Wednesday September 9th, 2009

Cardinals Update:
Well its been awhile since my last post so were going to begin with the Cardinals win on Labor Day.
Tony LaRussa described the performance as "heroic", and with the Birds coming of a tough series finale loss in the 9th inning to the lowly Pirates it truly was an outstanding peformance from the Cardinal ace Chris Carpenter. His line reads 9IP 0ER 1 H 2BB 10K's, but with the bullpen a little short and closer Ryan Franklin unavailable Carp gave the Cardinals exactly what you need from your NO. 1. Carpenter only needed 99 pitches to dispatch of the recently annoying Brew Crew leading the Redbirds to their 15th straight series opener. In those previous series the Cards are an astounding 14-1 with their last series lost coming back in early July against the NL East leading Phillies. Carpenter was truly dominant allowing only a double to Jody Gerut in the 5th inning and only allowing two balls to leave the infield.
Albert Pujols provided all the offense Carpenter would need with a two RBI double and later scoring on a single by the red-hot Matt Holliday. Carpenter improved his already impressive Cy Young resume and continues to lead the National League with a 2.16 ERA.

On Tuesday the Cardinals looked to lock up another series victory against the Brewers, but that prospect looked bleek early on. With John Smoltz on the mound after learning he would be given a few more chances to start, began the day with a little hicup. After a double by Ryan Braun, Smoltz left a pitch out over the plate to the NL RBI leader Prince Fielder and he made him pay with a two run homerun in the opening frame. It looked to be much of the same starting off the second when the Brewers began the inning with three straight singles that lead to another run and Cards deficit of 3-0. Smoltz really locked in after that retiring 12 out of the next 13 batters he faced, including the last eight he faced keeping the score where it was anf giving the Cards a chance to nibble away at the lead. The story of the day was missed opportunities with the Birds going 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11 baserunners including the bases loaded with one out in the eighth. After a solo homerun by Albert Pujols in the 5th cut the lead to 3-2 it looked as if the Cards would at least tie the score with the bases juiced and only one out and Colby Rasmus in the batters box. The Brewers relievers proceeded to get a strikeout of Rasmus and then getting Julio Lugo to groundout to third and the idea of a Cardinals win looked like a slim possibility with the all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman coming in to save the game. In the ninth, Hoffman got out out quickly and with Pujols up to bat did what most pitchers do with the game on the line; walk him. The Cardinals new slugging outfielder Matt Holliday the proceeded to make the Brewers pay when he took a 2-1 pitch from Hoffman deep to centerfield for the go ahead 2 run homerun and another series victory for the Cards. With Ryan Franklin still unavailable Kyle McClellan came in to get the save for winning pitcher Blake Hawksworth, who is 3-0 after pitching a perfect 8th.

Today's game was much of the same from starter Adam Wainwright on his way to his league leading 18th win. Wainwright pitched 7 innings 5 hits 0 ER 1 BB and 6 K's to lead the Cardinals to a sweep of the Brewers and reduced their magic number to 12. The story of the day, as it is most days, was slugger Albert Pujols. El Hombre had two homeruns and three RBI's to increase his league leading homerun total to an amazing 47 with just under three weeks to play. Pujols looks to be a lock to have his first 50 homerun season in his career, a stat that seems as surprising as his nine year run at the record books. If Pujols continues his season at this pace he will most definitely win his 3rd MVP award in five years. The win gave the Cardinals a record of 84-57 and with a Dodgers loss this evening the Cards would take over the best record in the league for the first time all season. The only blemish on the day was the early exit for Holliday after a rather weird stumble on a ground out. The reports on him were that it was a precautionary move and that he had minor bruising of his left knee. Holliday did his part though with a sacrifice fly in the first inning to give the Birds a lead the would not reliquish. With closer Ryan Franklin again unavailable, the Cards ensured they would need to use him in beating a former teammate Jeff Suppan for the second time this season. Colby Rasmus added an RBI triple after battling a heel injury all week.

The Redbirds are 5-1 in their last six games and the starting pitching continues to be the story of this incredible run. Carpenter, Wainwright, and Joel Pinero are an amazing 29-3 since the start of July, with the team record a league best 34-10, good for the biggest division lead out of all six divisions at 11 and a half games over the surging Cubs. Wainwright and Carpenter are leading the way in the Cy Young race, though neither will acknowledge the fact, with Wainwright saying, "How can I win that when I'm not even the best pitcher on my own team", and Carp saying "That's the least of my concerns right now". The Giants Tim Lincecum is right there with the Cards Duo, and might have an advantage the other two wont have. With the Giants in a tough pennant race in both the National League West and the Wildcard, Lincecum will have the benefit of pitching in more meaningful games down the stretch, whereas the Cards all but have their division wrapped up at this point rendering some of their games less meaningful to say the least. That probably wont change the way the competitive pair pitch, with each one tyring to one-up the other start after start, but they could run into another problem if they both continue on this pace. Much the way Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen did in 2004, the Cy Young contenders could run into a situation where they are splitting votes from Baseball Writer's who vote on the award. Either way its been fun to watch, keep it up Waino and Carp.

Baseball Picks for Wednesday September 9th, 2009

Rangers over Indians
Cubs over Pirates
Cardinals over Brewers
Giants over Padres
Rays over Yankees
Phillies over Nationals
BlueJays over Twins
Red Sox over Orioles
Marlins over Mets
Braves over Astros
Tigers over Royals
A's over White Sox
Rockies over Reds
Angels over Mariners
D-Backs over Dodgers, (Come on Haren!!!)