hey everyone, it is july 4th, 2008. as we do every year, we are celebrating the United States’ independence day.

what better way to do it than by playing and watching the nation’s past time, the game of this great country.

Now, you can’t have it any better than a great midwestern rivalry between two teams with a lot of history between them. it cannot get anymore american than that can it?

oh yes it can. the cubbies are bringing with them the cardinals former center fielder, jimmy edmonds. he also happens to be the greatest centerfielder in cardinals history.

I hate to say it, but he is a cub now and you gotta do what you gotta do. the cardinals are only two games and a half behind the cubs in the hunt for the the nl central division title.

if the cardinals sweep (which would be awesome!), they catapult themselves into first place; if they take two out of three, the gain a game and would only be a game and a half behind the cubbies. if god forbid they get swept, then you still got a little less than half a season to make up the difference or enter the playoffs through the wildcard.

now, let’s get to the pitching matchups:

Tonight- Big Z against the one time reliever/closer, Blooper

Saturday- the lefty Lilly against the interim ace Lohse

Sunday- another lefty, marshall against the colonel Wellemeyer

those are your weekend pitching matchups. in my opinion, the cardinals have the upper hand in game two and three when it comes to starting pitching (unless todd is not back to his old self, ie. healthy or the cards go back to their old ways and stop hitting off of lefty starters).

now, tonight’s game is a coin flip. zambrano is coming off of the dl so he might be rusty and give up some runs. also, looper might not have his sinker and the cubs have a great offensive attack. no location + no sinker= get smoked by the cubbies.

I hope the crowd gives old jimmy a standing ovation his first time up to the plate, but after that one has to stay true to his team. sure, jimmy gave us some great memories and helped bring a championship to the STL, but he is still a cub.

Happy 4th of July! let’s hope for fireworks off of some cardinal bats and a sweep of the baby bears; enjoy your holiday weekend and stay safe!

yeah, that’s what the cardinals have been doing as of late.

check this, so the royals are not pushovers any longer because they got so many talented young players on the team. they are also opening up their wallets and spending some money on free agents (meche and guillen are a couple of examples).

on the other hand, they are still not that good and the cards proceeded to get swept by them before this road trip.

then, the went to boston and took two out of three; they should of actually swept the red sox but mr. parisi gave it up.

then, they go to detroit and play them real tough. they took the first game. the second game, they kept taking the lead, but the bullpen (which has been really bad overall as of late; over a time span of like the last 2 to 3 weeks or so) coughed it up. so, this game the tigers were really resiliant and kept climbing back and you just tip your cap to them and move on.

then came yesterday’s unbearable game. man, its like everytime someone got on base, the got stranded; its like timo perez was up there all the time with people on base or something.

the bullpen basically spoiled albert’s great comeback. the man came off of the dl and went 4 for 4 with a game tying rbi in the 9th; what more do you want from him?

you can blame the offense all you want, but the tigers scored all of three runs and two of them came on bases loade walks. this was the bullpen’s fault.

let’s face it, the pen’s lefties are pretty horrible. flores can’t really get anyone out and speaking of flores, he has been put on the dl. in the same story, it says mulder will probably not be ready to start in kc. also, boggs will get the nod on saturday.

villone has not been bad also, especially against right handers. tony seems to love to use him against righties for one reason or another.

so, the biggest need for this team is some bullpen relief. at least one lefty and maybe a righthanded long reliever as well. the great writer derrick goold suggests that maybe mulder should get a shot at the LOOGY thing. I agree with him one hundred percent. It could not hurt anymore than if you trot villone or flores out there; give it a shot and see if it sticks.

also, how about trying jaime garcia or ron flores? give’em a shot also. garcia has been pretty damn good and he struck out 10 in his last start allowing 3 earned runs in 6.2 innings pitched. he can be a guy that gets lefties out and a long reliever that eats innings.

then, you got randy’s brother ron. he was ok until this month june in which he has an era of 8.30, but maybe its the sample size (8.2 innings; in may he pitched 16 and 12.2 in april). his BB/PA jumped more than 10% and his K/PA decreased more than 10% so I don’t know if this is just a slump or maybe he is returning to the mean.

to conclude this bullpen rant, MO needs to go out and get at least one lefty reliever, but if you are looking within the system, you got at least three lefties that you can try and see if they can stick: mulder, garcia or ron flores.

tonight, the cardinals will begin their three game series over at KC against the pesky royals.

