), living out of market.  Because, it wasn't every game, but games that are broadcast where I used to live in the States (Illinois), such as Cardinals, Cubs, and the Braves, I assumed it was my credit card that was the issue.  Obviously, it's not an IP address detection of some sort, or else they would detect that I live in Spain.

But, as I called customer service, I was assured again and again, that it was not because of my credit card, but just an unexplainable error.  They would confirm I live in Spain and send me a "token," by e-mail to use.  Not my first choice in the situation, but I could live with this.

Then, the situation got worse.  Now, the customer service line would be busy half the day and when I finally got through, I would sit on hold forever.  By the time I actually got a person on the phone, the game would have already started, sometimes being half over.  Every time the person would assure me that they would fix the situation.  Once, I asked to speak to a manager.  Having been in the customer service field in the past, I knew that a manager would have the authority to do what the phone represenative could not and perhaps could solve the situation.

This "manager" assured me that he would personally handle the situation.  He said he would call me before the next game and see to it that I had a token. 

He never called.

I suggested all kinds of ideas, such as sending me an automatic token before every game that I could use or just permanently allowing me access to the games, since they knew I lived in Spain.  I was only told that this couldn't be done and tokens were the only way around this. 

I tried emailing for tokens, thinking it would be faster and I would reach no busy signal.  But, this didn't work either.  I wouldn't receive an answer for days and when I finally did, it was either an automated response or someone who (from their response) had clearly not read my email.

Finally, at the absolute peak of frustration (and waiting on hold for 1 hour and 25 minutes) I wrote this post.  And, finally my complaints no longer fell on deaf ears.

I received an email from someone who actually wanted to help correct my problem.  I was skeptical at first, but emailed him the info he asked for.  He had MLB.TV working permanently for me by the next game.  This was almost a week ago and it has worked ever since.  I have watched quite a few Cardinal games live since then and it's been great.

I promised before that I would love to write great things about MLB.TV and that I would once it was working correctly.

So, now I would  like to say that I love the quality of it, I love the streaming and I love most of all, that it works.  As with any technology, there are ocassional bumps and sputters in the feed or audio, but that's to be expected.  And, honestly, it really doesn't happen very often.  So, I would just like to say:

I Love MLB.TV! 

There.  Maybe that makes up for the not as nice things I've said.

If you are one of these people, accessing my blog because of MLB.TV, I can't help you out with the unresponsiveness of the staff.  (After all, it took over a month for me to get help and that was mainly because I had a blog to vent my frustrations.)  But, if it's just a general problem, such as you don't know how to get it to work, leave me a post or send me an email and I'll try to help you out.

And now that I have MLB.TV working, I would like to try something I never could before.  A live blog.  I had thought about it, but I was never guaranteed that I would be able to watch the game I wanted to in order to promote it ahead of time.

So, I would like to let all of you know that this Saturday, I will be live blogging the Cardinals game against the Kansas City Royals.  It will be the first time they meet this year and the first time since May 22 of last year.  I was looking for a Royals fan to blog this game with me and even though he's not a Royals fan, Reid has volunteered to blog the Royals side because he has a few things to say about this game.  If you've ever read his blog, you know he'll keep you entertained and if you haven't, you should check it out.

I encourage everyone to stop by and check out both of our blogs throughout the evening and also to comment your reactions.  If anyone else is interested in doing a live blog and your team is playing the Cardinals soon, let me know.  Keep in mind the 7 hour time difference, so it will have to be a weekend or an early game, or else I will never get up for work the next day. :)  But, I'm up for it otherwise.  Well, assuming this one goes well anyway.

On more immediate things, we start our series against the New York Mets tonight.  I am personally looking very forward to this series.  The Mets have gained a lot of attention this year because a lot of people seem to think this is year that they will topple the Braves from the throne they've had atop the NL East for 14 straight seasons.

