The St. Louis Cardinals scored five runs in the ninth inning as they went on to beat the Atlanta Braves 8-3 on Tuesday night.  It was awesome to see the late inning scoring that really pushed the game out of reach for the Braves.  It was also a big win for the Cardinals as they kept pace with the Chicago Cubs and picked up a game on the Milwaukee Brewers in the standings.

Ryan Franklin picked up the win as he pitched in relief.  Franklin pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the Cardinals and did not allow a run in either inning.  Todd Wellemeyer started the game and pitched the first six innings of the game while giving up eight hits and just two runs.  It was a good quality start for Wellemeyer that is for sure.  Kyle McClellan pitched a scoreless ninth inning and gave up one run but it didn’t really matter at that point.

Albert Pujols hit his 21st home run as he went deep in the eighth inning.  Yadier Molina led the team with two rbi while Nick Stavinoha, Troy Glaus, Brendan Ryan, Cesar Izturis, and Pujols all finished the game with one rbi.

Cardinals Baseball Blog

The Cardinals lost to the New York Mets 7-4 on Wednesday night.  St. Luis took an early lead and looked as if they were well on their way to another victory, but the Mets had other plans. 

The Cardinals scored in the bottom of the first, Aaron Miles doubled to lead off the inning and then Rick Ankiel long homerun to.  In the second inning, Yadier Molina lead off the inning with a single to center, he would advance to second on a sac bunt by the pitcher, and score on a double by Skip Schumaker.  Down 7-3 in the sixth inning the Cardinals looked as if they might start a rally; Troy Glaus doubled to lead off the inning, and would take third a single to right by Chris Duncan.  Glaus would score on a sac fly by Molina that was caught by Ryan Church in foul territory.  However, pitcher Brad Thompson popped up a bunt attempt,why they didn’t use a pinch hitter there is beyond me, but worked out for the Mets, as Brendan Ryan popped to second to end the innings. 

Todd Wellemeyer did not have his good stuff.  In his five innings of work, he gave up 12 hits, 6 earned runs, while walking two and striking out two.  Brad Thompson pitched four innings in relief allowing two hits, and homerun to David Wright.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.  Joel Pineiro will pitch for the Cards and the Mets will have Pedro Martinez on the mound.   

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals lost a very dissapointing game on Thursday afternoon to the Detroit Tigers.  The Tigers tied up the game in the bottom of the ninth inning and then scored the winning run on a bases loaded walk to get the 3-2 victory.

Mike Parisi gave up one hit and three walks in the 10th inning as he took the loss for the Cardinals.  Pariso just didn’t get the job done and wasn’t able to get the game into the 11th inning like he was expected to do.  Gary Sheffield took Ryan Franklin deep for a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game and send it in to extra innings.

Cardinals starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer lasted five innings.  Wellemeyer gave up four hits in the game to get the no decision.  Ron Villone did give up one run as he pitched after Wellemyer was taken out of the game.  Jason Isringhausen did a good job as he threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Hopefully Izzy keeps on throwing the ball good.

The loss really purt a damper on the day that Albert Pujols returned to go 4-4 with one rbi.  Pujols and a great day at the plate in his first game since coming of the disabled list.  Brendan Ryan scored the Cardinals first run in the seventh inning as he scored on a Aaron Miles double and an error by the Tigers second basemen who made a bad throw to third base.

Now the Cardinals will have a three game series against the Kansas City Royals.  The Royals and Cardinals usually play some good games so who knows what will happen this weekend.

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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

Tuesday night at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati ended with a Redbird win, however, what was on most fans minds was the image of of our superstar, Albert Pujols, being carried off the field.  Despite rumors of elbow trouble at the start of the season, Pujols was quietly having the best start to a season in his incredible career.  Now that season will be stalled by a strain in his left calf suffered while running out a grounder to first in the seventh inning of last night’s game.

