Results tagged ‘ Milwaukee Brewers ’
Cards’ Wings Clipped in Rubber Game
Thursday night’s game in St. Louis very well could be the point of no return for the St. Louis Cardinals as they fell to the Chicago Cubs in game three of three game series. With both Houston and Philadelphia winning while Milwaukee lost, a shaking up of the Wild Card standings was inevitable. St. Louis remained 4.5 games back of the Brewers, while the Astros passed them up in the standings, moving to 3 games back with the Phillies. Tony LaRussa’s ball club would have it hard enough to be chasing two teams, now adding a third team to the mix makes it that much more difficult for the Cardinals to find a way into the playoffs.
A tight ballgame was being had in St. Louis, with pitching that was very solid for the first 4 innings of the matchup. Todd Wellemeyer and Rich Harden both performing well with the rain falling in St. Louis. Unofrtunately, Wellemeyer would be on the bad end of an error from sure-handed firstbasemen, Albert Pujols. Uncharacteristically of Pujols, everyone in the ballpark was in disbelief as the error allowed two Cub runners to cross home plate later in the inning. Two runs were only given up by Wellemeyer, both unearned. St. Louis got themselves on the board in the bottom of the 6th-inning when Albert (Pujols) dobuled to left that scored Aaron Miles. Pujols’ RBI double gave him 100 RBI’s on the season and puts him in company with Al Simmons and Ted Williams as the only players in history to begin his career with eight straight 100-RBI season. Felipe Lopez followed Ryan Ludwicks groundout with a sharp single to center, scoring Pujols easily. The 6th-inning would be the only inning the Cardinals would manage to score in, as they were shut down the rest of the way, but not without threatening, though.
In the bottom of the 8th-inning, Aaron Miles lead off the inning with a single, bring up the always dangerous Alert Pujols, yet again. Carlos Marmol, who was pitching for the Cubs made an attempted pickoff move to first, but didn’t step off the rubber before faking a throw. Thus is a balk in baseball, which would allow each runner to move up one base. Homeplate umpire, Mike Reilly did not call the balk, which very well could have cost the Cardinals the game. Sadly, I was able to catch the balk instantaneously, while these Major League umpires couldn’t pick it up. Any of the three other umpires could have stepped forward, but no call was made by any of them. As an umpire I know the stress that is put on you, as I umpire youth league baseball from ages 12-18. I hate to blame an umpire for a loss because I’m simply not the person that tries to find excuses for a bad outcome, but this call could have been a huge swing for the Cardinals at that point in the game.
With the Cardinals 4.5 games back in the Wild Card now, the door seems to be closing more rapidly as the Astros continue to make yet another late-season run for a playoff bid. Philadelphia doesn’t look to be going anywhere either with MVP candidate Ryan Howard leading the way for the Phils. Although, the Brewers seem to be fading for the second straight season, that will not be enough, as the Cardinals look to chase Houston and Philadelphia as well. LaRussa has done a great job with keeping this team afloat all season long, let’s just hope the recent injuries won’t be the demise of the St. Louis Cardinals for the 2008 season.
Lilly, Errors too Much for Cardinals
Left-handed veteran starter, Ted Lilly was outstanding in tonight’s start against the St. Louis Cardinals. Lilly improved to 14-9 on the season, but made every bit of this outing count, both on the mound and on the base paths. The first inning was the only hiccup Lilly had on the night, when he allowed a run on an Albert Pujols RBI ground out, bringing his season total to 99. With the first inning behind him, Lilly put the Cardinals on lock for the next seven innings, shutting them out while only allowing four hits in his last seven innings of work without walking a single batter. After a two inning outing against the Reds, Ted Lilly made sure to right the ship for the struggling Cubs, only needing to throw 90 pitches (63 for strikes) to get through eight innings of work.
The mound wasn’t the only place Lilly managed to do damage against St. Louis. After a bunt that lead to an error on Felipe Lopez at third, when he tried to make a force play into a tag play, Lilly reached first on a fielder’s choice. The very next play, Lopez made another error after making a spectacular diving play to his left, got up to make a throw to second, making a low throw in the dirt. Lilly, running to second on the play, didn’t slide and ran over Cardinal second basemen, Adam Kennedy. With Derek Lee at the plate, Lilly tried to score on a soft chopper to Ceaser Iztruis, who threw Lilly out at home. With the close play at home, Lilly went in hard at home, trying to jar the ball loose from Yadier Molina, where Lilly’s knee went into the thigh of Molina. Molina suffered a bruised thigh which would later be the reason for him leaving the game after his at-bat in the bottom of the 4th-inning.
