Chris Carpenter Is a Craftsman

Chris Carpenter returned to the mound yesterday.  All those that were holding their breath can breathe a whole lot easier now.

Most everyone would have been happy of six innings that kept the team in the game.  But taking a no-hitter into the seventh?

Really? I'm sure he wouldn't have finished it (though after reading the possibilities at Pitchers Hit Eighth about fewer pitches, I guess there was a possibility if things had gone just right), but even the fact that we were talking no-hitter so deep into the game is a tantalizing preview of the season to come, I hope. 

Assuming he doesn't have any problems when he gets out of bed this morning, we should be able to go forward and accept that he'll pitch every fifth day instead of holding our breath every time.

Thankfully, the Cardinals didn't blow the opportunity to get Carp a win, even though they did their darndest. 

Ross Ohlendorf was either a very good pickup from the Yankees (something that the Pirates bloggers that have called into the UCB Radio Hour have indicated is a possibility) or the "new pitcher blues" have returned for 2009.

I'm wondering if a new pitcher causes the team so much problems because there aren't any stats, charts, etc. on him like they use on other pitchers, so they are just guessing more than having a plan.

Offensively, there wasn't much to write home about. Yadier Molina did crank out two hits and drove in one of the two runs, so at least so far in 2009, it looks like the offensive strides he made last year have stayed with him.

Our Goat for the day is Skip Schumaker.  His wide throw in the seventh took away the double play chance and led to Carp having to face another batter, who blew the no hitter. 

I know Albert Pujols had an interesting day in the field, but I tend to cut him a bit of slack because they were aggressive errors. Perhaps they weren't the best of ideas, but there was a thought behind them and he was trying to do something.  Skip was just performing his job but he didn't do it as well as he should.

The other goat, if I gave them, would have been Jose Oquendo. Why you send Molina, the man you time with a sundial, on a medium fly ball with the bases loaded and Pujols coming up is beyond me. If Pittsburgh had scored again, that play would have loomed large.

Notably, Dennys Reyes got the save yesterday instead of Jason Motte. I don't think we can read that much into it, though, since two of the three scheduled batters in the ninth were lefty pitchers.

Tony LaRussa has said that the closer job isn't necessarily Motte's, and using Reyes in this way I think reinforces that.

I would expect to see Motte out there in the ninth before Franklin, though, so if Franklin gets a save when Motte was available this weekend, there's something there.

There were a few other things I was going to get to, but computer issues have led to this taking longer than it should have.  Come back in a little while for five questions with James of Astros County as we look forward to this upcoming series.