Both are in first place, so it should definitely be exciting.  But, this is getting onto an entirely different subject, so I will stop here and write a new post about the Mets soon.  Until then, Mets fans?  Are you out there?  Do you think one team will sweep or that it will be an even matchup?

Faithful MLB.TV watcher,

Tiffany

I am pretty confident that tonight's game took 5 year off my life.  I watched it by myself, which is probably for the best, the way I was jumping around, yelling and throwing things.  It was very stressful.  It's also probably a good thing I didn't live-blog this game because I don't see how in the world I could have typed through all that chaos.

It was like watching a bunch of little leaguers for quite a bit of the game.  The Cardinals were credited with 3 erros and the Diamondbacks had 2 of their own.  But, don't let that fool you.  There were a lot other bobbles and miscues that didn't get scored as errors, such as bobbling a ball and only getting one out instead of the double play.

There were a ridiculous number of runners stranded, (at least 8 per team and I think probably more.  I didn't count and I'm getting conflicting reports from MLB.com so I'll put the total in when I get it for sure.  But, trust me...it was A LOT.), strikeouts and double plays to end innings bad jumps and reads on fly balls and all kinds of other madness. 

And, again no run support for Carp.  Plus, the errors.  I didn't even mention the errors in my post yesterday, but they have been a factor in some of Carp's losses and no-decisions.  And, they were a factor today.  All 3 runs that scored on Carp's watch were unearned runs due to errors, such as double plays that should have been.  All six runs came after Carpenter was done pitching, which is a shame, because he was pitching a good game and lowered his ERA to an awesome 1.97.

All the unearned D-backs runs caused the game to be close and therefore LaRussa had to pinch hit for Carp when his spot came up and take him out of the lineup.  Otherwise I'm sure he would have stayed in for another inning or two.

Edmonds had a huge day at the plate and in the field, but it was really hard seeing Pujols and Rolen go a combined 0-8.  The only productive thing that came from either one of them was the long RBI producing sac fly that Pujols hit.  There was just not enough clutchness in this game.

Even when we deserve to lose, I still root for the Cardinals, but we did deserve to lose this game.  When the opposing pitcher walks 3 straight to load the bases and you strike out to leave them stranded, you deseve to lose.  When you hit into a double play twice during rallies to end the inning, you deserve to lose.  We did all these things and more.  It was so painful to watch because we easily could and should have won this game.

My only consolation is that this game is happening now, in May, and not in October.  This game very eerily reminded me of the sloppy play and lack of key hitting that haunted the Cardinals in the 2004 World Series.  Since I am fully expecting a 2006 Cardinal World Series, I don't want to see a repeat performance.  So, I will take a game in May for them to wake up and get the kinks sorted out so they are ready to play October ball.

The good news, of course, is that the Reds lost to the tear the Phillies are having.  (What are they eating for breakfast anyway???)  So, we are still the sole proprietors of first place.  And, another loss for the Cubs does cheer me up a little.  They're 1-11 in their last 12 games.

This is also not how I really wanted to enter the Mets series.  They are playing well and it's key for us to take a couple from them.  We do have an offday between now and then to get our act together.

It also means I can talk about this later.  I stayed up late to watch last night's game and got about an hour of sleep and haven't slept yet today, so I'm exhausted.

But, before I go I want to give a quick thanks to my most recent commentors:

Reid at "Baseball is Heaven's Gift to Mortals" (special note: Reid and I will be both doing a live-blog this upcoming Saturday.  I will post more details soon.)

Jack at "JP Schmack"

Julie at "Cardinal Girl"

John at "Rays From Across the Pond"

See?  When people leave comments, I plug them and their blog, so you should comment and get more traffic.  And, if you're not a MLBlogger you should still comment because that means you get to post your comments and opinions for everyone to see, but you have the advantage of not having to pay a monthly membership fee!

K, I'm done.

Going to rest on the off day,

Tiffany

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, especially to my mom back home in Illinois.