Lou Pineilla would take the ball from Ted Lilly after the 8th-inning and hand it to tenured Cub, Kerry Wood. After a strikeout of Felipe Lopez, Albert Pujols came to the dish, looking to spark some sort of rally for his Cardinals. Pujols doubled to deep right, giving exactly what the Cardinals were looking for; baserunners. Ryan Ludwick took a pitch out to deep right-center for a two run bomb, bringing the Cardinals within a run, while notching his 101st RBI and 33rd homer on the season. Kerry Wood would go on to retire the next two Cardinal batters, one by means of the strikeout, and another on a flyout to center. Wood obtained his 29th save on the year, but has made a number of those saves very interesting, keeping manager Lou Piniella on his toes.
The late-inning surge by the Cardinals was not enough to mount a complete comeback, but shows the type of heart St. Louis has shown all year. Tony LaRussa has his club using the “never-give-up” attitude which has kept them within contention for a playoff berth. Hopefully, the Cardinals can keep that attitude up, and overcome the newest dose of injuries to Troy Glaus and Yadier Molina. It’s up in the air now, but it’s only a matter of time before the playoffs will be set, and the postseason to begin. Intriguing is the most fitting word to use to describe the playoff races down the stretch.
Birds Not Dead Just Yet
Albert Pujols has taken the St. Louis Cardinal team and put them on his back, carrying the team the last week. Pujols, who has an elbow injury has taken it upon himself to come up clutch in key situations that could change the ballgame. Making a bid for yet another 30+ homer 100 RBI year, Pujols homered last night off of Ryan Dempster to tie the game at three a piece, brining Pujols’ season RBI total to 98. He’s already reached the 30 homer plateau, but remains two RBI’s away from 100.
The Cardinals have won three straight, but Pujols hasn’t been the only person helping the Cardinals win in this recent streak. The starting pitching has also been giving the Cardinals a big lift in the last four or five games. After coming back from injury, Adam Wainwright has been outstanding in his four starts. In those four starts, he’s 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA fanning 19, and a stat that’s even better, the Cardinals have won all of the games Wainwright has started since his injury. Todd Wellemeyer also put forth a good effort in his last start to earn a victory against one of his former teams, the Florida Marlins.
With the Brewers wining this afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds, the Cardinals are now 4 games out, and need a win tonight against the NL Central leading Cubs to keep pace with the Brewers. If the Cardinals can win tonight, they’ll remain 3.5 games back of Milwaukee in the NL Wild Card. Philadelphia, who is currently losing to the Florida Marlins, 2-1, are also ahead of the Cardinals in the Wild Card race, but could fall behind the Cardinals tonight with a Phillies loss, and a Cardinal victory. St. Louis has 18 games left, and is still very much alive in the National League Wild Card. It should be a fun race as September continues.
8th-inning rally pushes Cards passed Brew Crew
Hopeful Cardinals fans witnessed a sight that should present more hope for their scrappy bunch of ballplayers. The Milwaukee Brewers came to St. Louis looking to stretch their lead in the Wild Card race, while the Cardinals were looking to the exact opposite.
With a 12-0 victory for the Beer Men, the Cardinals looked like a cellar dwelling team, instead of a lively ball club fighting for a playoff berth. Resiliency has been one term that the Cardinals could use about this season. They’ve always had resiliency. Not going on long losing skids that would resemble the 2006 campaign. Although, we all know what happened in ’06.
In the second of a two game series, St. Louis was trailing 3-0 going into the bottom of the 6th-inning, when Ryan Ludwick blasted his 32nd homer on the year, cutting the lead to 3-1. Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin teamed up to pitch scoreless 7th and 8th-innings respectively. After Franklin finished his inning on the mound, the Cardinals came to bat, but with a little more fire than usual. At the end of the 7th, relief pitcher, Carlos Villanueva got out of the inning, and began yelling towards the St. Louis dugout. Pujols, the on deck batter, walked towards Villanueva as he was walking off the mound toward the visiting dugout. Pujols and Villanueva jawed back and forth for about a minute, with homeplate umpire, Phil Cuzzi trying to keep Pujols from going after the right-handed reliever.