Tonight: Joel Pineiro (2-3, 3.86 era) vs. Gil Meche (5-8, 4.91 era)
Saturday night: Mitchell Boggs (2-0, 5.40 era) vs. Kyle Davies (3-0, 3.12)
Sunday afternoon: Braden Looper (9-5, 4.22) vs. Brian Bannister (7-6, 4.47)

at least the cardinals get to miss Grienke this time; that’s a huge relief. cards bettter not take this team lightly because the royals have a 12-3 interleague record this season; three of those wins have come against the cards. they also swept the colorado rox this season.

let’s hope the cardinals payback those royals this weekend with a sweep! also, Mr. Pujols loves to hit at Kauffman to the tune of 8 homers and a .398 average in 21 games there.

enjoy your weekend and GO CARDS!

it was entirely a team effort with almost everyone contributing in some way or another and they pulled it out.

they beat the ferocious tigers 8 to 4; it was a complete win. the bullpen was solid and blooper was decent. barton blasted his second homer of the season off of mr. pinetar hand rogers.

stavinoha had a couple of hits and collected his first big league rbi. ryan had three hits and rbis. good game overall.

hey, this interleague play is not so bad after all. the cards have already won three games on this 9 game trip. if they can get two more, its gonna be a winning one no matter what.

guess what? pujols might be back by thursday I’ve read; so things are getting better and better. also, mulder will probably make his 2008 major league debut against kc sometime this weekend; possibly saturday…I don’t know what to think. seems like we have played this game with mulder over and over again. I’ll just have to what and see for myself, can’t wait to see this new sidearm style delivery.

now, tonight, we got the interim staff ace, lohse going against armando galarraga. I’ll be honest, I know nothing about this guy, but he does have a record of 7-2 and an era of 3.03. lohse has been really good lately, winning his last 6 games or something like that.

then, in the finally in which albert might make his debut off of the dl in, wellemeyer will face the lefty nate robertson. if todd is not available, mitchell boggs will probably make the start.

are you kidding me? how can a team look totally god-awful at one moment after getting swept by one of the worst teams in the majors and then almost sweep one of the best teams (if not the best)?

I guess that’s why you gotta play the games on the field first to determine the true outcomes. so, this was unexpected right? possible, but not probable…

I personally thought they had a pretty good chance to beat wakefield since the pitching matchup was in their favor. so, they did win with the help of a gritty pitching performance by lohse and some bombs by larue, molina and schumaker. cards win, final score: 5 to 4.

then came the surprise of saturday. let’s be honest here, I did not expect them to pull this one out. I did however, think that they had a shot against matsuzaka because he might be a little rusty coming off of the dl…and sure enough he left a couple of pitches up and got pounded. the real surprise was boggs’ real good start at fenway; he gave the cardinals 5.1 innings while allowing 3 earned runs…so basically he did not kill his team after they gave him an 8 run lead.

oh yeah, they had an offensive outbursts in the 1st and 2nd innings by scoring 4 runs in each inning; the scoring was highlighted by a grand slam over the green monster hit by glaus. he is finally showing the power that we all thought he was gonna do. so, cards win the 2nd one, 9 to 3.

so, they won the series right? no, the boys went for the sweep and almost got it too if it wasn’t for that guy…yooooooooooook!

pineiro was great, going toe to toe with the the young stud lefty, lester. he pitched 7 innings while lester pitched 7.1 innings; both only allowed 2 earned runs.

they were leading 2 to 1, when chris perez blew the save and all the sudden, the sox led 3 to 2. now at the point, I thought the game was over. why? well, papelbon filthy the whole season with (now) 43 k’s, 5 bb’s in 33.1 innings pitched (2.16 era after the game, it ballooned to that).

wouldn’t you know it? duncan and kennedy were the last two hitters and almost every cardinals fan was thinking that it was over, but no.

duncan got on and then kennedy decided to play hero which is a very unfamiliar role for him. he hit a papelbon fastball to the base of the centerfield wall which allowed for duncan to score from second.

alas, it was not to be. parisi gave up a two run walk off homer to youkilis in the bottom of the 13th to end it and the sox prevented the sweep. final score, 5 to 3.

one more thing; stavinhoa finally got called up, why? because izturis pulled his hammy and went on the dl.

next stop, detroit. that’s all for today. be back tomorrow to talk about the series versus the tigers and other stuff that might pop up.

