Wednesday, May 23, 2007

That's a winner

Ah, yes...the Cardinals have made me happy the last two games.

Let's start with yesterday's 9-4 win over the Pirates.

Eckstein was back in the leadoff spot. He recorded three hits, scored once, and brought his customary scrappiness back to the top of the order.

Duncan, Encarnacion, Miles and Rolen all joined Ecky with multi-hit games, which is very encouraging, especially for the struggling Rolen. Perhaps this was his coming out party, so to speak.

Most importantly, however, Wainwright kept us in the game on the mound. He gave up 9 hits in his 5.1 innings of work, yet gave up just 2 runs as he pitched his way out of several jams. What this showed me is that Wainwright can win without his best stuff if he just bears down and makes some key pitches instead of getting flustered. He kept his head, made pitches, and came out on top.

Tonight's game was great because the Cards actually displayed some power (five homers in the month of May coming into the game). Eckstein led off with a homer, Edmonds hit an absolute moonshot, and Duncan homered in his third straight game.

The Cards also showed a bit of a killer instinct, tacking on an insurance run in the 8th. Though it may sound like I'm just looking for something to praise the Cardinals for, that's not the case. I was genuinely excited to see Spiezio drill a pinch-hit single to drive in the Card's fifth run because insurance runs just haven't crossed the plate for us this year.

Wells finally picked up a win, throwing seven solid innings while giving up two runs (1 earned) on five hits. He picked up key strikeouts in tough situations, and I was glad to see that LaRussa had confidence in him by sending him out to pitch the 7th.

Flores had a bad outing in relief, giving up a run in 1/3 of an inning, but Isringhausen picked him up, throwing 1.2 innings for the save. Izzy inherited the tying run on second, but struck out two batters to get out of the inning. He threw a perfect 9th to record his 11th save.

Beautiful day.

Only another Yankee loss would've made it sweeter.

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