Stumbling Down the Stretch

Like I said last night , who would have thought going into this home stand that the only game the Cardinals would win would be the game started by Todd Wellemeyer?

The Cardinals again struggled to put anything resembling a consistent offense on the field yesterday, piling up hits but never with a runner in scoring position.  The Marlins continued to give the Redbirds chances.  They just wouldn’t take them.

Still, with a game that had them down 3-0 before they even batted due to a barrage of singles, to be able to put the tying run on first in the ninth with one out says something about the resiliency of the team.  There are times in the past where that would have been a game where they packed it in and just took the loss.  Not anymore.

You do have a little bit of concern about the effectiveness of Joel Pineiro.  After a long string of low-run outings, he’s now posted a 4.62 ERA in September.  Whether that’s some of the law of averages coming into play, where some of those grounders are getting through instead of being caught, I don’t know.  He’s not walking any more batters (5 in 25.1 innings), so command doesn’t seem to be the problem, unless the sinker is staying in the strike zone more.

Tough to know where to go with the Hero and the Goat, because there are some decent choices for both tags.  On the upside, Skip Schumaker got two hits in the leadoff slot and Albert Pujols got two hits plus drove in a run with that HBP in the ninth.  I think I’ll go with Yadier Molina, though, for his two hits and breaking the scoring seal.

On the down side, you have Pineiro, who did allow four runs and ten hits in five and a third, but settled in after a rough first.  You have Rick Ankiel, who went zero for three with two strikeouts in front of Pujols.  The worst, though, probably has to be Matt Holliday, who did get one hit, but left seven on base and rapped into the game-ending double play.  Been a rough homestand for Holliday, but hopefully he and the rest of the team can gear up for the Cubs this weekend.

Thankfully, Milwaukee did the Cards a favor and the magic number now stands at 9 even with the loss.  I really hope that the Brew Crew can win this afternoon in Wrigley to get it down to 8.  Besides the obvious, if they don’t, then we’ll likely skip right over 6 in the magic number countdown.  And this year, of all years, skipping six would just seem so wrong.  Seriously wrong .

Tomorrow it’s UCB Project Day!  Been a while since we have had one of these, since we skipped August and July was the live blog.  Tomorrow, the participating blogs will put out their rankings of the Top 7 Prospects in the Cardinal system.  Which may be an appropriate day, as Memphis could close out the PCL Championship tomorrow evening after their win last night .  So be sure to check them all out!

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 .