The St. Louis Cardinals have had their mind made up for a while and that was to not offer arbitration to any of their free agents and let them walk away and sign with new teams this off season. Russ Springer, Braden Looper and Jason Isringhausen will now be looking for a new home for the 2009 season while the team will not receive any draft picks if they do indeed sign with new teams.

St. Louis has five other free agents who are not rated Type A or Type B. Mark Mulder, Juan Encarnacion, Felipe Lopez, Cesar Izturis and Ron Villone were also not offered arbitration.

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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.

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Milwaukee Brewers for the third straight night as they were shut out 3-0 on Wednesday night.  The Cardinals are really shooting themselves in the foot with the are playing against the Brewers.  It would have been the perfect time for them to pick up ground on the Cubs as they have really struggled in the second half.

Braden Looper took the loss for the Cardinals after he threw five innings.  Looper gave up seven hits but only run as he really didn’t pitch that badly.  Kelvin Jimenez and Jason Isringhausen both pitched two innings in relief and both relief pitchers gave up one run each.

The offense only came up with three hits on the night as they struggled against CC Sabathia.  The Cardinals really need to get the bats going and hopefully they will on Thursday as they try to avoid the embarrasing four game sweep.

Cardinals Baseball Blog

After taking the first game in a three game series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the St. Louis Cardinals lose the next two games to lose the series.  In the series finale on Thursday, the Cardinals lost to the Phillies 4-1 as they struggled scoring runs even though they had seven hits in the game.

Braden Looper tossed six innings and gave up seven hits and four runs as he took the loss to fall to 9-7 on the year.  Looper didn’t really put his team in a position to win the way they were struggling at getting runners in to cross the plate.

Russ Springer, Ron Villone, and Chris Perez all threw one inning of relief without allowing a run.  Good job by the bullpen as they atleast gave the offense a chance to make the game closer in the late innings.  It is to bad the offense didn’t take advantage of that however.

The only run to cross the plate came in the fourth inning when Yadier Molina had a rbi single that scored Troy Glaus.  So now we have to hope that the Cardinals bats come around and actually drive some runs in as they take on the Pirates this weekend.  I think they will come back and swing the bats better on Friday.

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals doubled up the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night as the Cardinals defeated the Tigers 8-4.  It was a good win on the road for the Cardinals as they began a three game series against the Tigers.  Cardinals just need to keep on winning and I think good things will happen.

Braden Looper pitched six innings and allowed seven hits and four runs.  Looper pitched well enough though to pick up the win and improve his record to 9-5 on the season.  Russ Springer, Kyle McClellan, and Ryan Franklin all pitched a scoreless inning of relief without giving up a run.  The bullpen did a great job on the night!

Brian Barton, Skip Schumaker, and Brendan Ryan all had two rbi each in the game to lead the Cardinals at the plate.  Barton did have a solo home run for the biggest hit.  Nick Stavinoha and Adam Kennedy both had one rbi each in the game as well.

The Cardinals will try to go up 2-0 in the three game series on Wednesday.

Cardinals Blog

Braden Looper pitched a gem giving up only 3 hits and NO walks on 98 pitches in Wednesday night’s game at the Great American Ballpark.  His performance was definitely something Cardinal fans needed after seeing our star, Albert Pujols, headed to the DL for at least three weeks.  This was Looper’s first shutout in his 44 career starts.  His start last night has definitely shown baseball fans that he has officially made the transition as a true middle of the rotation starter after spending the his first nine seasons in the bullpen as a reliever.  His ERA dropped from 4.86 to 4.34, improving his record to 8-5, being the first Cardinal this year to reach the 8 win mark.

Our offense was also superb, scoring 10 runs on 10 hits and drawing 8 walks.  It’s nice to see our LOB numbers finally coming down after it seemed like we were leaving 10+ men on base every game for the first two months of the season.  Our lineup has gotten especially good at drawing walks this year. Kudos to Hal McRae.  The Cardinals lead the majors with 392 walks, and are 26th in the majors in strikeouts!  Hal McRae does a great job of getting hitters to see the zone.

