Lots of ups and downs this week – let’s review:
- Anyone else feel like the Cardinals badly need a sweep? It should’ve happened in the Nats series, but instead Ryan Franklin did his best Jason Isringhausen imitation. They really need to get on a tear to get some confidence back, it would seem. Sooner or later, the Cubs will run away with the division if the Cards can’t string together five or six wins in a row.
- With Chris Duncan still scuffling down at Memphis, and Joe Mather not embarrassing himself with the big club, expect Mather to stay up for a while. Joey Bombs is playing plus defense and getting on-base at a .353 clip so far.
- Speaking of Duncan, he was not in the lineup for Memphis versus Round Rock last night, and he is again not in the lineup today. Someone mentioned over at Future Redbirds that Bernie Miklasz mentioned Duncan being hurt a bit after running into a wall. So, not only is he not playing well, now he’s not getting regular at-bats either (as was the point in sending him down). Don’t expect to see Duncan back anytime soon.
- Will Mozeliak just disable Rick Ankiel already? He’s clogging up a roster spot they could’ve used to address the thin bullpen after the Nats double-header. Instead, Mike Parisi was sent down, which I don’t necessarily agree with. More on that later.
- Mark Worrell had a hell of a first major league at-bat. Mark hit a bomb into the left field seats in the late game Thursday for three runs worth, helping the Cards come back before coughing up the game in the tenth.
- Parisi’s demotion made way for Mitchell Boggs to be recalled from Memphis. That means the Cards have now used eight players this season who have no prior Major League experience. Hard to say if that’s Mozeliak’s influence or out of bare necessity. I do believe it has made the Cardinals a better ballclub. These guys have to know now that they must get the job done or be replaced.
- Speaking of which – it’s time to DFA Adam Kennedy. Kennedy was never that good of a hitter to begin with, in his days with the Angels, and now that hitting ability has been reduced to very little. Time to split the second base duties between Aaron Miles and Brendan Ryan. *OR* it’s time to start looking at making some trades.
- Please baseball injury wizards – let Adam Wainwright’s finger be ok.
- Ditto Todd Wellemeyer’s elbow.
- Not that I didn’t have this feeling before, or shouldn’t have expected it, but this team seems to be really increasingly Jekyll-and-Hyde-ish lately. They win the afternoon game Thursday versus the Nats in a ho-hum fashion, they lose Thursday night in dramatic fashion after putting up more runs than most Cards fans thought possible out of this team. Then after losing Friday night, I expected a big letdown. Maybe this is the end of this miracle run for the year. Nope, a seven-run second inning yesterday put them well in command. Of course, as I write, they are down 3-0 to Houston with the offense again looking anemic. Just impossible to peg this team.
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