Well, tonight's game will hopefully produce a Cardinals sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Tonight's matchup is Chris Carpenter vs. Miguel Batista.  Now, you'd think that having as your pitcher the reigning NL Cy Young winner that currently has a 2.21 ERA and a 3-0 career record vs. the D-backs would almost guarantee this.  But, Carptener has had some pretty tough luck this season, despite pitching some fantasic games.

He has the lowest runs allowed by any Cardinals starter, with the exception of Sidney Ponson, who has pitched two less games.  And, Carp has the lowest ERA of any Cardinals starter by a ton.  (And is in the top 5 in the Majors, I might add.)

All of this and his record is 3-2 in eight starts this season.  3 and 2!!  It's ridiculous.  In those eight games, Carpenter has given up only 13 ER.  In his worst starts, he gave up 4 runs and he only did that twice.  In his other six starts, he's given up 0 (twice), 1 (three times) or 2 (once) earned runs.  What more can you ask from a guy?  He's always gone at least five innings and half the time has gone seven or eight innings.

The reason for all this?  No run support.  I ranted about this in a post a month ago and it's still a problem.  The worst was what I originally had written the post about: a 1-0 loss to Reds, when Carp only gave up 1 over 8 and struck out six.  I expect more out of my Redbirds tonight facing Miguel Batista.

So, speaking of Batista....

You can't really mention his name without thinking of the nice little brawl he had with Tino Martinez a few years back.  I remember that game and  thinking how bizarre the whole thing was.  Batista hit Tino with a pitch and they exchanged some words as Tino trotted down to first, but that was it. Then when Tino was thrown out at 2nd later on, some more words were exchanged.  That's when Tino charged the mound  and Batista retaliated by throwing a ball at him.  It was seriously so crazy.  But, Martinez is long gone (and I'm glad...I never really liked him anyway and can you imagine him at first the last couple of years instead of Pujols???) so hopefully tonight won't be so dramatic.

Thinking about Tino and Batista, though, reminded me of last night.  Edmonds hit one out of the park on Friday night.  Then on Saturday, Vargas promptly greeted him in his first at-bat with a pitch that was high and tight.  Edmonds simply smiled and took the walk.

Now brawls don't really bother me.  They're part of baseball.  And, I sure would rather have a player get ejected defending himself than arguing with an umpire.  But, if I have my choice,  I would rather my team do damage with their bats instead of their fists.  I thought of back when Edmonds and Zambrano almost duked it out a couple of years ago.  Zambrano hit Edmonds twice, once after Edmonds homered and the only time he struck him out, he wagged his finger at him.  The benches started to clear then, but no punches were thrown.

Well, as the title of an earlier post indicated, I welcomed the high and tight pitch to Edmonds.  It eventually let to a walk, which then led to a Rolen homer.  And, suddenly we're up 4-1.  That's a whole lot better to me then Edmonds charging the mound, getting thrown out and suddenly we're without one of our power guys and a base runner.

Also, I think the Cardinals players all must have read my post where I listed, "Things I would like to see happen soon."  Not only did Rolen hit that homer (which was on the list), but Pujols raised his average 10 points.  I had listed that I would like to see Pujols actively compete in all 3 triple crown categories and that since he is leading in homers and RBI, that means raising his average.  He went from 17th place before the game to tied with 8th today.

My last comment about yesterday's game was the crazy announers.  I don't know why, but it seems I only ever have away announcers.  And, they're all the same.  They worship Pujols with every word and talk about how good their team is even if they're terrible.  These were no different.  They got pretty excited in the 2nd, when the D-backs pretended like they were going to do something.  But, once they got down 9-1 after 4, they switched their tactics to absolute insanity.  They started playing tic-tac-toe with their little white pen, they put pictures up on the screen of various Brady Bunch family members, the Hollywod Squares game show and a bunch of other nonsense.  Of course that was all on air.  I didn't have commecials today, so I was able to hear all of their off air talk.  I think they stopped watching innings 5-8.  It was so ridiculous and I was wondering if anybody else saw it?

