Amalgamation

Well, lots of things have happened since my last entry. There are several things I'd like to talk about, so grab a snack and enjoy.

Redbird Rollercoaster: The Cardinals have put me on an absolute emotional rollercoaster during the last few weeks. Last weekend, the Cards took three of four from the first-place Brewers and showed signs of a potential comeback in the NL Central. They scratched their way back into two games and comfortably won another against the Brew Crew, and I was very excited about the quality of baseball I was seeing. The pitching was good (13 scoreless innings by the 'pen), the hitting was timely, and the Cards were showing an energy that fans haven't seen for quite some time.

Then, the Cardinals traveled to Pittsburgh with the opportunity to really gain some ground on the Brewers and Cubs, as they were taking on the Mets and Phillies respectively. St. Louis took game one, and things were looking very promising. And on the second day, Tony LaRussa sent Braden Looper to the mound, and God said, "Let there be multiple Pirate hits and runs." The Pirates saw Loopers fastballs, and they said the pitches were good. I couldn't resist putting this Bible reference in because I remember thinking that only divine intervention could possibly keep the Pirates from burning Looper for seven earned through four innings. The final score was 15-1 in favor of the mighty Bucs.

Game three between the Cards and Pirates went 11 innings, and the Pirates came out on top after a David Eckstein error allowed the the eventual winning run to reach base. At that point, I felt so alone. I thought to myself that the Cards could salvage the road trip by doing well against the Nationals -- I mean, they ARE the Nationals. Surely, I thought, the Cards could take three from the NATIONALS.

Game One: The Nationals win in the bottom of the 9th to give the Cards another walk-off loss.

Game Two: The Cards get mashed 12-1 by the Nats. Mike Maroth was laughable, giving up five runs in 2/3 of an inning. During his previous apperance, he gave up seven earned in 1.2 innings. His ERA is now over 11 with the Cards. I think I can finally see how he lost 21 games a few years ago.

Game Three: The Nats win 6-3, thus pretty much driving a nail into the Cards' coffin.

The only hope for St. Louis is to dominate their final series with the Cubs and Brewers, but given their recent play against two of the worst teams in the majors, I'm not too hopeful.

I'll now give my impressions on some of the milestons that were reached this past week.

Glavine wins number 300: Congrats to one of the best pitchers to ever throw a baseball. He's only the 5th lefty to ever win 300 games. I think he'll be the last pitcher for a long time, maybe even ever, to reach the 300 win mark. Randy Johnson is 16 away from 300, but he just had back surgery and might not ever pitch again. If Johnson doesn't do it, I think that may be the end of the line for 300-game winners. Mike Mussina has the most wins of any active pitcher behind Johnson, but he's only got 245. Pitchers just don't throw as often as they used to, and they come out of games earlier, thus giving them fewer decisions in games where the bullpen is relied upon to finish the job. Again, congrats to one of the classiest guys in the game today.

A-Rod hits number 500: I just hate that he had to do it in a Yankee uniform. I, along with most other followers of baseball, believe he will ultimately hit 800-plus homers IF he stays healthy. Motivation will also be another factor since he is making such a ridiculous amount of money so quickly. If he does become the all-time homerun king, I hope he's not still in a Yankee uniform. P.S. - I hate the Yanks.

Bonds hits homerun number 755: Baseball fans have known it was inevitable for quite some time now. So, how do I feel? Well, as a baseball lover, I'm deeply saddened that there has to be so much controversy over Bonds' accomplishments. I do appreciate the fact that he has hit 755 homerun, and I will continue to do so until he is found guilty of steroid use. Do I think he used them? Yes, but until he is actually proven guilty, I will appreciate his feats -- even if I have to really grin and bear it. People must still realize that strength does NOT equal homeruns, and much skill is still involved to hit a round ball with a round bat, squarely. That's the baseball purist in me; however, if he is proven guilty, I will lose the respect that I have for him right now. I just wish it didn't have to happen like this.

Not our year

The Cardinals have had the most terrible luck this season; in fact, their lack of luck is almost humorous.

