There have been some interesting developments in the NL Central this week. The Cardinals continue to win despite Jim Edmonds being on the shelf, and now the Houston Astros have come to terms with Roger Clemens. I have a feeling we’re going to need all of that cushion that we have (five games over the Reds and seven and a half ahead of the Astros) and then some.
On Monday, Jason Marquis threw a gem. Seven innings and he gave up only three hits and one run. Marquis is now 7-4 while Jason Isringhausen picked up his seventeenth save of the season. Albert Pujols accounted for all of the Cards offense when he hit a three run bomb in the seventh inning. It was his 25th of the season.
On Tuesday, the Astros got to the Cards bullpen and Andy Pettitte had a rare road win. Jose Reyes got the start and he left the game tied in the seventh inning, but Josh Hancock gave up three more to give the Astros five runs in the inning and nice three run lead. Scott Rolen and Juan Encarnacion homered in the 6-3 loss.
Yesterday, we had an eleven inning thriller. The Astros tied the game in the top of the sixth, then neither team scored until So Taguchi won it with an RBI single in the bottom of the eleventh. David Eckstein had two hits and two runs and Brandon Looper picked up the win and improved to 3-0.
The Cubs are on deck this weekend as our archrivals come to town for a three game set. Still haven’t seen if Edmonds is going to hit the DL, but from all indications, it seems like it’s an eventuality.