so, um, what am I supposed to write or post today? 2004 world series rematch, first time these two teams played against each other in interleague play since 2005, that sorta stuff?

well, yeah, but that’s if I expected stuff to go decently this roadtrip. right now, my head is filled with bad thoughts of getting swept by boston, detroit and KC! you too? no way!

ok, calm down…truthfully, I think the cardinals got a shot to win one game at fenway, and that is tonight’s game.

it’s gonna be lohse against wakefield, and this is the best pitching matchup for the cardinals this weekend, in my opinion.

why? because saturday, in a game that will be nationally televised on fox, its gonna be the rookie, boggs going against the japanese fireballer, matsuzaka.

the only glimmer of hope there that I could come up with is that he might be a bit rusty coming off of the dl; that’s all I’ve got. can you think of anything else?

just think, you are a rookie, making your second major league start, at fenway park….what would be going through your mind at that moment when you step on the mound to throw your first pitch against the defending 2007 w.s. champs? I think it would be pretty scary.

in the end, it is what it is on paper….but wins and losses are not determined on paper; I guess that’s why they play the game. we will see. one of my many favorite sayings that I have picked up over the years is this: always be prepared for anything, do your best, hope for the best but expect the worst.

I don’t know what that says about me, but after typing it out, that sounds pretty sad.

sunday’s pitching matchup is not much better. the young stud lefty who has already pitched a no-hitter this season and might potentially be the future ace of the sox staff, lester, will face the former red sox joel pineiro.

if this team can come out of this nine game road trip with 4 or even 3 wins, that would be just fine with me.

oh, I forgot to tell my two readers this the other day; reyes was dled right before his start that brad thompson pitched instead. then, thompson was sent back to AAA and parisi was brought up and I guess put in the pen.

I wonder who tony will use as DH? barton, or maybe ryan? we will see as the nightmare that is interleague play 2008 continues.

until next time (hopefully monday)…..enjoy your weekend and Go Cards!

Am I actually seeing this or is this just a horrible nightmare…..someone please tell me its the later.

I mean, I knew albert meant a lot to this team especially offensively, but I did not know that they would struggle this badly to score runs.

what’s it now? on 18 runs scored in the last 7 games? that comes out to be 2.57 runs a game and that is simply not good enough.

I personally thought the starters will be the first to be bomb; I actually thought that the bullpen was one of the strongest parts of this team, but lately all the bullpen pitchers have gotten roughed up; today it was perez giving up the finishing touch to teahen in the form of a two run homer.

the worst thing about the bullpen have been the lefties. tony has two lefties and he uses them a lot because he loves his matchups. the problem is both of them have become horrible; they can’t get righties or lefties out.

so the number one priority for MO is to get a lefty reliever that can pitch to both righties and lefties and be especially tough on the lefties.

some people say that he shouldn’t use the lefties. well, if that’s the case, why have them in the bullpen in the first place if you are not going to use them?

all in all, I’m really not too happy right now after getting swept by the ROYALs at HOME. it doesn’t get any easier either.

next up, a 9 game road trip from hell! if the cardinals can make it out of this road trip and stay to 5 games behind the division leading cubs and stay around the top of the wildcard race, I will be very happy.

first, they head up to boston to for a rematch of the 2004 world series with the red sox. they need to pick up one win there, if they are lucky; what did you expect? they just got swept by the freakin’ royals!

then, it does not get easier; rematch of the 2006 world series, the get to play the surging tigers who have one of the best lineups in baseball. I’ll take a win here.

then, they will got into KC and hopefully  generate some offense and get two out of three to come home with a 4-5 road trip; that sounds pretty good to me because of the way this team is playing right now.

the cardinals will look to take a couple of games from their intrastate rivals, the royals, in interleague play. they have to play the royals 6 times, this series is gonna be at busch. the next one in KC.

so, the cards will face some decent starting pitchers; ones that the cards never seen before. tonight, its kyle davies against joel pineiro. this will be davies’ 4th start this season. he has been pretty good in his first three, going 5 innings in his first one and 6/6+ in his last two and allowing only one earned run in each start.

let’s hope joel brings his A game and gets this team some much needed innings to relieve the pen; actually, let’s hope all three starters against the royals do it because I don’t think the red sox hitters will be too easy on cardinals’ pitching.

