As I pointed out in my preview of tonight's game, the pitchers would have a pretty excellent duel. St. Louis Cardinals' starter Kyle Lohse came out on top of San Diego Padres' ace Jake Peavy, as the bullpen held off a late scare by the Padres to preserve Lohse's 12th win of the season.
Lohse got some help from the longball, as the Cardinals scored all their runs on four solo home runs. Slugger third baseman Troy Glaus unleashed two bombs along with Rick Ankiel and Joe Mather.
In fact, five of the seven total runs scored in the ballgame cleared the fence.
This was a phenomenal start for the Cardinals, but there is still a question mark regarding their closing situation. Tonight, Ryan Franklin gave up a run in the ninth and recorded the final out with a man 90 feet away from scoring the tying run. It will be nice to see the day when the Cardinals bullpen doesn't make diehard fans want to commit suicide.
As I have said in previous articles, I think Chris Perez should be the closer for the Cards, but that's beside the point.
Tonight was another quality display from Lohse, whom I consider to have been one of the biggest snubs for the Midsummer Classic. The resurgence that he has shown in the Gateway City has truly been one of the top stories of the year in the MLB, as he has three more wins than he had all of last year, going 6-12 with the Cincinnati Reds, and winning three ballgames for the Philadelphia Phillies.
While I'm on the topic of resurgence, let's take a quick stop with Glaus. After a mediocre start to his 2008 campaign, Glaus has gone on a power tear, now hitting .279, with 17 HR and 61 RBI. He has put together some good seasons, but the straight-up trade for Glaus while giving up Scott Rolen has made Cardinals management look like geniuses as Rolen continues to struggle.
Overall though, this was a great game for the Redbirds. The offense was working well, the defense was good (including a brilliant play from Aaron Miles), and the pitching was stellar, apart from the ninth inning.
While it was a good win for the Cardinals, they need this sweep over the cellar-dweller Padres.
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2 months ago
I don't know how I feel about Perez being the closer. I really think Franklin is our best option after Izzy's downturn. Our pen is just so un-spectacular it really makes me nervous. As I said in my mid-season surprise article, Lohse's quality outings have kept us alive. 5 1/3 average for a start is simply unacceptable. Clearly Dave Duncan is much smarter than I, but man I don't know what we are going to do about this. But I am not a Perez fan yet.
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