In what was a great weekend series for the Cardinals, we learned a few things. It is much easier to win and far less stressful on the bullpen when the Cardinals can produce either A) ten-plus runs or B) get a three-hit complete game shutout from a starting pitcher.
Kyle Lohse is clearly on a mission to prove the doubters about his new contract wrong, he was just flat dealing on Sunday afternoon.
Adam Wainwright was less impressive on Saturday, with PH8 in attendance. It was eerily reminiscent of his Opening Day start, where Adam appeared to labor through innings, allowing several baserunners and throwing many pitches, but always finding a way out. If I didn’t have the benefit of the right-center scoreboard on Saturday, I’d have told you the Cards were in trouble watching Waino struggle. 102 pitches through five innings is not exactly the efficient Wainwright we’re used to. The offense more than made up for Waino’s short outing though, posting a five-spot in the bottom of the fifth to even make Wainwright the winner. Albert Pujols’ grand slam bomb into Big Mac Land pretty much put the game out of reach.
Moving to the Casino Queen Party Porch after the seventh inning, and really getting the lay of the land on where that ball wound up, it seems that the shot may have cleared the cast iron fence surrounding the outfield, had the grandstand not gotten in the way. Impressive shot, to say the least. Unfortunately, I never caught the estimated distance. Anyone help me out?
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We posted a couple of photos from the ole iPhone on TwitPic during Saturday’s game. One of Pujols and Ryan Ludwick receiving their Silver Slugger Awards from former Cards first baseman Jack Clark and Cards GM John Mozeliak. The other is Dennys Reyes warming up on the mound. As I posted with the photo on Twitter, Dennys Reyes is a truck. Sorry if the photos aren’t very clear. Hopefully iPhone 3.0 adds photo zoom capability. Seats were good, but phone is limited.
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Congrats and good luck to the St Louis Blues, who are heading back to the playoffs following a three-season absence. Goalie Chris Mason has been absolutely standing on his head to lead this team into the sixth slot in the Western Conference playoffs. It seems this young team has finally found its identity, and saved Coach Andy Murray‘s job in the process. Now let’s see how they can continue to develop in the coming years as more youth like Alex Pietrangelo make their way to the Scottrade Center.
Speaking of the Blues, if you’re a hockey fan and you haven’t seen these HUGE hits that rookie TJ Oshie made (both on Rick Nash coincidentally), you must click on those links now.
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Back to the Cardinals, what about Lohse, eh? There was a lengthy discussion here in the off-season, as part of the UCB Roundtable, about Lohse’s extension and whether it was a good move or bad move. So far? Great move.
Lohse proved my assessment of his approach wrong yesterday. I’ve opined that Lohse has been good at managing leads, getting some runs from his offense early and then coasting in and depending on his defense (not that that’s a bad thing). Yesterday afternoon, he was plain good. He reminded me a bit of an opposite-Chris Carpenter. Where Carp is the ground-ball guy, Lohse got 15 of his 27 outs on flyballs yesterday. Not a lot of strikeouts (four), eight groundouts.
As long as he’s keeping those fly balls in the park, this guy appears to fit the Dave Duncan pitch-to-contact mode perfectly. Here’s hoping he continues to buy-in and perform accordingly.
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