After an embarrassing series in which they were swept by the Kansas City Royals, the Cardinals were left looking for answers…and an offense. They may have found both in their weekend series victory over the defending champion Boston Red Sox.
Friday night, Kyle Lohse earned his 9th win of the year by allowing only 2 runs (1 earned) over 6 innings in the Cards’ 5-4 win. Catcher Jason LaRue and DH Yadier Molina each hit solo home runs and rightfielder Skip Shumaker added a 2-run shot to pace the offense in the win.
The offense was just getting warmed up, however, as they headed into Saturday’s game against Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K would only make it 1+ innings, giving up 7 runs in the Cards’ 9-3 victory. Aaron Miles got the ball rolling with his 1st inning homer, then Troy Glaus put the game away early with a grand slam in the 2nd. That made things easy for rookie Mitchell Boggs, who went 5 1/3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits to earn his 2nd big league win. Rick Ankiel added a solo shot in the 7th to cap off the scoring barrage.
As impressive as the first 2 wins of the series were, the Cards may have shown more of who they are as a team in their loss on Sunday. Joel Pineiro pitched well enough to win, allowing only 2 runs over 7 innings, and left with the lead but 3 walks by Rookie Chris Perez and a misplayed ball in center by Rick Ankiel allowed the Sox to score 2 runs in the 8th and take the lead. Jonathan Papelbon was 1 out away from a save in the 9th when he walked pinch-hitter Chris Duncan. The next batter, pinch-hitter Adam Kennedy (who was 3-3 after entering in the 9th) fouled off pitch after pitch in an 0-2 count before knocking Duncan home on a double. The 2 team fought through the extra innings, each escaping tight situations at various points but it was a Kevin Youkilis 2-run homer off Mike Parisi in the 13th, his 2nd of the day, that ended the game 5-3 in favor of the Sox.
The resurgent Cards will now head to Detroit to face the suddenly-hot Tigers in a re-match of the 2006 World Series. Braden Looper (8-5, 4.10 ERA) will take on Tigers’ lefty Kenny Rogers (5-4, 4.36 ERA) tonight at 6:05 pm (Central time).
