Exciting Times In Cardinal Nation

You know things are going good when a late-inning win to extend a lengthy winning streak is the second most talked about story today. Let’s take the game first, though, before we get into the trade rumor that popped up last night.  We’ve talked about it before, but one of the great things about this winning streak […]

Cardinals Continue To Roll

What’s been the most encouraging thing during this current Cardinal winning streak is that they keep winning in different ways.  The first couple of games, they slugged.  They’ve had good pitching performances.  They’ve had comebacks.  They’ve beaten pitchers that normally give them fits. Everything save the comebacks came into play last night.  OK, they didn’t really […]

Christmas In June

To: St. Louis Cardinals From: Arizona Diamondbacks Note: You can use it more than we can.  Enjoy this gift-wrapped win! There are really no words to describe what happened in the ninth last night.  Throwing the ball away on a runner going to third?  Throwing the ball past the catcher and letting the tying and winning runs […]

Mea Culpas

While taking my regular weekend sabbatical from blogging, I got to thinking about some of the posts that I’ve written this week and I realized I’ve strayed a little bit from what the general tone of this blog usually is. Back in my very first entry, before I swapped WordPress for Blogs By Fans or started […]

Another Chance To Sweep

Pitching duels are a lot of fun.  At least, they are when you come out on the winning side.  I’m not sure Ian thought last night’s game was as enjoyable as we did. Bernie Miklasz Tweeted last night that Chris Carpenter honors Bob Gibson by going out there and competing with less than his best stuff.  As we’ve […]

Cards Soar In Foreign Land

You know, when the discussion of launching pad stadiums comes up, I never think of Toronto’s Rogers Center.  Wrigley, Coors, even the old Atlanta stadium that started the nickname.  However, if last night is any indication, Rogers Center is right up there with the rest of them. The Cardinals played the long ball better, smashing […]

Sweep Incomplete

Busy couple of nights at the ballpark, with most of the focus on the bump in the middle. First off, the Jeff Suppan return tour kicked off in a manner that didn’t shock me too much, though I will admit I didn’t think it’d be that strong.  You had a guy that’d made some adjustments, […]

Card Shuffling Proves Effective

The big news prior to yesterday’s game was the fancy new lineup that Tony La Russa was running out there.  Matt Holliday was hitting second, Ryan Ludwick was hitting fourth and, to the great joy of some, the pitcher was hitting eighth. Now, it’s hard to know if the lineup switcheroo was at all to […]

Desert Mirage

The Cardinals won the first game in Arizona, but that was just the oasis in the losing streak.  A quick recap: Friday (5-2 win) Hero: Brendan Ryan.  He’s still not found himself at the plate entirely, slipping back around .200, and a home run was about the most unlikely thing that could have happened in […]

Cardinals Struggling In LA

You know, when the offense is clicking, you think things are just going to roll on forever.  However, even with an offense like the Cardinals’, when you take out a couple of pieces, the Jenga tower apparently falls down. Another game without David Freese or Colby Rasmus turns into a 1-0 loss.  Chris Carpenter deserved […]

A Cardinal Weekend

The Cardinals had a good weekend against the Brewers, though it could have been better.  Their slipup last night on ESPN’s game of the week dropped them back into a tie for first.  I go over this series and the Reds series in my weekly column, but let’s take a look at them here as […]

First Place Again

Well, the offense wasn’t strong last night, but since the Cardinals were able to put together enough runs to win, I’ll take that as an indication that it’s OK for me to stay with this blogging thing.  (I was going to anyway, but it’s nice to know there’s no correlation.) It was good to see […]

Their Reputation Preceeds Them

You know that going into San Diego, it’s going to be a tough place to score runs.  The park is designed for pitching and the Padres usually take advantage of that with some pretty solid pitchers.  Last night was a textbook example of that. Even though Adam Wainwright deserved so much better, striking out 12 […]

Signs Of Cardinal Life

It wasn’t a perfect weekend for St. Louis.  Not that it was bad, mind you; anytime you win two of three it’s a pretty good set.  However, the signs from this weekend indicate that as nice as this series with the Angels was, better days are a-comin’. Heroes and Goats, quickly: Friday (9-5 win) Hero: […]

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 Pujols to fourth really had that much of an impact.  I think […]

Second Rate

After the sweep by the Astros, the Cardinals needed a series win to stay ahead of the Reds in the division standings.  It didn’t happen. Friday (4-3 win) Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Three hits, including a two-run home run that proved to be the difference. Goat: Ryan Franklin.  Didn’t blow the save, but he did his darndest. […]

Laying An Egg

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or been thrown into some big glowing light on a remote island.  My work schedule has made it tough to blog this week and the Cardinals’ play has keep the motivation to blog down as well.  Let’s take a quick look at the Houston series […]

A Little Concern, A Little Relief

Let’s do the quick recap of the Pittsburgh series before we talk about what came out of it. Friday (4-3 win) Hero: Yadier Molina.  Smart thinking in the eighth to tag out the right runner, game winning double in the ninth for his fourth hit.  Man does it all. Goat: Ryan Franklin.  All of the […]