Unfortunately, for David Riske, Villanueva got him into trouble. “He woke a sleeping bear” Pujols said. Riske back-to-back doubles, to Pujols and Ludwick, Ludwicks being the latter, also driving in a run. Troy Glaus came to the plate and singled to beat the shift the Milwaukee defense had set for him, plating Ludwick to tie the game at 3. Good baserunning allowed the Cardinals to score the go-ahead run as Glaus took second base on the throw from Mike Cameron to try to cut down Ryan Ludwick at the plate. Yadier Molina did his job, grounding out to the right side, allowing Glaus to advance to third on the play.
Brewers manager, Ned Yost, was playing a matchup as he brought in Brian Shouse to face Skip Schumaker to create a lefty-on-lefty matchup. LaRussa quickly countered with switch-hitting Aaron Miles as a pinch-hitter. Miles hit a groundball to shorstop, J.J. Hardy, in which Troy Glaus bolted home on contact, and with a smart slide was able to avoid the tag of Jason Kendall to give the Cardinals the lead on the fielder’s choice. After a sac-bunt from Braden Looper, Felipe Lopez singled and Miles scored to make the score 5-3 in favor of the Redbirds.
Rookie “closer” Chris Perez took the ball from Tony LaRussa in the top of the 9th-inning, pitching a solid inning. He gave up one hit in the inning, a double to J.J. Hardy, but he fanned the other three batters he faced in the inning. One being his old college teammate, Ryan Braun. Braun battled him nicely, but Perez threw a slider that fooled Braun badly, and sent him back to the bench with his 110th strikeout of the year. Perez blew Prince Fielder away with 94 mph gas to strike him out and end the game.
St. Louis has moved within 3.5 games back of the Brewers for the Wild Card and head into Houston on Firday to wrap up the month of August. Another three games in Arizona to start September, and the Cardinals are back home in St. Louis to take on the Florida Marlins. The Brewers play Pittsburgh for three games, then take on the Mets at home for three. We’ll see if the Cardinals can gain any ground in the Wild Card over the next week.
Birds Fly Out of Florida with Series Win
Todd Wellemeyer pitched his best game of the season Thursday night against the Florida Marlins. Wellemeyer brought home the third victory for the Birds in the four game series against the Fish.Todd threw 7.2 shutout innings, gave up only three hits, walked 4, and struck out three in what was easily his best start of the season. The dominance was some of the best seen all season by a Cardinal pitcher. After the second-inning, only one hit was allowed by the power pitching right-hander.
Needless to say, Wellemeyer didn’t need much help on the offensive side of the game with the masterpiece he was putting together. Wellemeyer got the only help he would prove to need when Ryan Ludwick doubled to deep left and plated Cesar Izturis in the top of the third-inning. That wasn’t all the help Ludwick would offer his pitcher though, he went on to drill a home run over the wall in left to score two more for the Cardinals. Ludwick’s double and home run boosted his season average to .304, gave him his 26th double, and 30th homer, and 90th RBI. Without Ludwick, the Cardinals would not even be close to where they are now, he’s been a huge uplift to the offense with pitchers continuing to walk Albert Pujols. St. Louis leaves Florida with two straight wins, and three out of the four game series. Milwaukee lost to San Diego tonight, which puts the Cardinals three games back in the Wild Card race. With pitching performances like tonight the Cardinals have a very legitimate shot at capturing a playoff berth, most likely as the Wild Card.
Birds Claim Game One Against Fish
Monday brought a bounce-back victory for the Cardinals, after losing the rubber game of the 3 game series to the Chicago Cubs. A sweep from the Marlins is what the Cardinals need to keep pace in the NL Wild Card with the Milwaukee Brewers. The 4-2 victory Monday night wasn’t much of an offensive explosion for either team. Joel Pineiro took the mound against Anibal Sanchez, who pitched a no-hitter in 2004. Pinerio pitched seven strong innings, gave up two runs, only one being earned, and fanned four.
