When is a 5-5 record in your last ten games a good thing? When you play in the NL Central. The Cardinals and Pirates are both 5-5 in their last ten games and that’s the best stretch for any team in the Central. Don’t be confused by the Cards being second place in the standings though, because they’re still six games below .500. They’ve just been the best of a poor crop of middle tier teams in the division.
Still, they won this weekend’s series and split with the Rockies earlier in the week so maybe this is something to build on. Braden Looper bounced back from a rough start to keep the Cards in the game yesterday and Albert Pujols appears to be heating up. After an .832 OPS in April, he put up a .916 OPS in May and he’s off to a good start in June with two homeruns yesterday. We’ll definitely need him to contend.
Beyond the Box Score has a nice story on the trade that sent Mark Mulder to the Cards. Of course, Dan Haren is having a nice season for the A’s and we could really need him. I haven’t read anything about when Mulder will be back but you wonder if he’ll have an impact this year. I’m tending to doubt it, but having another live arm might make a difference.
The Cardinals play the last place Reds beginning tomorrow. I don’t like the matchup in tomorrow’s game but the last two are somewhat favorable so maybe the Cards can make it two straight series wins. Then it’s back to interleague play with a tough three game series against the Angels.
***UPDATE***
Will Carroll must have been reading my mind because today he talks about Mark Mulder’s progress. Looks like early August, so we just have to hope the Cards are still in it by then.