Well, it's almost gametime, so it's time for me to wrap this up, go get something to drink, get out my broom and settle in to watch the D-backs get swept.

Run support for Carp,

Tiffany

What's up with the lack of comments?  I know people are reading, but it's hard to maintain the desire to write when no one is commenting.  It's like only ever having a one-sided conversation.  If you can't think of anything to comment about, I gave you a question four posts ago.  Basically, I asked if you have a favorite superstitious move that a player always does when they're hitting.  I will extend that to any time during the game, but I think we see it mostly when they hit.  I gave a couple examples in that post if you need some inspiration.  And, again, it doesn't have to be a Cardinal.  Let me know who it is for your team.

Today's game has been great to watch.  No worries, no wondering if the Cardinals might lose the game in the 9th.  Just pure crushing of the opposing team.

And, now for the explanation of the title of this post: why I love Albert Pujols.

Of course, there are many reasons to the answer of this question and I'm sure most of you have your own reason.  But, today's game showed something that I think is key into making Pujols who Pujols is.  It is a chart I made of his 5 at-bats and the results of those at-bats.

           Inning                   Runners on                   Score                        Result

So, what does this mean?  Pujols had two singles in this game (1st and 4th innings).  Both were well hit balls up the middle, both came with runners on base and both produced RBIs.  In the 2nd inning, however, his at-bat was completely different.  There was nobody on and with a 4-1 lead, Pujols wasn't looking for a base hit somewhere.  Instead, he went deep.  The sixth inning at-bat was quite similiar only he just got under it enough to keep it from going out.  Still, there was nobody on and the Cardinals had an even bigger lead at this time.  And, the only at-bat, this chart doesn't show the full story on is his 7th inning at-bat.  The bases were loaded and Pujols ripped a hard hit shot down the left field line.  It was called foul, but it could only have been foul by inches.  He ended up striking out, but if that had been a fair ball, he would have had his 3rd base hit with runners on and 3 more RBIs.

There is not a coincidence that his at-bats went this way and it's not a coincidence that he has 47 RBIs in a month and a half of baseball.  Pujols is not just about getting homers and looking good.  He has about having good at-bats and getting whatever it takes to put his team ahead.  When his team  needs baserunners, he will take a walk.  When there's men in scoring position and they need a couple of go-ahead or insurance runs, he will look for a hole and punch through a single.  And, if his team is ahead by a ton and nobody's on, he'll hit a home run.  In the 7th inning, with 3 runners on, a lot of guys would be thinking about getting themselves a grand slam.  But, not Pujols.  His rip down the left field line showed otherwise.  It's smart baseball and it's the reason he dominates the game today.

As I mentioned before, Rolen went deep, which was great to see.  In fact, it was great to see our starting 1-5 guys all have multi-hit days.  You're definitely going to win ball games when you're doing that.  Miles, hitting 8th, also had 2 hits on the day.

Marquis looked great tonight and I hope to see a lot more of this kind of pitching from him.  He got into jams, but didn't fall apart.  He worked his way out and that's important.  He also didn't let a huge lead make him get sloppy.  He pitched as though the game was tied 0-0 the whole game.  Falkenborg and Johnson each were able to get an inning of relief in and were each perfect.

We've won 4 straight now and Carp pitching tomorrow.  It should be a sweep of the D-backs, but with Carp's low run support, who knows.  But, I'll talk about that later.  For now I'm just content with today's win and the fact that we now own first place to ourselves.  I believe this is the first time all season for that to happen.

I'll see you all tomorrow and don't forget to answer the question at the top (or anything else that comes to mind.)

