St. Louis Cardinals Lose a Weekend

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. 

Three games that the Cardinals played against AL foes. 

Two of them with what portends to be close to the Opening Day lineup. 

And the Cardinals couldn't win any of them.

None of them were blowouts and the Cards had a chance to win at least two of them, but still, running into this kind of streak after such a strong spring training is a little disappointing.  You'd hope that it's just one of those things, some strong opposition more than a struggling team, but the team has lost a total of five in a row.

This doesn't completely coincide with the World Baseball Classic wrapping up and players returning to camp, but enough that you have to start wondering whether some of that early spring success was inflated due to the fact the Cards didn't have much depletion of their roster.

Let's take a quick look at the games.  Friday, they lost on the road to the Red Sox 11-8 in extra innings.  This one almost was a spectacular game, as the Cards scored four in the ninth to take the lead, only to cough it up in the bottom of the inning. 

There were good things from the game, of course.  David Freese had a great game, going three for four with a home run and driving in two.  Khalil Greene and Albert Pujols both had two hits. Chris Perez threw an inning and struck out two.

The disturbing thing, though, was the outing of Kyle Lohse, who gave up 11 hits and six runs (five earned) in five innings.  The Sox hit him hard, but Lohse did dance out of trouble until the sixth, where it really came crashing down on him.  Dennys Reyes didn't really set the world on fire either, allowing three hits and a run in his inning of work.

Of course, days like that happen and if it wasn't in the middle of a five-game losing streak, maybe it gets shaken off.  But so often in spring we look for signs and portents in everything, so outings like that within a couple of weeks of the start of the season can raise some eyebrows.

Saturday, the Cardinals were back home against the Orioles.  A lot of the top major league guys stayed on the other side of the state to prepare for the Sunday game, so I guess it's not a big shock that they lost 10-6. 

David Freese actually travelled back for this game and again went three for four with two RBI, though he didn't put one out of the park this time.  Do you think he wants to make up for lost time and grab that third base spot, especially since there's really no time table for Troy Glaus's return? 

Also on the positive side of the ledger, Colby Rasmus went two for three with a triple, Joe Mather started to come out of it with a two for three day, and Joe Thurston and Brian Barden continued their battle for one of the last roster slots by both getting two hits, though Thurston had six ABs and Barden four.

The pitching was the problem again as the Colonel had no secret receipe for these birds.  Seven earned in five innings is really not what you want to see at any time of the year.  The Cards are going to need Todd Wellemeyer to be better than that, and to be fair he usually is.  Everyone has an off day, right?

Those that followed didn't fare much better.  Kyle McClellan didn't look two bad, striking out two in his two innings, but he also allowed a run.  Ryan Franklin had been pretty solid this spring before giving up two runs in two innings to finish it off.

After a day like that, you really want to move on to the next one.  Sunday came and trashed the Cards out again, though.

You'd expect that, with a long losing streak, you'd feel good about snapping it with Chris Carpenter on the mound.  Apparently, though, they didn't replace him with a robot when doing all this surgery.  He's human after all, allowing his first runs of the spring.  Four of them, to be exact, in just a shade under five innings.  He did strike out seven, though, so there's not too much cause for concern, especially since the line makes it look worse that it was.

The rest of the staff did pretty well.  Jason Motte allowed a run in his inning, but that was about it.  Perez threw another scoreless, two strikeout inning, which is going to make for some difficult decisions this week.

Offensively, Rick Ankiel went yard and got the Cards close, but then rapped into the bases-loaded double play that ended the game.  A hit there probably would have tied it up so it was pretty painful to have the 4-6-3.  Chris Duncan and Mather both had two hits in the game as well.

So where do we stand now, one week before opening day?

There are still a couple of roster slots that need to be decided on.  This morning (perhaps right now, possibly already done by time I actually get this entry done) the braintrust is meeting to talk about it, though they won't likely make any final decisions.

I expect that Freese will make the Opening Day start and that Perez likely gets a little time in Memphis, but those are just guesses.  The next couple of days could be key for a number of guys.

A few housekeeping items.  There are some links I want to make sure I share.  First off, longtime UCB member Mike on the Cards has added a blogger and has been renamed Redbird Rants.  Also, there are a few new blogs on the blogroll, so be sure to visit places like Redbird Chatter and House of Cards.

The big website news, though, is that the United Cardinal Bloggers, due to the efforts of Pitchers Hit Eighth, have their own dedicated website now.  Bookmark it, because you'll be able to see whenever a UCB member has updated their blog plus it's a central spot for our projects, such as the prediction week that we've started today, and for the UCB Radio Hour.

Today's game is against the other tenants of Roger Dean Stadium.  Another Fish and Feathers game against the Marlins, with this lineup:

Rasmus CF
Mather LF
Pujols 1B
Greene SS
Ludwick RF
Freese 3B
LaRue C
Pineiro SP
Barden 2B

That's a heck of a cleanup hitter choice, huh?  Be interesting to see how it pans out.