After a rough weekend, the Cardinals bounced back to win two of three against the second place Reds. At the end of the day, the Cards pick up a full game and now stand 2 1/2 games ahead in the NL Central.
Chris Carpenter came up huge on Tuesday. He threw a four hits shutout and struck out six. He didn’t walk a man and he improved to 11-6 on the season. Ronnie Belliard drove in two runs on a single and a double and Chris Duncan hit a two run shot off of Aaron Harang in the 5-0 win.
The Reds bounced back on Wednesday against Anthony Reyes. The rookie gave up five runs in 3 1/3 innings and he dropped to 4-6 on the year. Albert Pujols and Perez drove in the two runs on seperate ground outs in the 7-2 loss.
Big time players come up in big ways. Down 1-0 in the seventh, Scott Rolen hit a solo homerun to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the ninth, he hit a walk off RBI single to win it for the Cardinals 2-1. Jeff Weaver had a nice start and hopefully he’s finding his groove. He gave up one run on three hits and walk in 7 1/3 innings in what was his best start of the season.
Next up is three against the Cubs. While I enjoy the rivalry, I haven’t enjoyed how the Cubs have manhandled us despite being one of the worst teams in baseball. Hopefully we can turn things around on them this weekend, because the Reds have the Pirates.
