This was just plain ugly. The Cardinals went to play the World Champs in their own ballpark and the Cardinals left a broken mess. This was just plain brutal.
Mark Mulder kicked things off on Tuesday and he gave up nine runs on ten hits in 2 1/2 innings. Sidney Ponson later gave up six runs in a single inning of work and he even plunked two guys. Chris Duncan homered, but it didn’t matter. Oddly, the Cardinals had sixteen hits, but they stranded 12 runners in the 20-6 loss.
Wednesday was nearly as bad. Jim Edmonds, Tomas Perez and So Taguchi all hit solo shots, but Jason Marquis gave up an incredible 13 runs on 14 hits in five innings. Tony Larussa had to be careful with overusing his pen, so it looked like he hung Jason Marquis out there. In all, he gave up four homeruns.
And what an outing by the rookie Anthony Reyes and what a waste of it by the Cards. One hit. One freaking hit and it just so happened it was a solo shot by Jim Thome. All the Cardinals could muster were four hits and nobody crossed the plate. This game made me just as sick as the 20 run debacle on Tuesday.
And it doesn’t get much easier because we head to Detroit for a three game series. Detroit’s on top of the world right now. They’re playing well, especially in interleague. Hopefully we can get back on track. Oddly, the Tigers have played much better on the road and the Cardinals have done a lot better at home so this one is a toss up. Friday’s match up of Justin Verlander and Chris Carpenter should be a good one though.
