A Weekend of Cardinal Baseball

Two games, two wins this weekend for the Cardinals. Plenty of offense to examine, but the most important stats came on the mound.

Chris Carpenter: 2 innings, no hits, no runs, 19 pitches, 13 strikes.

If you don't think those numbers rang out across Cardinal Nation like joyous bell chimes, apparently you've not been following Cardinal baseball. To have Carpenter come out like that, like nothing had happened, is a huge thing for this upcoming season.

The fact that there's no pain or problems the day after is great as well.

There will come a point where we stop thinking about Carpenter as a recovering pitcher, hanging on every start and holding our breath, and just think of him as a pitcher, expected to go every fifth day.  That day got a lot closer on Saturday.

There was more news from that game against the Nationals, though. Ryan Franklin relieved Carpenter and was dealing, five strikeouts in three innings. Both this performance and Carpenter's do have to be tempered by the fact that they were playing Washington, but it's still very good to see. Hopefully this doesn't inspire the team to move Franklin to the closer role, though.

On the second lefty front, Charlie Manning had another scoreless couple of outs. I'm still thinking he's a dark horse to take the slot away from Royce Ring. Keep an eye out and see if he doesn't continue to make strides.

Offensively, nine runs on nine hits (and four Washington errors). Up to this point, the Cards still only had one homer in the spring. That changed on Sunday, but we'll get to that later.

Tyler Greene kept his push alive to make the squad as the backup middle infielder, getting two hits.  I know he's been impressing the brass, so more games like this might make for some interesting roster decisions. 

Joe Mather drove in three, Albert Pujols has a batting eye even in the spring (two walks), and Skip Schumaker got a hit and didn't make an error, though both double plays were turned after he left.

Yesterday's game against the Marlins was a slugfest, as the wind helped out the hitters tremendously. No one got more out of the game than Brian Barton, though, who went three for five with two homers and six RBI. Talk about making your mark!

I've got to admit, I'd like to see Barton make the squad because his right-handed bat really could come in handy, but I'm not sure how that's going to happen. Then again, if Colby Rasmus doesn't turn it around (he did get two hits to move his average up to .211) it may be that Rasmus starts at Memphis and that'd leave a cracked door for Barton.

Yadier Molina made the most of his last game with the squad until after the World Baseball Classic, getting two hits in four trips.  Khalil Greene even got into the fun with three hits. With the team getting 19 hits, there were a lot of multiple-hit games. But, amazingly, no hits for Albert Pujols. (OK, he didn't play, but still...)

On the mound, things were a bit rougher. Which is not surprising in a 14-10 game held in a spring training stadium with the wind blowing. Through all that, though, Joel Pineiro only gave up one unearned run. What are the odds?

The traditional spring training piece about a player rededicating himself, in great shape, etc. was published on Pineiro today. 

Perhaps some of that will come true.  If so, that'd really strengthen the rotation.  However, I think it's fairly safe to say that nobody is holding their breath on that one.

Kyle McClellan got his first action of the spring on Sunday. I was wondering where he'd been, given the need for arms. Two and a third innings, but he did give up a three-run home run. On a day like Sunday, it's hard to read much into that.

Regarding that second lefty competition, you can just about write off Ian Ostlund. Two runs and no outs on top of his earlier bad outing doesn't really endear you to the people making the decisions. He's got to be running third between Manning, Ring and himself for that slot.

Skip got his first error of the spring in this one and had another play that was questionable. He's still having flashes of brilliance, but he's not likely to win Gold Gloves anytime soon. It'll be interesting to see how that affects such a ground-ball pitching staff.

Cards take on the Rays today on XM 177. Adam Wainwright makes his first start of the spring as we start around the rotation again. (Wainwright was supposed to make the first start of the spring, but LaRussa and co. felt like that'd lead him to too many starts, so Blake Hawksworth got the call.) 

Five weeks away from Opening Day, so things start to become just that much more serious this week.