Scoring got started early as the Cardinals plated one in the first inning. Rick Ankiel, who had been battling an abdominal strain, singled in the first to bring newly signed Cardinal Felipe Lopez to pay dirt. Pineiro gave up the two runs in the first and second inning, and that was it for the Florida Marlins. In the fourth-inning, the Cards were put on top for good by a Yadier Molina two-run homer to deep left. That homer being the first for Molina since June 20th. Although, Yadi hasn’t had a lot of pop in the bat this year, he’s been a consistent offensive performer. He’s the hardest player in the NL to strikeout, while batting the highest he has in his career, .304. The Cardinals were leading 3-2 heading into the ninth-inning. Joe Mather, who has shown the Cardinals that he possesses power, hit a solo homer to left-center field, putting the Cardinals up by two. With a two run lead, Chris Perez came on for the save, and has put and end to the woes in the back end of the bullpen for the Cardinals. At least for the time being. The flame-throwing right-hander stifled Marlins hitters, after walking Dan Uggla. Uggla was thrown out trying to steal second base by Yadier Molina, with Wes Helms and Cody Ross both striking out to end the game.
Rick Ankiel has come back and looks like he’s at 100% after an abdominal strain held him out of the starting line-up for nearly two weeks. Ankiel will be a good asset to have back on the field both offensively and defensively. Chris Perez looks to be stepping into the closers role nicely and has somewhat sured up the tail end of the bullpen. Down the stretch the Cardinals are going to need all the help they can get while they try to chase down Milwaukee, and Chicago.
Ludwick, Mather Homer in Cardinal Victory of Philly
Rookie outfielder, Joe Mather extended his hitting streak to five games, while adding yet another homer to his name. The three run homer in the top of the 3rd for Mather was his 3rd in 5 games. Fellow corner outfielder, Ryan Ludwick also had a power surge against the Phillies, taking not one, but two balls out of the yard. The Phillies put their ace Cole Hamels on the bump to take on Kyle Lohse, Lohse improving to 13-3.
Lohse looked sharp to start the game, not giving up a hit until after the 4th inning. Trouble seemed to loom around Lohse in the 6th, as he worked himself into a jam. A ground-rule double by Chase Utley plated Victorino, and a two run homer by Pat (the bat) Burrell ended Lohse’s game after 5 1/3. LaRussa went to Russ Springer after Lohse and the bullpen was strong to finish off the game. In the bottom of the 8th, Ludwick added his second homer of the game to make the score 6-3. Jason Isringhausen was brought on to close out the game, earning his 12th save of the season and notching another win under the Cardinals’ belt. The victory allowed both the Cardinals and the Brewers to move one game closer to the Chicago Cubs as they lost earlier in the day to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, only 4 games back the Cardinals look to keep up the hot play and inch closer to the division lead.
Cardinals Stand Pat at Deadline
General Manager John Mozeilak did not make any moves as the July 31st non-waiver trading deadline passed at 4 p.m. EST. Mozeilak had actually been rumored to put season standout Kyle Lohse on the trading block to try to acquire some help with the back end of the Cardinal bullpen. The Cardinals had expressed interest in veteran left-handed reliever Brian Fuentes, but the Rockies were asking a lot for the seasoned closer. Colorado had been thinking about whether or not to let go of Fuentes and slugger Matt Holliday at this year’s deadline. Dan O’Dowd (General Manager) and Clint Hurdle (Manager) of the Rockies felt they have a legitimate chance at making a run in the anemic NL West, therefore, pulling Fuentes and Holliday off the table. Although, it had been noted Holliday would not be going anywhere.
With the Birds playing in Atlanta this week, they’ve been able to sneak some very good looks towards the left-handed reliever the Braves own, Will Ohman. Ohman, who is in his sixth year of service in the major league’s has served with only one other team than the Braves, the NL Central rival Chicago Cubs. The south paw is easily having his best year of his career, posting a formidable 2.80 ERA while fanning 41 batters in 45 innings of work. In those 45 innings, he’s given up only two homeruns, walked 18 batters, owns a 1.11 WHIP (Walks+Hits/Innings Pitched), and has held opposing batters to a feeble .198 average. Rumors swirled that the Cardinals had expressed interest in the 30 year old pitcher, and could be silently working on a deal with Braves management while in Georgia’s capital city.
Although, the non-waiver deadline has come and gone, don’t put it passed the Cardinals front office to make a late deal in prospect of bolstering the roster to catch the division leading Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals, who are tied for second place in the division with the Milwaukee Brewers, now are only chasing one team rather than two to claim a division title and punch a ticket to play in October. Keeping that in mind, be on the lookout for the Cardinals to try to land a player in the next week or so.
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