To be honest, from the look on his face when he fell to the ground, I thought it was a tear.  After aggravating his left calf muscle last week against the Nationals, I think we are all lucky that this time it is only a strain and not a tear.  A tear would mean months, maybe the rest of the season, with Albert landed on the disabled list.  A strain means that he can probably recover and rejoin the lineup in a couple of weeks.

At the beginning of the season, Prince Albert stood alone as the one glimmer of consistency that we could count on.  No one could have predicted how well our starting pitching has done thus far, and thanks to our rotation and Ryan Ludwick’s breakout season, we find ourselves tied for the fourth best record in baseball.

Albert’s absence means that Ludwick, Troy Glaus, and Rick Ankiel are going to have to start picking up the offensive slack.  Glaus has started to play better in the warm weather, having hit five home runs in eight games just recently.  Ankiel will likely hit just as he has for the rest of the season with lots of strikeouts and moments of power.  Ludwick has been absolutely incredible for our team, and if he can continue to produce like he has been, there is no reason why anyone else should see the three spot while Pujols is on the DL.  Our post-Izzy bullpen has shown that they are ready to regain our trust on the mound, and with Yadier Molina and Skip Schumaker having stellar offensive seasons, I don’t see any reason to panic with Albert out of the lineup for a few weeks.

The likely call-up to replace Pujols on the roster will unfortunetaly be Chris Duncan.  After struggling during the start of the season, Duncan was sent down to Triple-A in order to find his swing, which apparently he still has not found.  Since being sent down, Duncan is hitting .190 with no home runs.  I wish that our farm team had someone that was ready to step up instead of Duncan, but Chris seems to be our only option.

Last night was a great game to watch as we saw Mitchell Boggs make his first start as a Cardinal. Boggs had a great start pitching 5 innings with only two runs on four hits.  The runs came from Joey Votto’s fourth inning two-run homer.  With Wellemeyer, Piniero, and Wainwright all on the DL, it is good to see we can rely on our rookies while they recover.  Our bullpen also shined as they only gave up one hit and one walk in 4 innings of work, highlighted by a three strikeout ninth inning by Russ Springer.

Ludwick (15), Ankiel(9), Pujols(16) all hit longballs.  It’s good see our power break out like this, but it is also nice that the teams knows that we can win without it.  We have accumulated a lot of wins this season by simply executing small ball and smart baserunning.  Brendan Ryan also had a great night as he went 2-3 with three runs scored and two stolen bases.

The Performance of the game goes to Ludwick.  Ryan went 4-5 with 4 RBI’s, two doubles, and a home run.  He is the first cardinal of the season to reach the 50-RBI mark.  He has been absolutely incredible for the Cardinals this year, basically doing everything we expected out of Glaus plus hitting for average.  He is now slugging .667 with a .388 OBP raising his OPS to 1.055, which is good for fifth best in the Majors behind Lance Berkman, Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols and Milton Bradley.   The Cardinals are now 39-27 and 2.5 games behind the cubbies.

We are 3-1 so far on this road trip, and hopefully we can take at least one more game in this series to go back home 4-2 or even 5-1.  As hot as the Cubs have been, the Cardinals have no let them gain much ground.

Remember to vote your Cardinals into the All-star game.  Ludwick really deserves a spot on the roster.  Right now Pujols is third in first-baseman voting behind Derrek Lee!?!?!, thats ridiculous, get your votes in so we can see some red at Yankee Stadium in July!

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2 on Tuesday night to avoid a embarassing three game sweep.  It was good to see the Cardinals come back and salvage one against the Pirates.

Joel Pineiro pitched seven innings to pick up the win.  Pineiro allowed four hits and only one run in his seven innings of action.  Pineiro is now 1-2 on the season.  Russ Springer allowed one earned run before Jason Isringhausen picked up his eighth save of the season.

Brian Barton had two RBI’s on a single in the fifth inning to lead the Cardinals at the plate.  Skip Schumaker, Albert Pujols, and Brendan Ryan all had one RBI each.

Cardinals Blog