Cardinal Bats Make Up For Lost Time

In a game where the bats were working to that extent, it's harder to find a Hero, but it's such a wonderful chore to have.  I think with Rick Ankiel falling a single short of the cycle, you have to give it to him.  Brendan Ryan had four hits and Tyler Greene three.  Colby Rasmus having a three-run shot to get the Cards on the board helped as well.

You have to like Rasmus's attitude about hitting in the cleanup slot.  "The ball still has to come over the plate."  Right now, he's keeping it pretty simple and it's working for him.  He's got to be the early leader for Rookie of the Year, doesn't he?

All this offense helped get some of the heat off of Hal McRae.  I was starting to wonder when the idea of firing him was going to get floated.

On the down side, Adam Wainwright still wasn't back to that level he showed a couple of weeks ago.  I've not traced it back to see if this coincides with that 120 pitch game he had or not.  It's possible he's still a little tired and not getting his release point where it should be.  Like I said, I've not looked back at the numbers, though I know Pip at Fungoes has kept up with the data points on Wainwright's release.

Still, you can't give a guy a Goat tag when he strikes out a tough hitter like Hanley Ramirez with the bases loaded when the game was still hanging in the balance.  That's one thing you can say about Wainwright--those kind of situations just don't seem to faze him.  (Ask Carlos Beltran.)

It's a tough call on the Goat, then, with both Albert Pujols and Chris Duncan going one for four.  Pujols also drew a walk, though, so we'll go with Duncan.  That said, it'd be nice for someone to tell Albert he's slumping.  That seems to always stir him up and get him on a tear.

This afternoon's game features Todd Wellemeyer vs. Andrew Miller.  Wellemeyer, a topic of conversation on last night's UCB Radio Hour (which actually turned into an hour and a half thanks to some great draft analysis by Erik from Future Redbirds), has had very good success against the Fish in his career.  However, his inconsistency this year doesn't mean that Cardinal fans are confident with his start.

Miller has only had 12 AB (16 PA) against the Cards, but the little they've seen of him the Redbird batters have liked.  Pujols is a perfect two for two against him, so maybe that'll get him jumpstarted.

We can only hope by the end of the afternoon we aren't wishing they saved some of those runs from last night!