If someone stings the ball to the outfield, it's right at someone. If they sting one in the gap with men on, the outfielders make a diving catch, get up, and double a runner off to end the inning. Basehits that would normally score a man turn into outfield assists. Cards that are safe are called out, and opponenets that are out are called safe. Double play balls thrown by the Cardinals are deflected by the pitcher for infield hits. Pitches in the opposite batter's box are called strikes against the Cards, but borderline pitches for us are called balls. Our pitchers make good pitches that result in broken-bat singles or off-balance homers---absolutely nothing is going our way.

The Cards are also plagued with injuries. I'll enumerate them.

Chris Carpenter - Cy Young winner that is out because of elbow surgery.
Mark Mulder - A guy that you can traditionally count on for 15+ wins. He's yet to pitch an inning this season.
David Eckstein - Ecky was just starting to get hot, but now he's day-to-day with a lower back injury. He'll have to get his timing back.
Yadier Molina - He was finally having a productive offensive year; not to mention he's one of the best defensive catchers in the game today. He's out 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist suffered earlier this week.
Chris Duncan - He's putting up the best power numbers of any Cardinal while hitting a respectable .277, but he's day-to-day with a leg injury.
Scott Spiezio - By far the Cards' best pinch-hitter. Also a very valuable utility player who is one of their best clutch hitters. Day-to-day with a stomach bug.

Also, let's not forget about the car crash that killed reliever Josh Hancock earlier in the season.

I suppose the luck that the Tigers' pitchers experienced in last year's World Series has found its home in the St. Louis clubhouse.

Reyes throws another dandy

Where have the World Champions gone? And where have they buried situational hitting, smart defense, and effective starting pitching?

The Cardinals are now 16-24 and 8.5 games behind the perennial-cellar-dwelling Brewers in the less-than-stellar NL Central. Tonight's 8-7 loss to the Tigers got under my skin worse than about any other loss during the season.

The game started out just like normal: Anthony Reyes gave up two runs in the bottom of the first. Another run in the second inning and a 3-run shot in the third left the Cardinals with a familiar overwhelming defecit of six runs; however, according to the Cards' announcers, fans could still hold out hope for the remainder of the game.

They pointed out that opponents only hit .200 against Reyes the second time through the order, followed by a wretched .125 against him the third time through the order--- if he's fortunate enough to last that long.

My only guess as to why opponents hit a mere .125 against Reyes the third time through the order is that they are far too fatigued from running around the bases and scoring runs to have a quality at-bat against the pitcher who I've dubbed "The Butcher" for his uncanny ability to serve the batters copious amounts of meat. Apparently, he serves them so much meat that they can't possibly partake of all of it, hence the .125 average. Reyes' final stat line: 5.2 innings, 7 runs (all earned) on 9 hits. His record stands at an impressive 0-7, while his ERA rings in at an equally-impressive 5.84.

The Cardinals also showed their inability to participate in the essential baseball activity of capitalizing on opportunities by stranding 15 runners during the game. Once runners get on base, the batters seem to either be hyperactive (swinging at dumb pitches) or hypoactive (gazing at mistake pitches) at the plate. Adam Kennedy and Scott Rolen look like they are swinging an oar through vaseline instead of trying to hit a baseball. In fact, Rolen graciously decided to go 0-4 tonight and leave 6 runners on base, including popping up with the bases loaded to end the game. If only the game were played in a silo....

Then there is the absolute stupidity that the Cards are playing with. For instance, Juan Encarnacion's dive after an obviously uncatchable single by Ivan Rodriguez turned into a double. The next batter scorched a grounder to Pujols that advanced Rodriguez to third; however, had Encarnacion kept the single in front of him and held Rodriguez to first, the sacrifice grounder would've been a 3-6-3 double play. Rodriguez later scored on a sac fly to center, thus scoring the game's deciding run.

The aforementioned stupidity can only be rivaled by that of So Taguchi. Taguchi decided it would be funny to get caught stealing as the tying run in the 8th. There was a runner on 3rd, a 3-5 Scott Spiezio at the plate, and Albert Pujols in the on-deck circle. Yes, Taguchi was wanting to get in scoring position as the tying run, but you can't take the bat out of Spiezio's hands at that point. Even if Spiezio only singled in one run, there would be a runner in scoring position for Pujols, and the game could be left in his hands instead of in the hands of the 4'11", 100 pound Man from Japan.

Forty games down, 122 to go.

Oh, me.