Cardinal Numerology

On a night when seven became three and five became four , it was seriously good that it all added up to six.

Batting order probably is overrated and it is hard to know if the swap of Matt Holliday to third and Albert Pujolsto fourth really had that much of an impact.  I think the four-run first, though, might not have happened if the two were in their normal positions.  So many times Pujols has gotten on this year, but Holliday’s followed with a little grounder.  With Holliday walking in front of AP, Pujols got a solid base hit and the two-out rally was on.  At least early, the change in scenery (as it were) paid off.

Kyle Lohse finally was able to figure out something, though I thought it was going to be a long night when I saw the deep fly ball outs he was getting early.  You had to figure that eventually those things were going to start dropping or going a little farther, winding up over the wall.  Instead, he was able to pitch out of the trouble he created at spots in the game and give a solid outing over to the bullpen, which did their job (with a little help from Ryan Ludwick).

If Lohse actually has turned a corner, it’ll be a big boost for this team, of course.  He got ahead of the hitters, which was key, though he still had a weaker GB/FB rate than I would like to see.  His next outing is against the Angels.  If he can put back-to-back strong starts together, maybe I’ll at least check out the bandwagon.  Until then, I’m not sold.

Goat last night would be Felipe Lopez, though you have to cut him a little slack since he had just been activated off the DL.  Still, if the team is benching Brendan Ryan for the time being and letting Lopez play short and lead off, he’s going to have to get on base.

Cards go for the sweep (and, if Cincinnati would kindly lose, first place) with Chris Carpenter on the mound.  This is usually a good thing, his recent non-dominance (and inexplicable expressive moodiness) notwithstanding.  Here’s what Carp’s done against the Nats:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com : View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/18/2010.Looks pretty good for the Cardinal co-ace.

Pudge Rodriguez has hit him fairly well, but that’s it, and only Adam Dunn has taken him deep.

The Nationals counter with John Lannan.  His results against the Cardinals:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com : View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/18/2010.

Not much here.  Lannan has struggled so far this season, so we’ll have to see if that continues against this team.  We know how often the Cardinals do a favor for those guys with the very high ERAs by helping them lower it a few notches.  (As an aside, notice that Craig Stamman was pretty impressive on the mound after that first rough inning.  The Cardinal offense swap couldn’t pile on against him.)

The Baseball Digest story I mentioned yesterday went up late, so here’s the link .  Looking forward to seeing Carp start a winning streak tonight!