St. Louis Loves Their Colby Jack

As most of you know, my first name is Daniel.  Daniel, of course, was a prophet in the Old Testament.  For one night, at least, I got a chance to emulate my forbearer.

During last night's UCB Radio Hour, Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth and I discussed the game as it was happening, including wondering about the Giants' philosophy toward Albert Pujols in the 10th inning.  Nick then asked me if I had any predictions about the bottom of the extra frame and, after a little consideration, something along this vein popped out:

"What about Colby taking care of it?"

Not that I expected much in the way of accuracy, but when after a long at-bat (and, I found out later, an egregious error by the Giants' third baseman) the ball flew out of the ballpark, Colby Rasmus had indeed earned himself a Hero tag.  And it's nice to know the one time I'm actually right, it's recorded for posterity.

Without that personal connection, though, Adam Wainwright definitely would be getting the nod. It's always good to see the Wagonmaker in top form.  He's been a little erratic this year, but when he gets into the groove, watch out.  Twelve strikeouts, one earned run (after loading the bases with none out in the eighth) and was in command all night.  Ryan Franklin also did a good job of locking down the tough part of the Giants lineup to set the stage for Rasmus's blast.

It's the second time this year Wainwright has gone over 120 pitches.  It's also the second time in five starts.  After his last outing of that nature, the next time out he gave up one run in seven innings, so hopefully he won't be negatively affected by the large work load.  There's also an extra day in there for him between starts this time, so that should help as well.

On the Goat side, it has to be Joe Thurston.  No hits in four at-bats with three strikeouts, including one in the eighth when the Cards had a chance to win it.

Quite a bit of other news in Cardinal Nation yesterday.  First, the Cards made another roster move, farming out Clayton Mortensen and promoting Jarrett Hoffpauir from Memphis.  This is probably less of an indictment on Mortensen's rough outing Monday night and more the fact that Mark DeRosa is going to be out for a few days, meaning that a short bench was that much shorter.

DeRosa's wrist injury, at least from all appearances and reports, isn't as serious as was first feared.  Of course, we've learned to take a lot of the reports from the Cardinal medical staff with a silo of salt, but if it's actually the case that he'll be back in the lineup by early next week, St. Louis may have dodged a real bullet.  John Mozeliak really doesn't want to see this trade blow up on him this early.  The fact that apparently the PTBNL is a quality pitching prospect may be enough on its own to do that without DeRosa sitting for a long period of time.

The other bit of news, which came as a surprise to me at least, was that Troy Glaus is almost ready to head out on a rehab assignment.  The way the timing works, if he goes out in the next week to ten days as expected, he could be back right before the trading deadline.  Whether his rehab will free up Mozeliak to make a move or help him not feel forced to do one remains to be seen.  Getting a relatively healthy Glaus back into the lineup could do wonders for this team, though.

The last home game of the first half is tonight, as the Cards head out after this one so that MLB can get everything ready for the All-Star Game.  The saying goes that momentum is today's starting pitcher, which means that the afterglow of the walk-off homer may not go too far.

Todd Wellemeyer is on the mound for the Cardinals.  Right now, you can't even point to his few good outings, like the back-to-back seven innings, no runs games earlier in the season, and have any kind of faith that he can return to that level.  You just hold your breath, hope he stays around four or so earned runs allowed, and that the offense can actually come alive.  San Francisco hasn't seen him much, but they've hit him when they have so there is little reason to expect a pitching duel tonight.

Barry Zito has infamously struggled since moving to the National League.  This season hasn't been much different, though he's been better than he has in the past.  He gave up three in 6.2 innings against the Cardinals earlier in the year and has been hit by them at a .384 clip in his career.  It'd be nice to have DeRosa and his three career homers against Zito in the lineup, but Pujols is five for nine with two bombs so there's still a threat.  Assuming they pitch to him, of course!