1. Well, the Cardinals' recent road trip didn't go according to plan by any stretch of the imagination. They had to salvage a win at the end of each series after dropping the first two. Coming home to play the Brewers didn’t improve things. The only lead the Cards had against Milwaukee in the entire series got washed out by a monster of a storm on Friday. Colby Rasmus, who hit the two-run homer in the bottom of the second of Friday’s rainout, managed to get it back by hitting another two-run bomb in the bottom of the seventh of Monday’s makeup. However, it wasn’t enough as the Cards were held to just six runs over the three-game series, none of which came during Adam Wainwright’s two-hit, one run performance on Saturday. The Cards managed to get back on track a bit on Tuesday, thanks to a three-hit complete game shutout by stopper Joel Pineiro (Did I really just say that?). Rasmus’ bat stayed live with yet another two-run bomb off of lefty Ted Lilly in the fifth. The Cards also managed to manufacture a run in the first with a leadoff walk to Brendan Ryan, a sacrifice by Rasmus, and a stolen base by Ryan off of Lilly whose ignorance of the situation led to there not even being a throw down to third. This set up Yadier Molina for a two-out RBI single to put St. Louis on top after one inning. Molina also helped the Cards get back some of their defensive prowess in the top half of the opening frame, picking off Alfonso Soriano off of first, the 29th time Molina has done so in his career.
2. This brings me to my next point. Soriano might me one of the laziest players in baseball. His lackadaisical run after an Albert Pujols single later in the game turned it into a double for Albert. El Hombre may not run out every ground ball and full speed, but if there’s a chance to make a play, he’s going to do so and he certainly took advantage of Soriano’s ineptness in the outfield. When healthy, the Cubs have to of the laziest players in the league on the left side of their field, with Aramis Ramirez at third base. This guy constantly got booed in Pittsburgh for not running out grounders before the Pirates gave him away to the Cubs in what seemed to be more of a promotional item than a trade. Sure, both of these players contribute to the Cubs offense and are probably given more respect at the plate than Ryan Ludwick and Rick Ankiel by pitchers, but I’d rather have our pair that injures themselves running after fly balls in the outfield than the Cubs’ pair of bums any day.
3. Ankiel may come back tonight, which would certainly give the Cardinals a boost. Chris Carpenter’s going to start on the mound, so even if Ankiel isn’t quite ready to come off of the DL, the Cards have at least one positive working for them. GM John Mozeliak believes that Ludwick will be ready to return once he’s eligible to come off of the DL, so we could see the entire team that got us off to our hot 17-7 start back before the end of May, which would give us plenty of time to right the ship. I haven’t heard any update on Troy Glaus in quite some time, so anything that he might contribute I would just have to consider a bonus.
4. Baseball stats of the week: The Washington Nationals have now lost six consecutive games but have managed to score at least five runs in each of those six losses. Free agent signing Adam Dunn is certainly doing his job as a run producer. Now if only they had a pitching staff. Even funnier than the Natty’s pitching woes is the fact that Astros starting pitcher Russ Ortiz currently has more home runs this season than Red Sox DH David Ortiz. Jason Bay can provide just as much protection as Manny Ramirez with the way he’s hitting, so I don’t know what’s wrong with Big Papi. Perhaps he was on the juice for a while, but whatever it is, it’s quite a staggering drop off from 35 homers, 117 RBI, and a .332 average just to years ago and 54 homers the year before that. The last time I saw that dramatic of a change between seasons was Barry Bonds who saw his home runs gradually decline from 1996 to 1999 before something magical got a hold of him and he hit 49 in 2000 and 73 in 2001. I’m not saying Ortiz juiced, just that it looks fairly suspicious.
5. I’m writing this one a bit late for hockey, but I’m saying Red Wings in 6 and Penguins in 7. I might have given the Blackhawks a better chance before seeing the first two games, but it’s just too difficult to pick against Detroit at this time of year. If the Hurricanes could win a third straight Game 7 on the road, that would be quite a feat. However, I just don’t see it happening. Red Wings Penguins could become the new Braves Yankees with the way things are looking. Except maybe this time, the Braves will win one.
