Albert Pujols was named the National League MVP on Monday afternoon. It was Pujols’s second MVP award of his career as he also won the award back in 2005. He 18 of 32 first place votes to win the award without much competition.

Pujols hit .357 with 37 home runs and 116 RBIs while playing with a sore right elbow. He was rewarded despite the Cardinals’ fourth-place finish in the NL Central. He is the only big leaguer to hit at least 30 home runs in his first eight seasons in the majors and has finished in the top 10 of the NL MVP voting each year. Pujols earned a $200,000 bonus for winning the award.

Congrats to Albert!

In an expected move today, the St. Louis Cardinals declined the $11 million option on left-hander Mark Mulder. Mulder will now be a free agent and can work out for any teams and negotiate a contract with any of those teams.

Mulder was a big bust for the Cardinals as he was often injured during his two years with the team. Mulder earned $13 million from the Cardinals over the past two season and he only pitched 12 2/3 innings in those two years! Talk about a waste of money.

At best a team will sign Mulder to a minor league contract and hope for the best. He has to be ready to accept a low offer of 1-3 million per year and probably only a one year contract for the 2009 season. We will have to see what team steps up and takes the chance on him.

The St. Louis Cardinals played the spoilers role on Thursday afternoon as they eliminated the Arizona Diamondbacks from the playoff race. The Cardinals hammered the D-backs by the score of 12-3 as Joel Pineiro and Albert Pujols both had huge days.

Pineiro improved his record to 7-7 as he tossed seven innings to pick up the win. Joel gave up three hits and three runs in the game. Adam Dunn took him deep for a solo home run and then he gave up a two-run single to Mark Reynolds but that was all the offense that the D-backs would get. Josh Kinney and Carlos Perez each tossed one inning of relief and held the D-backs scoreless during those two innings.

Pujols led the team at the plate as he went 3 for 3 wth a three run home run and a rbi sac fly to finish the game with four rbi. Ryan Ludwick also hit a solo home run and finished with two rbi. Felipe Lopez and Jason LaRue both had two rbi in the game as well. To finish out the scoring for the Cardinals, Cesar Izturis and Aaron Miles both had one rbi each.

The Cardinals will now play their final series of the 2008 season against the Cincinnati Reds. Friday and Saturday will be night games and then the season finale will be Sunday afternoon. Do your best to get out to the park one last time this season and catch the Cardinals play if you can.

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The St. Louis Cardinals lost a tough game at home to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night. The 4-2 loss was just one of many tough losses for the Cardinals in the 2008 season. With six games to be played, the Cardinals have a 80-76 record.

Todd Wellemeyer pitched six innings but gave up nine hits and three runs to take the loss. Welleymeyer is now 12-9 on the year. Against the D-backs, Wellemeyer struck out seven batters but had four walks and gave up one home run. Russ Springer also gave up one run in relief.

Skip Schumaker played a role in both of the Cardinals runs. He first scored on a balk in the first inning and then grounded out in the seventh inning to score Adam Kennedy. The Cardinals offense was terrible overall as they could never really figure out Diamondbacks starting pitcher Brandon Webb.

The Cardinals will try to even up the series on Tuesday night as they face off against the Diamondbacks once again. It would be nice to see a victory that is for sure.

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The St. Louis Cardinals lost a tough game on Wednesday night to the visiting Chicago Cubs. Two errors really hurt the Cardinals and the cubs took advantage of the errors to win by the score of 4-3. The cardinals really needed to win this game as they come down to the last few weeks of baseball.

The cardinals gave up all four runs that the cubs scored in the second inning. Felipe Lopez sure didn’t help things out as he committed two errors in the inning. Braden Looper ended up taking the loss and is now 12-12 on the year. He tossed the ball a lot better then the outcome was.

The Cardinals made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth when Ryan Ludwick hit a two-run home run off of Cubs closer Kerry Wood. That brought the cards to within one run but then Aaron Miles struck out looking and Josh Phelps flew out to center field to end the game.