tomorrow, it will be braden looper versus brian bannister. now, bannister was pretty damn good last year, but his season he has been sporadic, throwing some pretty good 1 or 2 run games and then blowing up and allowing 6 and 7 in others. I’m wishing for the later. I’m also wishing braden does a retake and pitches another complete game three hitter, but that might be too much to ask for.

then, thursday, its zack greinke against todd wellemeyer. I’ve seen this kid greinke pitch and he has really good stuff. I’ve actually tuned in to some royals game and watched a couple of starts and man is he good; especially early in the season. his ERA has ballooned to 3.48 because of a couple of bad starts, especially one were he gave up 8 earned runs to to the white sox and another were it was 6 earned runs to the bluejays. still, this kid has the stuff and the velocity; he fastball consistantly ranges between 96-98 mph on the gun.

don’t forget about kc’s lineup; they got some really good hitters. guillen, gordon, dejesus, gathright, teahen, etc. I’m especially excited to get a chance to see alex gordon. that guy is gonna be good for a long time; he can also hit the ball a really long way out!

don’t forget, the royals also have a really good, allstar closer in joakim soria, who they picked last season I believe in the rule 5 draft. he has collected 15 saves this season and has 30 K’s in 29 innings pitched (and a 1.55 era). pretty damn good I’d say.

I hope wellemeyer is no longer “achy” because they cardinals will need him to do what he has done for most of this season now that wainwright is out; actually they need him even more.

finally, let’s go cards!

overall, it was a pretty good first weekend of baseball without albert pujols for the cardinals at home. they managed to overcome getting their heads beat in by the phils friday to win a well pitched game saturday and capitalize on a couple of field errors on sunday and take the finale in extra innings.

let’s start with friday’s game. this was bound to happen at some point in the season, and friday the conditions were ripe enough to accrue and cause a perfect storm (at least in hindsight, but that’s 20/20 as they say).

the cardinals pitching staff had been pretty solid all season, expecially wellemeyer who had been surprisingly good and had been named pitcher of the previous month because he simply outstanding.

he ran into the really hot and streaking phils; especially offensively. utley, the nl mvp so far this season (just my opinion), had been just tearing the cover off of the ball, and had 21 homers going into friday; he hit his 22nd bomb of the season during friday’s game as the phils’ two other 15+ homerun holders, howard and burrell, went back to back to back with utley.

later on the game, howard hit another as he collected 5 rbis and three hits in the game. on the season, his average is pretty low, but his homerun and rbi total are pretty damn good.

then, there was pat “the bat” who has been mashing the ball ever since after last season’s all star break. he has not slowed down since.

so, the cardinals could only muster two runs which came off of skips’ two run shot. todd only went 3 1/3rd innings and gave up 8 runs on 8 hits of which 3 were bombs. cardinals got obliterated, 20-2.

saturday’s game was the first one that I actually until it ended without any interruptions and just for the fun of it. it truly was a great game, with the pitching on both sides being solid; especially the starters.

the phils could only come up with 4 hits in total, as the cardinals were a little better offensively and had a couple more timely hits and collected 9 hits.

lohse was great; his changeup was filthy, he located his change, breaking stuff and his fastball. his fastball I thought was especially good, because he was throwing it on cue to both sides of the plate and he put it were he wanted it.

eaton was good, not great. he managed to limit the damage and strand some baserunners by getting a couple of key double plays or lohse tried to swipe a base one inning but got thrown out; wouldn’t you know it, izturis comes up behind him and promptly triples to right centerfield. all in all, he was pretty good too.

lohse went 8 innings allowing 2 runs and eaton went 6 and 2/3rds and gave up 3 runs. burrell hit a two run shot that got the phils back in the game, but they could not get the tying run. the offensive star for the cardinal was, adam kennedy; who else did you expect? he had a nice two hit game with a two run homer that came in the first after skip got on to lead off the game (kennedy was hitting 2nd).

big thudwick contributed with a run scoring single and franklin got the save after retiring howard, burrell and jenkins 1,2,3 in the 9th. cardinals win a really well pitched game, 3 to 2.

then, the finale was another high scoring affair. boggs didnt last too long, giving up 4 runs in 4.1 innings. myers wasn’t much better, giving up 6 runs in 6 innings pitched. the cardinals had a 5 to 1 lead going into the 5th, but boggs let the pitcher get a hit and it started from there. the cards added another run in the 6th, but it turned out that the bullpen needed those runs just to keep the score tied.

