No one expected much out of the Cardinals this year, their starting rotation was a joke, their bullpen was left depleted after being picked clean by the starting staff, and the only hope their offense had was a banged up Albert Pujols. Despite all of this the Cardinals had the most April wins in franchise history and are the surprise story of the early MLB season because they are one of those teams that seems to play outside themselves, never relying on one person to do one thing, and refuses to lose.
Never was this more apparent than in the Cards’ 6-5 win over the Colorado Rockies last night. Joel Pineiro ended a 10-pitch at-bat in the 4th inning with a double, only his 3rd career hit, while journeyman Ron Villone and brand-spanking-new rookie Mike Parisi shut the Rockies down after Pineiro had to come out in the 4th. Oh, and the hero was a guy you might expect: Albert Pujols. His double in the top of the 9th put the go-ahead runner on base. He then proceeded to take off for 3rd and, after seeing that batter Rick Ankiel had hit a soft grounder to 2nd base, round the bag and head for home. The gutsy move paid off as Pujols scored what would be the winning run. Jason Isringhausen seemed to be the only guy doing what he is supposed to do (although not necessarily what you would expect him to do lately) by down Colorado in the bottom half of the inning for his 11th save of the year.
The Cardinals will look for yet another way to pull off a win tomorrow night at 7:15pm (Central time) as Braden Looper (4-1, 3.86 ERA) faces Colorado lefty Mark Redman (2-2, 6.99 ERA).
