Cardinal Offense Still Sputtering

Tuesday, they were able to scratch enough to take out the Nationals 3-2.  Give Hero status to Ryan Ludwick, who bailed out/rewarded a ton of people with one big swing.  Chris Carpenter pitched well enough to win, so Ludwick's big fly allowed that to happen.  Carp threw quite a few pitches (118) but still only allowed one earned run.  Skip Schumaker had two errors, including one that led to the tying run, so Ludwick took the focus off of him.

Then there is Brendan Ryan.  As soon as I saw that he was the pinch-runner, I mentally said, "Please don't get picked off."  Of course, because this is The Lost Season (not to be confused with LOST's Final Season) for Ryan, he was, unsurprisingly, picked off.  Cole and I discussed this some during last night's UCB Radio Hour, and I make the point that he's probably trying to do too much right now.  He's got to want to make something positive happen, helping the team and hopefully jumpstarting his season and confidence.  However, by pressing that much, it becomes even less likely that the positive moment, that spark, is going to happen.

You wonder if they won't suggest that the wrist is bothering him more and wind up putting him on the DL so they can get him some rehab/reps in the minors.  He's out of options, so that's the only way the team can do it.  We'll see if that happens in the near future, especially if Aaron Miles is still hitting in the minors.  Should Miles be a candidate?  No, probably not, but that doesn't mean he won't get a shot at it.

Wednesday, the offense again just couldn't get anything going.  Anibal Sanchez is a very good pitcher, of course, with no-hit stuff.  However, that's not necessarily a requirement for the opposition right now to hold down the Cardinal lineup.  Then, when Sanchez was removed and the first two men in the eighth walked in front of Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, did it pan out?  Were they able to take advantage?  No, Holliday struck out and Pujols grounded into a double play, a very similar result to a recent game where Pujols grounded out and Holliday then hit into a double play.  Flipping the slots didn't flip the results.

Jaime Garcia again pitched a wonderful game.  The only knock on Garcia is that he's not as able to get deep into games as some of the other pitchers.  Last night, that wasn't completely his fault, as there were grounders in the first and other innings that should have been turned into outs but weren't, forcing Garcia to see more batters.  Still, four walks didn't help his cause much.

Being that he didn't get to go deep meant that the Cardinals had to go into the soft underbelly of their bullpen.  Right now, that means Blake Hawksworth, who gave up two in his first inning of work, then put the game out of reach by allowing two home runs in his second.  With the offense struggling, there probably is some pressure on the pitchers, especially the relievers, to make perfect pitches knowing that a run may be more than the offense can overcome.  Hawksworth didn't make perfect pitches at all, though.

Today, if the weather allows it, Nate Robertson goes for the Marlins while Adam Wainwright, who is the focus of my segment on Redbirds of a Feather's Sunday podcast, goes for St. Louis.  Which should mean that, if the Cardinals can squeeze out a couple of runs, they can split this short series.  Here's Robertson's numbers against the Cards:

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	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
Ryan Ludwick	11	10	2	0	0	0	0	1	2	.200	.273	.200	.473	0	0	0	0	0
Jason LaRue	9	9	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	.111	.111	.222	.333	0	0	0	0	0
Albert Pujols	7	4	4	0	0	0	0	3	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	0	0	1	0	0
Felipe Lopez	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	.000	.500	.000	.500	0	0	0	0	0
Yadier Molina	4	3	2	1	0	0	2	1	0	.667	.750	1.000	1.750	0	0	0	0	0
Brendan Ryan	3	2	1