The Gas House Gang

The Cards continued their recent struggles today, losing their 4th game in 5 days 5-3 to the Brewers. Former Cardinal Jeff Suppan by no means shut the St. Louis hitters down, but he did enough to beat out Cardinals starter Braden Looper, who gave up 4 runs on 7 hits through 6 innings.

The somewhat strange game was personified by Albert Pujols, who reached base safely 3 times and has reached in all 39 games this year, but was thrown out on the basepaths all times (caught stealing, thrown out at 3rd trying to take the extra base, and doubled off on a lineout). Ryan Ludwick continues to absolutely rake, hitting a solo home run in the 8th. Ludwick isn’t the only Cardinal hitter surprising people with his offense this year, though, as Yadier Molina continued his strong year at the plate with and RBI single in the 9th. The Cards might have had better luck had they not knocked Eric Gagne out of the closer’s spot in Milwaukee yesterday, though, as Brian Shouse was able to hold on for his first save of the year.

The Cards will try to right the ship tomorrow as they close their series in Milwaukee at 7:15pm (Central time), sending Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.25 ERA) to the hill against Brewers’ lefty Dave Bush (0-4, 6.98 ERA).

Joel Pineiro pitched a fantastic game Saturday and handed a 3-0 lead over to the bullpen only to see it become a 3-3 tie going into the 9th inning. Luckily, the Cardinals aren’t the only team in the bigs with closer problems as Ryan Ludwick knocked home 2 off Brewers’ closer Eric Gagne to get the Cards their 1st win in 4 games. Ryan Franklin, getting his first shot at the now open competition for the Cardinals’ closer role, shut down the Brewers in the 9th to eran the save.

The last time he blew a save, I said it might be time for the Cardinals’ thinktank to start coming up with a contingent plan for closer Jason Isringhausen. After his 5th blown save of the year (and 2nd consecutive), it is Isringhausen, himself, who is saying it is time to “figure out what to do.”

The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead in the second inning on a solo blast by Albert Pujols, a bases-loaded single by pitcher a Todd Wellemeyer then walk by Cesar Izturis. Wellemeyer pitched well on the day, giving up 2 unearned runs over 6 innings and the rest of the bullpen held the lead until they handed it to Izzy in the 9th. He got 2 quick outs, looking like he had shaken off the rust of his previous blown save, but his 3-2 lead fell apart just as quickly as he gave up 2 runs with those 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and the Cardinals left the game with their first 3-game losing streak of the season.

The Cards will try to get back on track this afternoon at2:40pm (Central time) as they send Joel Pineiro (2-2, 4.43 ERA) to the mound against Brewers’ ace Ben Sheets (4-0, 2.29 ERA).

Kyle Lohse got off to a rough start, giving up 4 runs in the 1st inning, while the St. Louis offense was never really able to get it going against Jorge DeLaRosa in the Cards’ 9-3 loss to the Rockies this afternoon.

Lohse could only get through 4 innings today, giving up 7 runs on 8 hits and pushing his ERA to 4.87. Ryan Ludwick, who has cemented himself in the Cardinals’ starting outfield, was the lone bright spot on offense, blasting 2 solo home runs to put him at 7 on the year. Yadier Molina was the only other Cardinal to collect multiple hits, going 2-4 and pushing his average to .302 on the year after a horrid start at the plate.

Todd Wellemeyer (3-1, 4.07 ERA) and the Cardinals will head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers and lefty Manny Parra (1-2, 5.86 ERA). On a side note, Mark Mulder has been shut down for at least 10 days on his minor league rehab tour as he experienced some shoulder soreness after his last start with AAA Memphis. He has been diagnosed with a mild rotator cuff strain and will be re-evaluated after his 10-day rest. Walt Jocketty didn’t guess wrong on a lot of his trades during his tenure in St. Louis (and here’s hoping that Mulder comes back, pitches well, and leads the Cards to the World Series or at least provides quality trade bait at the deadline), but it’s hard not to look at what Danny Haren is doing these days and shake your head. I suppose you can’t win them all.

No one in the organization is saying it publicly, but there has got to be some growing concern about the performance of closer Jason Isrinhausen after his 4th blown save of the season ended in a 4-3 loss to the Rockies last night.

The blown save overshadowed a fantastic effort by starter Adam Wainwright, who pitched 7 shutout innings before handing a 3-0 lead to the bullpen. Ryan Ludwick continued his torrid pace at the plate, going 2-4 and knocking in 2 runs on a sac fly and a solo h run. But when Isringhausen was called on to appear in the 8th inning, everything unravelled as he wound up with his 4th blown save and 3rd loss of the year, both well beyond his normal numbers this time of year. While it is too early in the year to be sounding the alarms, it is definately something to be keeping an eye on. You want to give a veteran like Isringhuasen the benefit of the doubt, but you also don’t want to be blowing winnable games when the NL Central may very well come down to the wire.

The Cards will try and pull it together in a few hours at Coors Field, sending Kyle Lohse (3-1, 3.79 ERA) to the hill against Rockies’ lefty Jorge DeLaRosa (0-1, 20,25 ERA).

Braden Looper was the hero on several fronts last night as the Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5 at Busch Stadium. With the bullpen exhausted, Looper pitched into the 9th inning, allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over 8 1/3 innings pitched. He also came through at the plate, going 2-3 with a walk, run scored, and an RBI.

