The Mike Parisi Train Jumps the Tracks for a Second Consecutive Start

As I sit here tonight watching Mike Parisi get shelled by an injury-riddled Washington offense who just scored five runs in two innings—after a grand total of two runs in their previous four games—I have decided I am fed up with the Mike Parisi experiment.

Obviously he is not ready to be a major league starter.

He looked good at first out the bullpen, but has shown, in back to back starts, that he cannot handle the pressure.

I like this young pitcher and believe he will be alright eventually, but that work needs to be done at AAA Memphis.

I was almost yelling at my television...pleading that there must be another option for our thus-far outstanding starting rotation.

Then I realized eight pitchers listed on the 40-man roster are currently on the disabled list for the St. Louis Cardinals: Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement, Jason Isringhausen, Tyler Johnson, Josh Kinney, Mark Mulder, Joel Piniero, and Brad Thompson.

With this in mind I have settled down a bit.

I still would like to see the Cardinals give the starting opportunity to someone else to see if there is a better option than letting Parisi continue to struggle with the big club.

Jason Motte, Chris Perez, Mark Worrell? Give one of these guys a spot start and see what happens. Mitchell Boggs is 5-1 with a 3.28 ERA at Memphis.

Are my concerns premature? Maybe. But the Cardinals are eleven games over .500 and still behind the Cubs—who seem to have trouble losing these days.

Well as I wrap up blowing off some steam, the Cards are down 8-3. Parisi let up all eight—five earned in only four innings of work.

It is only June 5th, but if the Cardinals want to be in contention in September they cannot afford to give any games away.

UPDATE:  The Cardinals fought their way back to a tie at 8-8 to send the game to extra innings when they took the lead 9-8 on Joe Mather's 1st major league HR only to give it back in the bottom of the 10th.  Franklin tossed up a hanger and Elijah Dukes rocked it over the center field wall for a two-run walk-off HR.