With the entire team wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, it was the Cardinals’ own second baseman, Adam Kennedy, who stole the show en route to a 6-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers to take the first game of the series at Busch Stadium.
Kennedy was 3-4 on the day with all 3 hits being singles. He scored 2 runs and knocked in another from the 7thspot in the order. The batting order didn’t matter much on this night, however, as the Cardinals got 12 hits (11 singles) from 8 different players. Skip Shumaker had another solid showing at the leadoff spot, going 2-4 with a walk, a run scored, and 2 RBI. Rick Ankiel was the only other St. Louisbatter with multiple hits, going 2-4. Starter Braden Looper moved to 3-0 on the year, although not on his strongest performance. He gave up only 1 run on 3 hits through 5 innings, but walked 5 and found himself in trouble on a couple of occasions. He made it through, though, and the bullpen pitched 4 shutout innings to finish off the potent Brewers offense.
These two division rivals will get back after each other tonight, with the Cards sending Adam Wainwright (1-1, 3.60 ERA) to the mound against Brewers righty Carlos Villanueva (1-1, 4.76) at 7:15 pm (Central time). As an interesting side note, the Cardinals and Brewers are the only two teams in the league that bat their pitchers 8thto get a “second leadoff hitter” in front of their big sluggers. This is a practice that St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa first employed as a way to bat Mark McGwire 3rd in the order, but get a chance to put more runners on base in front of him after the 1st time through the order. Another side note: Mark Mulder allowed 2 runs on 60 pitches through 5 innings in his first rehab start for Class A Palm Beach and on Monday Chris Carpenter will report to the team’s spring training complex to throw batting practice to actual hitters for the first time in his rehabilitation following off-season shoulder surgery.