Redbirds Roll Through Weekend

It was a very busy weekend for me, but the Cardinals did a lot of working as well.  By now you know all about the games, but let’s take a quick look at Thursday through Sunday to get our Heroes and our Goats.  (If you want a more in-depth look, my Week that Was column […]

Another Rally By The Redbirds

You know, it’s kinda nice to see these comebacks.  Granted, I’d like to see them get a lead and then gradually increase it, but knowing that a team isn’t out of it is helpful. You have to give the Hero tag to Yadier Molina this time.  For the second straight night, he gave the Cards […]

Cardinal Comeback

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has expressed kind words over the Cardinal Blogosphere Guide.  I hope that it results in increased traffic for the blogs listed and that you can find another source of can’t-miss Cardinal writing. Perhaps it was just me, but it seems like if this was […]

Pitchin’ On The Dock Of The Bay

You knew, just looking at the matchups, two things about this weekend’s series.  One, it was going to be darn tough for the Cardinals to keep their streak of not losing a series alive.  The second was that if anyone scored, it was going to be a fairly impressive accomplishment. Sometimes when you think you […]

The Cardinals’ Favorite Cheese

I’m not sure if he listed it amongst his many cheeses during his picnic with Libby two weeks ago, but Hurley really should have packed what is quickly becoming the cheese in Cardinal Nation. Colby Jack. Colby Rasmus was the no-doubter Hero last night.  Two home runs, an early one to give the Cards a […]

Disaster Start

So far the Cardinals have played two games in Arizona.  The differences could not be more stark. Monday night, it was vintage 2010 Cardinals.  Brad Penny allowed a couple of runs in the first, then cruised, piling up out after out, extending the streak of starters going seven and allowing two runs or less to […]

Cardinals Continue to Battle Injuries

Things were rolling along.  Matt Holliday was back from his rib cage injury and starting to find his groove.  Albert Pujols was back from his back, relieving a lot of worries in Cardinal Nation.  Everything was great, until yesterday’s game, when Yadier Molina pulled up lame, left the game, and was diagnosed with a strained […]

A Pain in the Back

The Cardinals split up the squad yesterday and wound up with two wins, including a huge eighth inning that brought them from behind against the Red Sox.  So what’s the major story today? Albert Pujols’s back, of course.  The man gets a hangnail, Cardinal Nation hyperventilates.  With good reason. This is starting to trouble me […]

Dark Horse Comes Galloping Up the Stretch

The Cardinals had a pretty eventful weekend, even with their Sunday game being rained out.  More data points for decisions were made and one possible move was revealed.  Spring training is so much fun, isn’t it? The biggest news of the weekend was likely the announcement that Adam Ottovino is in the running for a […]

Subtle Shifts

While no major news came out of Jupiter yesterday, there were a couple of things that could have an impact on the season to come. First, the Cards returned Ben Jukich to the Reds.  For a Rule V guy, he didn’t get a lot of looks in camp, only getting two innings in one game. […]

Garcia Makes a Statement

Even though the Cardinals lost to the Nationals yesterday, they were able to take something away from it.  Jaime Garcia isn’t interested in Memphis. Garcia struck out seven batters in three innings, allowing no runs and just one hit and a walk.  Of  course, you adjust that for competition, since the Nationals aren’t known for […]

Dealing With the “Rumor”

I guess not surprisingly, the biggest thing coming out of Cardinals camp yesterday was a Seinfeldian discussion about nothing. Look, no one took that “trade rumor” involving Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard the least bit seriously.  No one thought that it might happen, that the teams really had talked about it, etc.  I think most […]

Fun at the Old Ballpark

The Cardinals seem to have righted the ship and are moving in a positive direction, winning both games of the weekend.  Before we talk about that, though, let’s discuss the topic making the rounds: Buster Olney’s report of a Albert Pujols/Ryan Howard trade. First off, the Olney report is probably accurate, because when you read […]

Book Review: Joe Cronin, A Life In Baseball

One of the perks of being a baseball bloggers is, at times, you get a chance to get a free baseball book on the off-chance that you’ll write about it to an audience that may care what you have to say.  I’ve had four or five of these opportunities come directly to me, but this […]

Wounded Birds

While there was plenty of news from the game yesterday, the biggest discussion point probably happened before the first pitch was ever thrown. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were both scratched from yesterday’s game against the Nationals.  Pujols’s back still isn’t quite right and Holliday has a strained rib cage muscle.  A team that looks […]

Back Against It

The biggest news from Cardinals camp yesterday didn’t come out of the matchup between the Cards and the Red Sox, between Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett.  The news of the day was made before the game even started and hopefully hasn’t put the team’s back to the wall. Albert Pujols didn’t make the trip yesterday […]

Splitting the Weekend

Two games, one win. The Cards finally broke the seal on the win column this weekend.  After falling Saturday in extra innings to Florida, they were able to get a win against the Marlins on Sunday.  Kyle McClellan had a very solid start, but had to since his main competition, Rich Hill, was just about […]

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