Cardinals Hit Rock Bottom, Break Out Jackhammers

Before the game yesterday, the Cardinals gathered together and, in an act of camaraderie that in movies would have led to a eight-game winning streak and taking over the division lead, all shaved their heads.  I'm sure that they were light and loose and ready to play.  Unfortunately, this group of players with a heavy Christian emphasis in their leaders apparently missed the Bible story of Sampson.  The Cards haven't had a lot of oomph lately, but cutting their hair apparently took it all away.

You know yesterday that I mentioned I thought J.A. Happ had done well against St. Louis?  Apparently that J.A. Happ actually showed up.  A two-hit (or a different word if you are the official site headline writers) shutout?  Wow.  Just when you thought things really couldn't get any worse.

Since the offense didn't show up, I'll have to give the Hero tag to Jake Westbrook, who pitched much better than it turned out for him.  He allowed a first-inning run on a ball that was just fair and allowed his third run in the seventh on a double play ball.  He pitched well enough to win and, if the team had actually packed their bats for Houston, he might have.

How do you pick just one goat when all but two of the batters wind up hitless?  I'll go with Skip Schumaker, because he was the leadoff guy, but I don't feel great about it.  Pretty much throw a dart and you are likely to hit someone that would qualify for this.

The only semi-positive news to come out of yesterday was that Colby Rasmus indicates that one, he has no problem with Tony La Russa and two, he's done a little bit of maturing while he's been sitting and watching baseball these last couple of weeks.  Rasmus has to be back next year and he probably does need to take a step toward really maximizing his potential.  If TLR decides to return, he and Colby really have to get along, so it's good to hear that, at least publically, things are going OK.

Triple Crown update: Albert Pujols is now eight points behind Carlos Gonzalez, still two home runs up on Adam Dunn and just one RBI up on Joey Votto.  If AP has a September like last year, though, he won't be in the top five of many of these categories at the end of the year, so hopefully he'll continue to be locked in.

Chris Carpenter goes against Wandy Rodriguez tonight.  Carp's been OK against Houston this year (1-1, 3.52, 8K/6BB in 15.1 innings) while the Cards seem to have finally figured out Rodriguez (1-2, 6.06, 9K/6BB in 16.1 innings).  However, knowing how Rodriguez has shut them down before, I'm thinking all bets are off on this one.  At this point, you have to just sit back and see which team shows up.  Hopefully they can clear away some of the depression by having a solid game in all aspects.