St. Louis Cardinals: Pitching Is a Wonderful Thing

How things have changed.  It used to be, just a week ago, where if the starting pitchers gave up only three runs in seven innings, plans were drawn up for a parade.  Now, that's pretty shoddy work, at least in context.

We've already talked about Saturday's game as the wrapup to the UCB progressive blog project. Let's look back at Friday and Sunday as well as Monday's heartbreaker.

You had to figure that, if anyone was going to break up the string of good pitching, it'd be Todd Wellemeyer on Friday. Wellemeyer has struggled so often this year and, even when he's been going good, it's not been necessarily to the level that Joel Pineiro, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright took it to this week.  

Wellemeyer stepped up to the challenge, though, and you have to like that.  Seeing all those zeros this week was a sight for sore eyes.

You could flip a coin on the Goat, which is not surprising as sputtering as the offense has been. Chris Duncan went 0-3, struck out once and left five on, but he did get a walk. Colby Rasmus went 0-4, struck out once and left three as he continued his dry spell.

The Goat, though, goes to Jason LaRue, who also went 0-4, but struck out three times and left two on.  Surprising the Cards plated five when you look at these three, isn't it?

So the Cards roll into Sunday with outstanding performances by all five of their starters. I mean, when you've only given up two runs total in five games?  That's crazy talk, but it's the good kind of crazy.

I don't know how to express my disappointment when the Royals were able to score in the first inning.  Don't they read the script?  Don't they know the opponent isn't supposed to get on the board until the sixth at the earliest?

Sadly, they skipped the rest of the script as well, which says no matter how bad the Cards hit, they score more than you do.  Joel Pineiro pitched a very good game, a game that normally he would have won.  

I almost gave the Hero tag to Yadier Molina for his 1-for-4, RBI, run day, until I realized that Pineiro not only pitched well, but went 2-for-3 with an RBI.  Rick Ankiel might have gotten consideration, but striking out twice with two runners on doesn't help the cause.

On the negative side, I think you probably give it to Colby Rasmus again.  I'm a huge Rasmus fan, but 1-for-4 (which, granted, is better than a lot of days for him) doesn't help cancel out the mental error in the seventh which led to the game-winning run.

Still, the Cards were able to take two out of three from a tough Kansas City team and get into a first place tie over the weekend.  I've seen much worse from the Redbirds, so you'd have to take it.

Monday's game was a masterpiece from both sides, save the fact that the Cards didn't win. Chris Carpenter...what can you say? Really?  I mean, was anyone really surprised that he was perfect into the seventh?  The guy could throw a perfect game every time out and I think I wouldn't be shocked.  

Now 23 innings without an earned run allowed this season.  As the commentators noted during the game, he didn't even look like he was working hard.  93 pitches in eight innings.  There's no doubt he could have finished it off if necessary.

Of course, Yovani Gallardo is a tough one as well.  You knew it'd be a great pitching duel going into the game, but a double no-hitter into the sixth?  That was unexpected.  Then again, as stagnant as this offense is, it shouldn't have been a surprise that a pitcher like Gallardo was shutting them down.  

Kudos to Brendan Ryan for hustling hard and breaking up the no-hitter, so that they lost theirs before Carp lost his.

The Cards never had much of a chance in the game, either.  Two on a couple of times, but they were always with two outs and people like Chris Duncan up, whom you were pretty sure weren't going to get the hit that was needed (though Duncan did give a ball a ride there in the late goings that about got me excited).

A lot of OFers in this one, but you have to give the Goat tag to someone that didn't play the whole game. The error by Brian Barden pretty much spelled doom for the Redbirds.  I almost thought Kyle McClellan was going to get out of it, but Bill Hall got the bat on a pitch and that was that.

That takes care of the on-the-field stuff.  What about off the field?

Well, as noted above, Rick Ankiel came off the DL this weekend.  That wasn't completely surprising, though all the talk had been that it might be another week, that Ryan Ludwick might come off first. What was surprising, at least to me, was that Tyler Greene was sent down to make room for him, not Nick Stavinoha or Brad Thompson.

So, just a week after it looked like he might get a starting job in the majors, he's farmed out because he needs to play.  A fascinating turn of events and one that I frankly don't understand.  I'm sure that it means that Khalil Greene could be close to coming back.  But is he going to be playing regularly before this weekend, with Ludwick's return?

 Khalil got two at bats in the Kansas City series and didn't start against Milwaukee.  So exactly how close is he?

The other rationale was that there are options at the major league level, presumably meaning Khalil, Joe Thurston and Barden.  However, it's not like any of them were showing the offensive spark that Tyler Greene was showing.

 The month of May shows Thurston batting .180 with three RBI (though he does have nine walks) and Barden at .146 with one RBI (and only two walks).  These are the guys you want to keep running out there?  Really?

I'm not saying that Tyler Greene was the answer to the offensive puzzle, but a .273 average with two homers and three RBI in the same span is worth keeping around, even if he does have 10 K to only two walks.

With the offensive shortfall, the Nation's eyes look to Brett Wallace, who is still hitting pretty well in Memphis (.342 with one HR) even though the last four games have seen him on a two for 17 skid.  

According to the latest reports, John Mozeliak will be checking on Troy Glaus next week to get an update on his condition.  If Glaus looks to be out this year, Wallace should get consideration for a call up.  I don't know that he will, but he should.

Let's look at Tuesday's game, matching Adam Wainwright and Jeff Suppan.  Hey, haven't we seen this one before?  I hope the sequel is better.  Wainwright's got good career numbers against the Brew Crew, but Suppan has owned his old team since his departure, going 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA since he signed with the Brewers after the World Series run in '06.

Ironically, a lot of the Cardinals hit Suppan at a decent clip, but he's apparently able to work around the damage.  If Wainwright comes out like he has since he corrected his flaw and starting featuring his fastball, it could be another scoreless pitching duel.

Little housekeeping.  First off, MVN is running a mock draft.  You can check it out here and see who Future Redbirds founder Erik Manning took for the Birds.

Also, you can find an interview with Brendan Ryan and Nick Stavinoha over here at Bleacher Report.  Nice look at a couple of the young Cardinals and the impact they are making on the team.

Finally, this Wednesday's UCB Radio Hour will have a special guest.  Rob Rains, who has written numerous books about the Cardinals and has a new book out on Tony LaRussa, will be joining us to talk about that book, his work with the Cardinals, and anything else we can think to ask him about.  

If you have some questions, leave 'em in the comments!