Tiffany

Well, if you watched the Dodgers-Giants game like I did, you know that the Giants came back, rallied and won the game.  But, still no homer for Bonds.  Fine with me.  With the exception of Bonds, I like the Giants.  Between Matheny, Morris, Kline and company, they have a lot of my favorite Redbirds of the past.

Now, of course, I'm watching the Cardinals take on Arizona in the second game of this series.  And, even though Luna did a fabulous job in his games batting in the 2nd spot, John Rodriquez is showing why he wants the 2nd spot all to himself.  He's been nothing but basehits and is hitting a ******** .404.  He got on ahead of Pujols again today and scored on an up the middle base hit by Pujols.

The best part of the game so far today, though?  D-backs pitcher, Vargas, threw the first pitch to Edmonds up and in, assumingly as payback for his homer yesterday.  Edmonds smiled about it and I did too.  Vargas has not had enough control to try something like that this game and sure enough he walked him.  That set the table for Rolen's homer down the left field line.  Which, I would like to add was on my list a few posts back under, "things I would like to see happen soon."  So, thank you Scott Rolen.

Well, there were 3 walks, 2 errors and 3 hits in the first and every man came to the plate in the first inning.  It wa a little disappointing to leave the bases loaded and strand 3, but  Marquis sure can't ask for too much more in the way of support to win this game.

On to the second inning,

Tiffany

Izzy let one run score last night, but worked hard and got the save.  This means the Cardinals now have a 3 game win streak going.  In Chicago, today, however, the Padres scored 3 runs in the top of the 9th to beat the Cubs 4-3.  So, the Cubs have a 3 game losing streak going.  So, pretty much, life is good.

I'm watching the Giants-Dodgers game right now and the Dodgers rallied in the 7th to stretch their lead to 5-1.  (It's now 5-2.)  The Giants bullpen brought two guys in, in the 7th and ended up letting every guy on base (they were loaded) score.  Bonds has done squat going 0-3, with a walk.

This brings something up else of interest I noted today at mlb.com.  I love the stats pages they have and today I was looking particularly at the milestone tracker page.  This is where they have what players are about to pass certain "milestones" in their career.  Either a significant number like 1000 doubles or passing someone on the all-time list of that particular record.  So, of course Barry is on here with his HR record.  They have him slated to hit # 715 (the number that will lift him past Babe Ruth, for those of you living in a hole somewhere) on May 22, 2006.  What's special about this day?  This is the first of a 3 game series in San Fran for the Redbirds.

Now, of course, this is pure speculation.  It can happen anytime, anywhere.  Bonds is 1-17 since his last home run and could go another 1-50 before he cranks another one.  However, we all know that Barry could end up hitting 2 in the same game tomorrow.  It's impossible to know for sure.  But, May 22 is the best educated guess that MLB can figure out and it's definitely a possibility.  And, if not that game, then perhaps one of the next two games.

So if it did happen, who would pitch the fateful pitch?  It's hard to know right now, because Ponson is still on the DL and it's unknown right now how LaRussa will work that last spot in the rotation.  Plus, we have one day off (Monday) between now and then.

My thoughts are this: I hope he doesn't do it against St. Louis just because all the fanfare that would be part of it.  I can't stand Bonds and don't want him to break Ruth's record as it is, let alone having to watch it happen against my team.  But, I would love to see some of our guys go right after him and strike him out.  The good news is that the games won't be played at Busch Stadium, so they can do as they like at their field.

But, that's a long time away.  For now, I'm looking forward to tonight's game, the 2nd against Arizona.  We only won by a couple of runs last night when we had Mulder pitching, a guy who has been dominant against the D-backs.  How will we fare tonight with Marquis pitching...a guy who has been certainly less than impressive in his most recent starts?  I don't know, but I'm much less confident tonight than I was last night.  We still have the capabilities to win and I go into every game thinking that we SHOULD win beause we have what it takes.  But, I know this.  We need Marquis back in top form and tonight would be an excellent time to start.

