Wishes Granted

"I'd like to see them get a lead and then gradually increase it"

As I've said before, sometimes it's like they read this blog.  Last night, the Cardinals go out and score in the first, add on in the third, and then just kept going.  With any Cardinal starter right now (even Kyle Lohse, if he's gotten through a couple of good innings), you never get too worried if there's a lead, because the pitching has just been so good.

There are a lot of good candidates for Hero from last night's ball game, but I'm a sucker for pitching, especially when there's no obvious offensive selection.  It was great to see Skip Schumaker get a couple of hits (bet he won't be changing out of the high socks for a while), Colby Rasmus to drive in one with his first hit off a lefthander, David Freese celebrating his birthday right with two hits and two RBI, and if Albert Pujols hits a ball about a foot another way, he drives in three or four instead of just one.

All those were solid candidates, but you have to give the tip of the hat to Jaime Garcia.  It'll be interesting to see how he does when he starts seeing teams a second or third time, but right now he's just amazing to watch.  Who's have thought he'd get through his first month in a rotation with an ERA just slightly over one?  (And, more surprisingly, not even lead his own team in ERA!)  Garcia should be named rookie of the month this month by MLB and has put a strong foot forward in the rookie of the year race.  Jason Heyward may get more press, but Garcia has been better overall.

On the flip side, we have Matt Holliday.  Another hitless night, though he did walk and score a run.  If we counted pre-game, though, we'd have to find someone else, because smashing the C in Big Mac land is pretty darn cool, especially when you could see the ball still sitting up there.  Holliday thinks he's got an idea why he's been struggling, so we'll see if it works out.

Before we get to today's matchups, I want to talk a little about the new app that the Post-Dispatch has out for the iPhone and other mediums.  Full disclosure: I was provided a free copy of it, though no reviewing strings were attached to that.  I downloaded it last night and played around a little with it.  It's a pretty sharp thing.  It's got Bird Land on there, which is a must of course, and it's got the stories from the P-D.   It also comes with pictures and news of all the players, and it has an easy-to-navigate menu so that you can find all the stories related to Pujols or Holliday or whomever.  It even allows you to read Derrick Goold's Twitter posts, as well as other P-D members.  All in all, I think it's worth the $3 that they are charging for it.  If you are into these kind of things, it's worth checking out.

Cards go for the sweep in the afternoon tilt today.  A note that Fox Sports Midwest will be doing a live chat during the game, so check them out over there while the actions going on.  Adam Wainwright goes for the Cardinals, so you feel good about the chances of a sweep.  Here's what the Wagonmaker has done against the team that drafted him.

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
Nate McLouth	12	9	3	1	0	0	1	3	2	.333	.500	.444	.944	0	0	0	0	0
David Ross	12	11	2	1	0	1	3	1	4	.182	.250	.545	.795	0	0	0	0	0
Yunel Escobar	10	9	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.100	.000	.100	0	0	0	0	2
Chipper Jones	9	8	3	0	0	0	1	1	1	.375	.444	.375	.819	0	0	0	0	0
Brian McCann	9	9	2	1	0	0	1	0	2	.222	.222	.333	.556	0	0	0	0	0
Matt Diaz	6	5	2