With former Cardinals’ General Manager Walt Jocketty in the house, the Cards could not complete a comeback after falling behind by 4 runs early and lost to the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 last night.
Todd Wellemeyer did not have his best start of the year but pitched well enough to win, giving up 4 runs-all by the 3rd inning-on 7 hits over 6 innings. St. Louis was done in by their offense, however, as the Cardinals’ hitters stranded 10 runners on the game. Troy Glaus walked with the bases loaded to bring home the first run of the game, Rick Ankiel blasted a solo homer in the 5th, and Cesar Izturis knocked home an RBI single in the 6th to pull the Cards close, but they could never close the deal.
Ankiel was 2-5 on the game with a double and his 5th home run of the year, while Albert Pujols went 2-4 with a walk to push his average to .382 on the year. Chris Duncan was also 2-5 on the game but committed a costly error with 2 outs in the 3rd that allowed what ended up being the winning run to score.
Despite dropping their 3rd straight series opener, the Cards have won the previous 2 series and look to get back on track tonight at 7:15pm (Central time), sending Joel Pineiro (1-2, 5.29 ERA) to the hill against Reds righty Johnny Cueto (1-2, 4.05 ERA).