Go Marquis,

Tiffany

Early in the game I suggested to Kellia, (the local Byrnes aficionado) that perhaps she and I could both be happy with the game if there were a Cardinals win and if Byrnes were to hit for the cycle.  And, now he is halfway there with a single and a homer.  So we'll see if that happens.  That wouldn't bother me in the  least if the Cards still ended up winning.  It's about time we get back to first place.  With the Reds loss tonight, a win would put us back there.

Byrnes homer actually had me temporarily worried, as it tied up the game.  But, Edmonds did what Edmonds does when he's on.  He put a very pretty swing on a 2-0 pitch and put us up by 2.  The best part of course was that he did it after Pujols got hit by a pitch.  That's making them pay.  They have since added one more insurance run.

A couple other significant hits tonight.  Molina got another hit and apparently has been working very hard with the hitting coach to get him going at full speed.  And, also Larry Bigbie got his first Redbird hit tonight, making him 1 for 5 (.200) for the season.

Well, it's not over until all 9 are played, but I'm feeling a lot more comfortable at 5-2 than I was at 2-2.  Izzy has been awesome in the last two games, so let's hope that trend continues today, as it's looking like it could very possibly be a save situation.

Thompson had a perfect 7th, but then the Grimley struck out the side in the bottom of the 7th.  Terrible.  As long as we can hold on to this lead.  I was hoping that Flores would be coming in since he was warming up and indeed, he is getting ready to.  He hasn't pitched in awhile and he's one of my favorite relievers.  Well, that's another perfect inning, with Thompson and Flores combining to get it.

Alright, we're 3 outs away......

Tiffany

Well, I went out tonight and just got home, so there was no time to write a big post about the Diamondbacks series.  The game is starting here momentarily, so I will just write a couple of brief things. First, here are the two teams lines so far this season in all the major categories:

So, on paper these teams are very close.  They are virtually tied.  The Cards have a slightly higher batting average, but Arizona has more hits.  Arizona has legged out four more triples, but the Cardinals have one more stolen base.

Still, my money has to go with the Redbirds.  Both teams might be in second place, but Arizona is playing .559 ball as opposed to the Cardinals .629.  While Arizona is playing good ball right now, I think the Cardinals are more capable of finding a way to win than Arizona is.  Plus, you have to like the Cardinals at home.  They are 14-5 right now at home.  Lastly, Mulder has now hit his 100 games and so the pressure of being at 99 is off.  He can relax and just concentrate on making good pitches and winning the game.

Well, just as I'm writing this, I watched the Cardinals have just scored two runs, so that's an excellent start.

And, you read that right....I'm watching this game.  After all my problems with MLB.TV, many phone calls, frantic emails and finally a blog rant.....a guy named Scott Fanzo finally contacted me and was able to get it fixed (hopefully for good).  If I knew who he was, I would buy him a present.  Also, thanks to Mark Newman at mlblogs, because I think he helped to get this taken care of.

Last but not, least, if you were on mlblogs.com today, you saw that I was on the front page because I won a contest.  Pretty cool.  Now you think that would have led to more comments.  Alas, it did not.  So, hopefully more people will comment at least every once in awhile, because it's fun to hear what other people's opinions are.

In fact, there was a question I thought of the other day while watching the game that I would love everyone's opinions on.  Every baseball player has some little quirk that they do after a pitch (if they don't hit the ball into play).  For example, Edmonds bends straight back as if he's going to do a backbend and also does a little skip step away from the plate.  Eckstein smacks himself in the helmet after every pitch.  Other guys mess with their batting gloves or do other strange things.  It's habit and they do it so often you can often can tell who's batting without seeing their face.

So, the question is, what player's at-bat habits do you like the most and what is it that they do?  And, I'm hoping it wont' just be Cardinal fans that answer.  I don't watch every team often enough to know what other players do and I would like to hear responses for your team.

Alright, bottom of the 2nd coming up!

