Sometimes excitement is good and sometimes it’s bad. The excitement over the past week has definitely been bad as the Cardinals looked like they might have a near historic collapse. Thankfully, Albert Pujols came through for the club again and the Cardinals are now a little bit closer to winning the division.
The Padres touched up Jeff Suppan for five runs in the second inning and while the Cardinals eventually tied it up, an RBI single by Mike Piazza in the seventh won it for the Padres. Jim Edmonds came out of nowhere to almost save the game. His three run shot in the fourth inning tied the game up. Chris Duncan also homered in the 6-5 loss.
Chris Carpenter had his second straight mediocre start on Tuesday. He gave up six runs on twelve hits in seven innings of work. Ronnie Belliard had the big game at the plate. He homered twice and drove in three runs in the 7-5 loss.
Yesterday looked like it’d be more of the same. The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the eighth but the Cardinals answered when Albert Pujols hit homerun number 47, a huge three run shot to give the Cards the win. Anthony Reyes was very good through six innings of work but he didn’t get a decision. Tyler Johnson ended up picking up the win.
So the Cardinals magic number if four. If they win out, it doesn’t matter what the Astros do. If they don’t, then they’ll need some help. There’s also still that makeup game to consider with the Giants so you could potentially see them tie, have to make up the Giants game, then play the Astros in a one game playoff, all before the NLDS.
Next up is four against the Brewers. Saturday’s game should be one of the games on Fox game of the week.