flores waked home a run, then springer did the same; so, the ballgame was tied. then, in the 10th, ankiel scored the winning run on two errors; one on a ball that he hit and the other on a ball that duncan hit (errors committed by utley and gordon). so, the cards take the series finale, 7 to 6.

during this game, molina prevented a run from scoring by blocking the plate, but he suffered a concussion, good thing was, he remained conscious. he had to spend the night at a local hospital, but the cardinals say that he will probably not go on the dl. that is the last thing we need right now, another important guy landing on the dl.

guess, who collected the win sunday after pitching a scoreless inning? ARey, that’s who! yep, reyes has been called up and the izzyman is back in the bullpen; both worrell and mather were sent down to make room for the two pitchers.

tlr said that he is going ease izzy back into the closer’s role, let’s hope his problems are behind him because I would really like him to get to at least 300 career saves in a cardinals uniform (he currently is at 292 career saves).

carpenter suffers a speed bump in his attempt to come back from tommy john surgery. he was shut down by the cards and they said he won’t pitch before the all star break. figures, I thought they were being to optimistic anyways before. from the beginning, I thought it was going to be early to mid august before he comes back. now, maybe they stretches out to late august, or even early september when the roster expands; who knows? just hope he gets to 100% by the beginning of spring training 2009.

more news on injured starting pitchers making comebacks from injuries and surgeries. mulder and clement pitched for double-A springfield in a day night double header on saturday.

mulder pitched 5 scoreless innings allowing 5 hits and only needing 73 pitches. clement was alright since it was his first time pitching in a live game in a while, he also pitched 5 innings but allowed 3 runs.

here is what tlr had to say about mulder:

“I thought it was a real positive outing,” said manager Tony La Russa. “He’s just got to get sharp, you know, fine-tune what he’s doing.”

mulder supposedly has a new “arm slot” and a tweaked delivery. how many times did he talk about his arm slot not being consistant or being off last season? let’s hope this time he is effective for real and that he comes back and pitches effectively. not too long ago he was talking about retiring if this recent rehab from this last surgery did not go well.

wow, sorry about the long post today, but it had to be done; I known to sometimes be a longwinded talker and/or poster. let’s talk about the royals and maybe the sox tomorrow. enjoy the team’s day off.

(AP Photo/Al Behrman)

well, have not posted in a bit because of a couple of reasons: one, waino was down and out for a couple of weeks and its a huge downer when your ace goes on the dl. then, the more physically challenging thing occurred…I had surgery, and I consider it major surgery because I’ve never had one done before…I got my wisdom teeth taking out, all four of them.

needless to say I was not happy about that and my gums are still aching a bit with some blood still oozzing from the dark red spots in my mouth that used to filled with teeth…sorry for the graphic details, but you get the idea.

another real bummer came along just as I was ready to post something…

the unthinkable happen, the one thing that could make or break the cardinals season that was not supposed to occur did and that really did it for me.

the great one got injured, and when I saw pujols get carried off of the field, I thought the season was over. now, I know he will be out for at least a month, maybe 6 weeks which is good news since its not a full tear of the calf but a partial tear.

maybe he will come back at the same time as carpenter, right after the allstar break? that would be awesome wouldn’t it? pujols and carpenter coming off of the dl on the same day? with the cardinals still streading water around .500 and still in the race for the division?

that would be a dream come true!

You could win a dream trip to the 2008 MLB^® All-Star Week^TM, then stand at home plate and Call Big Papi’s shot before the State Farm Home Run Derby^® for a chance at a Chevy Tahoe hybrid. Just complete the form here to enter today.

Fans can enter the promotion daily through June 24 at www.sfCallYourShot.com/2008. The grand prize winner of Call Your Shot will win:

• All-expense paid trip for four to the All-Star Game and State Farm Home Run Derby
• First class hotel accommodations in New York
• Tickets to a Broadway show
• $1,000 MasterCard gift card

The grand prize winner will also get the chance to pick a spot to which two of the Home Run Derby players must compete to try to hit a ball. If the first player hits the ball to the called spot, the promotion ends. If either player succeeds, the fan receives a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid vehicle and a 2009 season-ticket package for any team.

Additionally, 10 fans will win first place prizes consisting of a $300 MLB.com gift card and 25 second place prize winners will receive $100 MLB.com gift cards.