Tiffany

Well, I'm back in Spain.  I spent the last week and a half Stateside surpising all of my family and friends, which was a blast.  The first surprise happened at the new Busch stadium, which I saw for the first time since June 2005, when it was half built.

My summary: the pictures do not do it justice.  It's a beautiful park and awesome to be in.

If you want a more in-depth view of my day at the park, you can read the post below.  The only thing I think I didn't mention was how upset I was that Rolen was out of the lineup.  He's my favorite player and I NEVER get to see him play live.  He was hurt last year when I went to the game and then this year he's out with bronchitis.  Maybe I'm bad luck. :(

I missed writing about a lot of games while I was home, but I watched almost all of them.  All of my family are huge Cardinals fans, so whenever we're hanging out, the Cards game is always on, even if it's just in the background.

I won't try to detail all of the games from that timespan, but I will just say overall I like the way the Cardinals have been playing and will write a general recap of the last couple of weeks.  With the off day today, I watched last night's game today and it was another great game.  Homers, doubles, lots of ribbies and another save for Izzy.  What more can you ask for? Ok, on to my recap:

General recap:

• They finished their last homestand 8-2.  They are 2-1 on their current one.  Keep this up and they will make 100 win seasons look like nothing.
• The disappointing blemish of course was losing two to Cincy and Houston.  It's never fun to lose, but it especially hurts when it's your own division.  And, even more so, because I believe we are much better than both teams and much better than we played those four games.  (Though finishing with a sweep against the Marlins made me feel a lot better. :)  )
• 18 homers.  He's amazing.
• Encarnacion continues to turn it on.  He's already hitting better this month than he did all of April.  In May, in less than half the at-bats he had the entire month of April, he's already hit more homers and just as many RBIs.  He's also higher in average, on base percentage and slugging.  In April, he went hitless in 10 games.  So far in May, he's kept that to two games.
• Last night, every starter (with the exception of Suppan) got a basehit.  When this happens, you will win ballgames.  Guaranteed.
• Ponson's on the DL.  So far it doesn't sound too serious, but it's always scary when pitchers get hurt because you never know where it might lead.
• Tyler Johnson (recalled when Ponson was placed on the DL) pitched last night for the first time this year.  He faced one batter and got him out.
• Thompson batted for the first time this year.  He struck out and the bullpen loved it.

Things I would like to see happen soon:

• For Rolen to go deep.  He came back strong in his first 3 games back after being sick, going 6 for 12.  But, Colorado held him to just one hit in 3 games.  And, he hasn't hit a homer since April 16.
• For Molina to get started hitting again.  He's capable.  We all know it.  He proved last year how good he can be at the plate, which many of us Cards fans considered a bonus, because of what a great backstop he is.  But, now that he's been slumping this long, it's easy for that to get inside your head and you end up psyching yourself out of the hit.  He's done better at the start of May than he was doing at the end of April, but he's still not where he can be.  I'd like to see him stay around the .200 area, instead of .168, where he's currently hitting.  Plus,  he hasn't had an extra base hit day since April 16.
• The Cards are in the top 5 in the NL in the following categories: runs, RBI, walks, OB % and batting average.  I would like for them to be in the top 5 in these as well: hits, doubles and homers.  The good news is that they are second to last in strikeouts.  And, I also think they are capable of upping their OBP to the top 3 in the NL.
• Pujols to compete for the triple crown, which means getting his average up.
• The pitching staff are definitely pulling their weight and I have little complaint.  They are last in the NL in ER allowed and I hope they keep it that way.

I will try to talk about the upcoming Arizona series if I have time tomorrow before the game.

Well, I know I've been away for awhile, but hopefully you all haven't forgotten about me and will still leave me lots of comments. :)  I haven't been advertised for awhile on mlblogs front page or on the blogosphere page, so Mark, maybe you'll be able help me out there. :)

It's good to be back and I will try to catch up with some of the other blogs out there, since I haven't read any for quite some time.

