Last night, I got to witness a masterful pitching performance first hand. Actually, I saw two of them. Wandy Rodriguez was solid for the Astros, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk while fanning six over seven innings. His bullpen even backed him up with a perfect inning with one strikeout from reliever Latroy Hawkins. Adam Wainwrright was just better. He allowed the same three hits that Rodriguez did, but without walking anyone while shutting Houston out over eight innings. He also struck out five, none of which was bigger than pinch-hitter Jason Michaels' knees with a breaking ball in the eighth inning with the tying run at third base. Wainwright and Molina both showed a lot of emotion after that K. They knew it was a huge spot, especially with how cold the Cards' offense has been lately. I quipped to Meghan (we'll call her a cousin of no blood relation to keep things simple) after scoring in the first inning that with the way Wainwright's been pitching, we may not need much more than that. Well, I wasn't serious, but number 50 sure as hell was. The game ended in two hours and ten minutes. One last fact that will display how dominating both pitchings staffs were is that at no point during last night's game was there more than one base runner aboard. Both teams were limited to just one runner advancing to third base. The Cards scored theirs, the Astros did not, and it was the difference in the game. It isn't likely to get much easier for the birds' bats on Wednesday when they go against Roy Oswalt, who's coming off a performance of eight shutout innings.
The fact is, the Cardinals' offense is in a slump. They've scored three runs or fewer in five of their last eight games. The three they did break that mark were all against San Diego, who is just terrible this year. Matt Holliday is just 4 of his last 26. Albert Pujols had 33 home runs at the break. Nearly a month and a half later, he's only added seven on to that total. The Cardinals have been very lucky to get such excellent starting pitching. Without it, the redbirds would be in the tank with the rest of their NL Central brethren. On Sunday, I was hoping John Smoltz wouldn't blow up and the Cardinals might have a chance to win after he was through for the day. Smoltz tossed five shutout innings, striking out nine, including seven in a row. Yes, it was the Padres, but that would be fairly impressive against the Pittsburgh Pirates, let alone a major league club. And yes, I meant that last statement. If Smoltz can do anything close to that the rest of the way, the Cardinals could win about 75 percent of their remaining games. They're now 28-3 in games started by Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Joel Pineiro since July 1st if my counting is accurate. All three guys have embraced Dave Duncan's pitch to contact idea and have executed it brilliantly. All three also can bare down and strike someone out when they need to. Wainwright did it in the eighth last night. Carpenter did it in the eighth last week against the Dodgers. And even Pineiro, who wasn't striking anyone out early in the season, has 18 Ks over his last three starts.
The Cardinals have now built a nine game lead in the NL Central. Exactly three weeks ago today, the Cubs and Cards were tied atop the division. Nine games in three weeks? Instead of a June swoon from the Cubs, we've seen an all-out August nose-dive. There's a term in physicals called terminal velocity. One use for the term is that once a free-falling object hits a certain speed, it can't go any faster. It will simply maintain that speed until another force, like the ground, stops it. Over the past three weeks, I've come to the conclusion that the Cubs defy physics and lack a terminal velocity. They may hit the ground of the NL Central (the Pirates) and just plow right through them until they end up in the NL East where they hit the absolute zero of the baseball standings, the Washington Nationals. It simply doesn't get any lower than that. They're fading faster than Marty McFly and his siblings in Back to the Future. Where they're going, they don't need roads. A bullet train to the basement will suffice.
Photo from Universal Pictures
