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 Cardinals opened a four game series against the New York Mets on Monday night.  They beat the lackluster Mets 7-1; taking advantage of the Mets lack of offense, terrible pitching and worse defense. 

Kyle Lohse got his 10^th win of the season.  He pitched well against the Mets, holding them scoreless through five.  He allowed only one run off five hits in seven innings of work.  He walked two, and struck out four. 

The Cardinal’s offense took advantage of John Maine early, scoring in each of the first five innings.  The Mets made three errors in the game and the Cardinals took advantage, scoring two runs on errors. 

Skip Schumaker walked to lead off the first, he advanced to third on a single to right by Aaron Miles.  Schumaker would score, and Miles would take second on a single to right by Albert Pujols.  Miles would score, but Troy Glaus did not get credit for an RBI because he hit into a double play.  The Cardinals scored again in the second, Yadier Molina lead off the inning with a single to right, he advanced to second on a ground out by Brenden Ryan and would score on a fielding error by Luis Castillo.  The Cardinals tacked another run in the third when Rick Ankiel singled to lead off the inning and came around to score on a one out double by Troy Glaus.  In the fourth inning, with two out, Aaron Miles hit a single to third baseman David Wright, and took second on Wright’s throwing error.  Miles would score on a single by Pujols.  In the fifth inning, with John Maine out of the game and Carlos Muniz on the mound, Glaus was hit by a pitch to lead of the inning and would score when Chris Duncan hit his fifth homer of the season. 

 Tuesday night’s game is scheduled for an 8:05 p.m. start.  Todd Wellemeyer will be on the mound for the Cardinals and Tony Armas will make his for start for the Mets.

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

Talk about a bad way to lose a baseball game.  The St. Louis Cardinals had just tied up the game in the top of the ninth inning, and then took the lead in the top of the 10th inning, but ended up giving up a two run walk off home run and lost to the game to the Washingtion Nationals 10-9.

Ryan Franklin gave up a two run home run to Elijah Dukes in the bottom of the 10th inning.  Franklin took the loss and is now 2-2 on the season.  Franklin simply didn’t get his job done.  Mike Parisi the Cardinals starting pitcher pitched terrible as he only lasted four innings after giving up ten hits and eight runs.

Mark Worrell, Kyle McClellan, Ron Villone, and Randy Flores all pitched alteast one inning after Parisi left the game and before Franklin blew the game.  All four of those relief pitchers did a great job of not giving up any more runs to the Nationals.

Worrell actually led the Cardinals at the plate with three rbi as he hit a three run home run in the sixth inning.  Troy Glaus and Joe Mather both hit solo home runs.  Mather’s home run was what put the Cardinals ahead by one in the top of the tenth inning.  Parisi had two rbi while Skip Schumaker and Aaron Miles finished with one rbi each.

Tough way to split a double header.  Hopefully the Cardinals will get a decent nights of sleep so they can come out and play good against the Houston Astros on Friday.

Cardinals Blog

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

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

The St. Louis Cardinals blew a big lead against the Pittsburgh Pirates as they lost 11-5 on Thursday.  Actually, I should say that Jason Isringhausen and Ron Villone blew the game for the Cardinals.  They combined to give up seven runs the final two innings of the game.

Isringhausen took the loss for the Cardinals as he dropped to 1-5 on the season.  Just a terrible performance by Izzy and Villone.  Starting pitcher Joel Pineiro only pitched five innings as he was taken out of the game after giving up six hits and four runs.

Chris Duncan had two rbi to lead the Cardinals at the plate.  Rick Ankiel, Troy Glaus, and Yadier Molina all had one rbi in the game.

All I can blog about is how bad of a series this ended up being for the Cardinals.  The Cubs won once again and now the Cards are down two games in the division.  Cardinals Blog

Todd Wellemeyer threw a great game last night as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1.  Wellemeyer threw seven innings of two hit and one run baseball to improve his record to 4-1 on the season.

After Wellemeyer exited the game, Randy Flores and Russ Springer pitched the eithth inning before Jason Isringhausen finished the Pirates off in the ninth inning.

Five different Cardinals hitters all recorded one rbi in the game so it was a very balanced night at the plate for the Cardinals.  Albert Pujols, Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus, Yadier Molina, and Cesar Izturis all had one rbi in the game.

Cardinals Homeplate is currently seeking a Cardinals fan that would like to write game recaps for the games.  Recaps can be done right after the game is over or the next morning.  If you are interested be us the contact us link at the top of the site to email us.  Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 last night as the Pirates score four runs in the tenth inning to secure the win.  Now, that is a terrible way to lose a ballgame after coming to tie the game up in the eighth inning after being down.

Ron Villone took the loss for the Cardinals and is now 1-1 on the season.  Villone gave up all four runs in the tenth inning. One came on a rbi single and then three runs came in on a bases loaded double.

Kyle Lohse received a no decision in the game as he tossed seven inning and allowed five hits and four runs.  Russ Springer and Ryan Franklin pitched two innings of scoreless relief after Lohse exited the game.

All four of the Cardinals runs came with two swings of the bat.  Troy Glaus connected on a three run home run in the sixth inning, and then Albert Pujols hit a solo shot in the eighth inning.   Not much offense other then those two swings for the the Cardinals.

Good thing for the Cardinals is that the Chicago Cubs also lost on Tuesday.  The Cardinals remain one game behind the Cubs in the division.  Cardinals Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals batters jumped all over Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Johnny Cueto on Tuesday night as they knocked him out of the ballgame after only 1.2 innings of action.  The Cardinals put up seven runs against Cueto and then cruised on for a 7-2 victory over the Reds.

The score could have been a lot worse then 7-2 as the Cardinals left 24 runners on base.  I guess that is what happens when you aren’t hitting homeruns and you still put seven runs on the scoreboard.  All off the offensive scoring came from Troy Glaus and Rick Ankiel.  Glaus finished the night with three RBI while Ankiel had two RBI.  The other two runs the Cardinals scored were un-earned.

The Cardinals pitching staff held the Reds to only threee hits in the game.  Starting pitcher Joel Pineiro pitched seven innings and only allowed one hit.  Now that is what I call a quality start!  Ron Villone and Anthony Reyes pitched the final two innings of the game.  Reyes did give up two hits including a two run home run to Adam Dunn in the ninth inning.

It was a nice win for the Cardinals who picked up a game in the standings on the Cubs who lost to the Brewers.  Just keep plugging away and things will work out for themselves I think.

Cardinals Blog