Rick Ankiel(10), Ryan Ludwick(16) and Jason LaRue(1) all hit dingers, this being the second game in a row for both Ankiel and Ludwick.  Ankiel’s three-run shot in the first lifted the weight off of Looper’s shoulders allowing him to get into the groove for the rest of the game.

Obviously the performance of the game was Looper.  After seeing three of our starters and Albert hit the DL, a game like this is just what the team needed.  If our interim starters and offense continue to perform we should be in great shape while Wainwright and Pujols recover from their injuries.

The cardinals improved their record to 40-27, 13 games over .500 and just 2.5 games behind the Cubs.  We keep winning games but the Cubbies just seem to be unbeatable lately.  This many games into the season last year, the Cardinals were 30-37.

Joel Piniero makes his first start since coming off the DL Thursday night to pitch against Bronson Arroyo.  Hopefully we can head home fresh off a sweep of the Reds. Remember to vote your Cardinals into the All-Star Game!!!!!!

Cardinals Blog

Things sure did get interesting in the ninth inning for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Colorado Rockies scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to bring the score to 6-5, but Ryan Franklin was finally able to get his first save of the season.

Braden Looper pitched 8 1/3 innings to pick up the win for the Cardinals.  It was the longest outing of Looper’s career.  He did allow ten hits and four runs in the game but the offense and two great throws by Rick Ankiel really helped him out.

After the game Ankiel said that he was more impressed with his two outfield assists in the game then he was with his solo home run in the eighth inning.  Brian Barton, Adam Kennedy, Ryan Ludwick, Ankiel, and Looper all had one RBI in the game for the Cardinals.  That is production up and down the lineup.

Good win for the Cardinals as they stay up 2.5 games on the Chicago Cubs who beat the Cincinnati Reds.  Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals completed a short two game series sweep of the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon with a 5-2 victory.  The win over the Reds puts the Cardinals up half a game in the divsion as the Cubs and Brewers will play each other tonight.

Braden Looper pitched six innings to pick up the win which was his fourth of the season.  Looper gave up seven hits and two runs in the game.  Jason Isringhausen pitched the ninth inning to pick up his ninth save of the season.

At the plate, Aaron Miles and Rick Ankiel both had two RBI in the game.  Chris Duncan scored the Cardinals first run of the game on a wild pitch in the second inning.

The Cardinals are playing some good baseball and they definately are doing it at the right time.  The Cardinals will have Thursday off before they take on the Chicago Cubs in Chicago.  Another big divisional series coming up.

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals were able to get a few hits but not enough runs to win the game on Sunday against the San Francisco Giants  as they lost 8-2.  The loss puts the Cardinals at 12-7 for the season.  

Braden Looper took the mound to start off the night for the Cardinals allowing a staggering 10 hits and 7 runs in his three innings pitched.  Anthony Reyes and Ron Villone were each brought in to pitch three innings and Reyes gave up one more earned run.  Villone did a great job as he did not allow a hit in his three innings of action.

Troy Glaus as well as Rico Washington each picked up RBI’s on doubles in the ninth inning.  The bats really let the Cardinals down today and they will need to swing the bat better as they take on the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday.

The Cardinals after a 2 game losing streak head to Milwaukee to battle the Brewers
for the National League Central number 2 spot on Monday night.

Th St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1 on Tuesday night as Braden Looper picked up the win and moved to 3-0 on the season.  With the win, the Cardinals record now sits at 10-4 and atop the central division.  It is always nice to pick up a divisional win, especially against the Brewers.

Looper pitcher five innings, allowing five hits and one earned run.  He did walk five batters and struckout five batters.  If he hadn’t walked so many batters, he would have pitched more then five innings.

Kyle McClellan, Ryan Franklin, and Anthony Reyes pitched the final four innings without giving up a hit.  That is some great production out of the bullpen.

Skip Schumaker led the Cardinals with two RBI while Chris Duncan, Adam Kennedy, and Cesar Izturis all had one RBI.

Cardinals Blog