Ready for an AZ sweep,

Tiffany

Alright, I have a story.  If you read it all, it will make sense how it is baseball related.

Months ago I decided I wanted to come home for a little bit sometime this summer because I hadn't been home since Christmas and wouldn't be able to come home again until next Christmas.  I had the vacation days and the money saved up, so I just had to decide when.  I also had to decide to get from St. Louis to my town, because flying between the two is pretty expensive.  Driving is the best way, but I sold my car before moving to Europe.  I could have someone pick me up, but I thought it would be fun to surprise my family and friends.

So....I had to somehow get my family to St. Louis.  The plan seemed obvious.  Get them to go to a Cardinals game.

I had wanted to buy my oldest nephew Cardinal tickets for his birthday anyway, so as I said in this post, I bought him tickets for yesterday's game.  What no one knew is that instead of three tickets (for my parents and nephew), I actually bought four.  I had one sent to me and the plan was underway.

There was sooo much planning to get the rest of the details worked out, but I managed to pull it off.

I showed up yesterday at the game and found my family sitting in their seats.  I got my mom first, who I thought might fall over onto the field.  She yelled about 50 times, "What are you doing here?!"  I then surprised my dad and nephew and they were as equally shocked.

So, I had a ride home from St. Louis and at the same time managed to see the new Busch Stadium in its first month of existence.  As you Cardinal fans know, the Cards beat the Nationals (who I have never seen play in person) 9-2.

Plus, it was "kids run the bases day," so my nephew got to do that.  I was able to go down to the field to watch, which was extremely exciting for me.  Walking down in the dirt around the warning track the stadium looked awesome.  Especially with the arch in the background.

I took a lot of pictures at the game and some from the field, so if I can figure out the whole photo thing on there, I will post those soon.

So, it was really a perfect day at the park with my family and now I will be home for a week, which I am way excited about.  I will not be posting on here as much probably this week, but will start up again once I'm back in Spain.

The cool thing about being home is that I can just watch the games on TV and not wait for a token to watch them on my computer! :)

So, that's my story.  And, here are my thoughts:

All in all, Busch Stadium is a lot better and cooler than I thought it would be.  I was very sad at the propect of tearing down the old park because it was so beautiful and had a lot of history.  But, the new park is amazing.  It feels so open and not as closed in as the old park.  And, there is so much there in terms of food and services.  Pretty incredible.

The only thing that put a damper on yesterday was my nephew wanted to get a ball from one of the bullpen crew, but they were not willing in the slightest to do that.

He yelled a few times after they were done warming up Juan only to be ignored.  I yelled once at a guy who from the back I thought looked like Thompson.  But, once I yelled, "Brad! How about a ball?" he turned around and made eye contact me and I realized that it was not Thompson.  It was Josh Hancock.  From the back they look very similiar.  I yelled sorry, but he totally ignored me.

The last ditch effort was when my nephew asked Marty for one by name.  He yelled Marty and the guy looked up, saw Spencer and then turned away and wouldn't look up again.  That surprised me only because I figure only a handful of people in that stadium could probably identify that guy by name.

It was very strange.  I saw two balls given to really little kids, but even a lot of other younger kids were ignored.  Before the game, between innings.

The last thing is that I didn't watch Friday or Saturday's games.  They were the first two games this season I didn't watch.  Friday, I couldn't because MLB.TV customer service had be on hold for an hour and 25 minutes before they picked up and sent me a token.  And, Saturday I didn't watch because I was traveling to the States.  So, it wasn't until I arrived in St. Louis on Sunday that I realized Pujols had tied and broken the home run record in those two games.  I can't believe I missed them.

So, congrats to Pujols and hoping for another 14 in May.  He's the man.

Also, hoping that they come out against the Reds strong the rest of the series.  Tonight's game was just sad.

Tiffany