Cards Wrap Homestand, Stay In First

This close.  This close to a 7-0 home stand.  While it’s not good to be greedy, it’s a little disappointing to be so close and not get there.  Still, 5-2 against the Dodgers and Astros is pretty solid.  Let’s take a look at the last few games:

Thursday (Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3 in 10)
Hero: Rick Ankiel.  Matt Holliday had a good game as well, but Ankiel’s home run tied the game late and gave the Cards a chance to win.  They didn’t capitalize, but it still counts.
Goat: Dennys Reyes.  Todd Wellemeyer might have given up the final hit that drove in the runs, but Reyes left him in a terrible situation.  Reyes came in with one out and no one on and allowed a hit, a walk and a wild pitch.  While Wellemeyer only needed to get one guy out, runners on second and third don’t help things any.
Notes: That potent offense the Cardinals were flashing slipped back into obscurity, something that carried through the rest of the weekend.

Friday (Cardinals 4, Astros 3)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  Four for four, two RBI (including one that tied the game) and scored the go-ahead run.  Pretty good night at the ballpark.
Goat: Ryan Ludwick.  No hits in three at-bats, plus he left four on base.
Notes: Another hitless night for Albert Pujols…Nice to see Mark DeRosa with another home run.  Makes that whole Jess Todd thing a little easier to swallow…A tolerable outing for Mitchell Boggs, but he’s got to have better control.  Five walks is just asking for trouble.

Saturday (Cardinals 3, Astros 1)
Hero: What a toss-up.  I mean, Matt Holliday goes yard twice in a game the Cards only score three runs.  However, Chris Carpenterwas on the mound, and when Carpenter is on the mound, it’s hard for him not to get the tag.  The tiebreaker had to be the double that Carp hit, then seeing him score on a sac fly to break the 1-1 tie.  All-around game from the ace.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  Both he and Skip Schumaker were 0-4 and Skip even left more men on base, but it’s Albert. He’s held to a higher standard and, at the moment, he’s not reaching it.
Notes: Have I mentioned how fun it is to have Carp and Adam Wainwright going back to back?  Toss in Joel Pineiro, who is pitching well also, and you only have to worry about the pitching maybe twice in the rotation.  With Kyle Lohse still trying to figure out what kind of pitcher he is and the off-days allowing for a four man rotation for much of August, it’s going to be a good month.

Sunday (Astros 2, Cardinals 0)
Hero: Adam Wainwright.  If the offense had been able to do anything, Waino would have been the first 13 game winner in the NL.  Did you realize he was tied for the league lead in that category?  I didn’t.  If the Cards win the division, Wainwright and Carp are both going to get Cy Young votes.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  Another o-fer, plus you know he’s slumping when he misses a pitch he usually takes out of the ballpark .  He’ll get turned around, of course, but hopefully sooner rather than later.
Notes: Another unknown pitcher, another shutdown performance.  It’s the downside to being as prepared with video and other means….Cards stay in first by a half-game thanks to the Cub bullpen.  You think they may have some issues out there?  The last couple of days were rough for them, at least.

As we are seeing, good pitching can help the Cardinals do a lot, but they’ve got to have some offense backing them up .  While we all thought things were hunky-dory from the Holliday acquisition through the middle of last week, the Cards have now only scored 13 runs in their last five games, two of which went to extra innings.  While they are 3-2 in that span, you don’t want to count on the pitching continuing to hold up.

You like to think with a day off today Pujols could get on track and make this offense more like what was expected.  Not to cast aspersions on the trade–obviously Holliday has been worth the price so far–but you can only ride the arms so far.

Troy Glaus is going to see a back specialist about the bulging disc in his back.  Looks like another setback, but maybe he’ll be able to get some relief, get back on his rehab, and be ready to come up when the rosters expand in September.

It’s also nice to see Blake Hawksworth get some more meaningful innings.  If Boggs doesn’t improve (and I realize it’ll be a while before he’s needed again), I wouldn’t mind see Hawksworth get the call for the fifth starter spot, at least to see what he can do.  Hawksworth is also on Twitter (@cdnhawk) so if you are on there, might want to give him a follow.

I’ve not done the self-promotion in a while, so let me remind you that you can find me on Twitter (@C70) and there is both a group and a page on Facebook for this blog to go along with their blog network application.  I tend to try to update the page status occasionally, so if you are only picking one, that’s the way to go.

Daniel Shoptaw is the founder of “C70 At The Bat,” where he regularly writes about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals.  You can find more of his work here .