Cesar Izturis chipped in at the plate, going 2-4 with a run and an RBI while Ryan Ludwick had a monster game, going 4-4 with a walk, a run scored, and an RBI of his own. Rick Ankiel was 2-5 on the day with a run and an RBI, but his real contribution came in the field, where he collected his first 2 outfield assists of the year. The 2nd of those was an absolute cannon shot from right field to 3rd base which left everyone in attendance in total awe.

The Cards will try to continue their winning ways tonight at 7:35pm (Central time) as Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.60 ERA) faces Rockies’ lefty Jeff Francis (0-3, 5.26 ERA).

No one expected much out of the Cardinals this year, their starting rotation was a joke, their bullpen was left depleted after being picked clean by the starting staff, and the only hope their offense had was a banged up Albert Pujols. Despite all of this the Cardinals had the most April wins in franchise history and are the surprise story of the early MLB season because they are one of those teams that seems to play outside themselves, never relying on one person to do one thing, and refuses to lose.

Never was this more apparent than in the Cards’ 6-5 win over the Colorado Rockies last night. Joel Pineiro ended a 10-pitch at-bat in the 4th inning with a double, only his 3rd career hit, while journeyman Ron Villone and brand-spanking-new rookie Mike Parisi shut the Rockies down after Pineiro had to come out in the 4th. Oh, and the hero was a guy you might expect: Albert Pujols. His double in the top of the 9th put the go-ahead runner on base. He then proceeded to take off for 3rd and, after seeing that batter Rick Ankiel had hit a soft grounder to 2nd base, round the bag and head for home. The gutsy move paid off as Pujols scored what would be the winning run. Jason Isringhausen seemed to be the only guy doing what he is supposed to do (although not necessarily what you would expect him to do lately) by  down Colorado in the bottom half of the inning for his 11th save of the year.

The Cardinals will look for yet another way to pull off a win tomorrow night at 7:15pm (Central time) as Braden Looper (4-1, 3.86 ERA) faces Colorado lefty Mark Redman (2-2, 6.99 ERA).

Before their game with the Chicago Cubs yesterday the Cards called up righthanded pitcher Mike Parisi from AAA Memphis and sent down Anthony Reyes. Reyes had been decent on the year, going 1-1 with 1 save and a 5.27 ERA in 9 appearances. His inconsistency seems to have been his downfall and the Cards decided to give the long relief spot to Parisi, who went 2-1 with a 4.44 ERA as a satrter for the Redbirds.

Jason Isringhausen has been struggling a bit early in the year, but with what has become a rare sellout crowd in St. Louis on-hand and a national TV audience watching, Izzy came through big to secure his 10^th save of the year in the Cardinals’ 5-3 win over the Cubs last night.

The Cubs got the early lead on starter Todd Wellemeyer, scoring 2 runs in the top of the 2^nd inning only to see the Cards tie the game in the bottom half of the frame on RBI singles by Skip Shumaker and Adam Kennedy. Albert Pujols’ 2-run double in the 4^th would put St. Louis up 4-2 and Kennedy would add another RBI in the 6^th before the Cubs added a run in the 7^th to put the score at 5-3. Isringhausen pitched a perfect 9^th inning to secure the win and Central Division lead for the Cardinals.

St. Louis will open its series at Colorado today at 7:15pm (Central time), sending Joel Pineiro (2-2, 3.75 ERA) to the mound against Rockies righty Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2, 5.90 ERA).

Kyle Lohse had his first rough outing of the year, struggling through a 6-run 4^th inning in the Cardinals’ 9-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs this afternoon. Lohse gave up 8 runs on 9 hits over 6 innings, pushing his ERA to 3.79 on the year. The Cards scored their 2 of their 3 runs on home runs by Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols. Molina was the only St. Louis hitter to muster up multiple hits off Cubs lefty Ted Lilly, going 2-3 on the day. They will try to get back on the winning track tomorrow night at 7:15pm (Central time) as Todd Wellemeyer (2-1, 4.14 ERA) takes the hill against Cubs righty and former Cardinal Jason Marquis (1-1, 4.45 ERA).

Ok, the title is a little bit lame…but who knows? Maybe it will catch on. Skip Shumaker was the extra-innings hero with a 2-run shot in the 11th inning to mask Jason Isrinhausen’s 3rd blown save of the year and send the Cards home winners in the 1st game of their series against division-rival Chicago, 5-3.

Oddly enough, the only St. Louis hitters to have multiple hits on the day were Yadier Molina and Brendan Ryan, who each went 2-4. Ryan had an RBI and Molina knocked home 2 runs. Albert Pujols was 1-3 with 2 walks (1 intentional) and leads baseball with 32 walks and 9 intentional walks on the year. Pujols has reached safely in all 30 games this year. Adam Wainwright pitched well, giving up only 1 run on 4 hits through 6 1/3 innings. Cubs starter Rich Hill, on the other hand, walked 4 batters and allowed a run before getting yanked 2 outs into the 1st inning. Cubs manager Lou Piniella said he would probably be replaced in the Cubs’ rotation.

These two teams will get back at it this afternoon at 2:45 pm (Central time). Kyle Lohse (3-0, 2.36 ERA) will try to keep his perfect record rolling against another soft-tossing Chicago lefty, Ted Lilly (1-4, 6.46 ERA).