The cardinals can still win the three game series if they can beat Rich Harden and the cubs on Thursday night.

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If the St. Louis Cardinals keep playing like this, there is no way they will make it into the post season. The Cardinals gave up a one run lead in the ninth inning and went onto lose to the Arizona Diamondbacks by the score of 4-3.

Relief pitcher Chris Perez gave up three hits and two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to take the loss and drop his record to 2-2. It was the third blown save for Perez as well. Cardinals starting pitcher Kyle Lohse lasted six innings and only gave up five hits and zero runs. It is too bad that Lohse couldn’t have stayed in the game longer. Kyle McClellan gave up two runs in the seventh inning as the D-backs started their comeback.

Troy Glaus had two rbi’s for the team as he hit a two run home run in the third inning. Lohse then added the teams third rbi with a rbi double in the sixth inning. There just wasn’t a lot of offense going around for the Cardinals on Wednesday night.

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Hello all Cardinals fans, just wanted to let you know that we will be taking Monday off as we spend time with our friends and family to celebrate Labor Day. We hope that you are able to enjoy the day and even catch a game or two on tv!

Hope everyone has a great day!

The St. Louis Cardinals picked up a must win on Wednesday night when they rallied with four runs in the eighth inning and defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 5-3. The win was crucial for the Cardinals as they are now 3.5 games behind the Brewers for the wild card position.

Ryan Ludwick had a solo home run and a rbi double to lead the Cardinals with two rbi. The dramatic eighth inning saw Ludwick get this started with the rbi double which was then followed by a rbi single from Troy Glaus. Glaus then came around to score on an Aaron Miles fielders choice to shortstop. To add a little insurance, Felipe Lopez singled to center field and Miles came around to score the fifth and final run for the Cardinals.

On the mound it was Ryan Franklin getting the win as he pitched the eighth inning. Franklin is now 5-5 on the year. Chris Perez pitched the ninth inning and earned his sixth save of the season. Cardinals starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright tossed six innings and gave up eight hits and three runs to get the no decision.

The Cardinals are now off on Thursday and will start up a weekend series with the Houston Astros on Friday.

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The St. Louis Cardinals finished up a two game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates in old fashioned butt kicking style. The Cardinals evened the short series with an 11-2 victory on Wednesday night when they scored in five out out of the eight innings that they batted in. The win was big for the Cardinals as the Cubs lost and they are now 7.5 games out in the division.

Rick Ankiel and Jason LaRue both hit two run home runs to lead the Cardinals at the plate. LaRue finished the game with a team high three rbi while Ankiel and Albert Pujols were right behind him with two rbi each. Pujols rbi’s came on a groundout and a double. Skip Schumaker, Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus, and starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer all chipped in with one rbi each as well.

Wellemeyer got another victory as he pitched five innings. He improved his record to 11-4 as he gave up five hits and one run. Russ Springer, Jaime Garcia, Ryan Franklin, and Chris Perez all seen action out of the bullpen for the Cardinals.

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Todd Wellemeyer tossed a great game as the St. Louis Cardinals shutout the Florida Marlins on Thursday night by the score of 3-0. It was a big win for the Cardinals as the Brewers lost and the Cubs won. With the victory they also took three out of four games against the Marlins which is always nice to do.

Wellemeyer didn’t give the fish many opportunities to knock in any runs as he limited them to only three hits in 7 2/3 innings. Todd is now 10-4 on the season after getting the victory. Ryan Franklin pitched the ninth inning and gave up one hit before picking up ithe save.

Ryan Ludwick had all three rbi for the Cards as he had a rbi double that scored Cesar Izturis and then a two run home run that also scored Izturis. Ludwick now has 30 home runs on the season and 90 rbi.

The Cards will now fly to Cincinnati to play a weekend series with the Reds. I expect the Cardinals to have a lot of success against the struggling Reds.

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