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 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.

Cardinals Blog

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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The St. Louis Cardinals continue to play good baseball as they beat the Atlanta Braves for the third straight game.  On Wednesday night it was a 7-2 victory for the Cardinals and they have now won the first three games of the four game series against the Braves.

Chris Carpenter made is return and pitched the first four innings for the Red Birds.  Carpenter allowed five hits and one run before being taken out of the game.  Brad Thompson then tossed the next 2 2/3 innings and gave up three hits and one run.  After that, Russ Springer, Kyle McClellan, and Ron Villone finished things up without giving up a run.

Joe Mather led the Cards at the plate with two rbi with came on a two run home run in the eighth inning.  Cesar Izturis, Adam Kennedy, Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus, and Albert Pujols all added a rbi in the game as well.

The Cardinals will now be going for the four game sweep against the Braves on Thursday.  I will not be around to blog about it however as I will be out of town until August 12 as I attend a conference out of town.  If there is possibly a Cardinals fan out there that would like to give a try at blogging and writing some game recaps please email by clicking the contact us link at the top!

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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.

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The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies were tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning but then Ryan Howard and Pedro Feliz both hit solo home runs and the Phillies went onto beat the Cardinals 4-2.  You have to put that loss right on the bullpen as they simply didn’t do their job.

Kyle McClellan gave up the first home run in the 8th inning to Howard and then Feliz went deep off of Chris Perez.  McClellan ended up getting the loss on the game and is now on the season.

Cardinals starting pitcher Mark Mulder only recorded one out in the game before leaving the game with some shoulder discomfirt.  It is unknown right now how bad it is but I wouldn’t expect to hear good news.

With Mulder leaving the game so early, the bullpen had their work cut out for them and they did a good job up until that eighth inning.  Brad Thompson gave up two runs in 4 1/3 innings and that was all the runs the Phillies would get off the bullpen until that eighth inning.  Russ Springer and Jason Isringhausen both pitched good out of the bullpen.

Albert Pujols had a rbi sac fly in the seventh inning and then Troy Glaus added a rbi single right after that.  Those were the only two runs that the Cardinals would get in the game as they just couldn’t come up with the big hit in the ninth inning when they had a runners on first and second.

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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.

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After being rained out on Wednesday night, the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals will be playing a double header on Thursday.  In the first game of the double header, it was the Cardinals coming out on top with a 4-1 victory.

Troy Glaus had a two run home run and Albert Pujols also hit a solo home run to lead the Cardinals.  Joe Mather had a rbi doulble in the seventh inning after the Pujols solo home run.

Todd Wellemeyer tossed six innings and gave up five hits while picking up the win.  It was a good performance by Wellemeyer who improved to 7-1 on the season.  Chris Perez did give up one run in the eighth inning but Ron Villone, Russ Springer, Randy Flores, and Ryan Franklin all pitched good.  Franklin picked up his seventh save of the season.

The Cardinals will go for the double header sweep this evening so check back after the game for a recap!

Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals played through a rain delays but the rain couldn’t even slow the Cardinals down as they came away with a 6-1 victory over the Nationals.  Four runs in the first inning and then single runs in the fourth and fifth innings ended up being enough for the Cardinals.

Bengie Monlina hit a three run home run in the first inning for the big hit of the game.  The Cardinals also got a run in the first inning off of a Ryan Ludwick single.  In the fourth inning of the game, Cesar Izturis stole home to score and then the fifth inning Kyle Lohse had a rbi single.

Lohse ended up getting the win in the game as he tossed five innings and allowed four hits and one run.  Good outing by Lohse who improved to 6-2 on the season.  Kyle McClellan, Russ Springer, Ron Villone, and Mark Worrell all pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

It was a good win for the Cardinals as they were 3.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs are up three right now against the Padres so it looks like the Cards will remain 3.5 games back if the score stands.

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Joel Pineiro made one bad pitch in the sixth inning as Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a three run home run and the San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2.  That just goes to show that one pitch can cost a team a win at any time even if it is in the sixth inning.

Pineiro tossed 5 2/3 innings as his record dropped to 2-3.  He didn’t throw the ball that bad, just one mistake and the Padres took advantage of it.  Russ Springer, Kyle McClellan, and Chris Perez finished out the game for the Cardinals.

Troy Glaus had a rbi double and then Adam Kennedy grounded into a fielders choice that scored a run for the Cardinals.  Both of the runs came in the second inning, after that the Cardinals hitters didn’t have much luck at all.

The Cardinals remain two games back from the Cubs as the Cubs also lost on Tuesday night.  Cardinals Blog