So after taking 2 of 3 from Houston, it was time to see if the Cardinals could take their recent success to Atlanta, and beat a tougher team and a tougher pitcher in Tim Hudson.  The Cards sent their ace, Chris Carpenter, to the mound to do the job.

Big surprise: once again we did not get Carp a win.  Are there any other teams who have sent their #1 guy to the mound 6 times and still haven’t gotten a win for him?  He’s pitched well.  There was one game where he let it get out of control, giving up 8 runs over 4 innings.  But besides that, he has gone deep into games, getting out of jams and deserving a win.  But every game either the Cardinal bats or the bullpen have conspired against him.

Last night, it was the bats.  For all the talk of bullpen trouble, they actually held their own.  Sanchez was again impressive.  I could watch that guy pitch all day.  There was unnecessary drama in the 9th.  The tying run was once again at the plate with a runner on.  And he flew out to Matt Holliday who made a pretty decent over the shoulder catch on the warning track, just shy of home run distance.  The drama has probably given me ulcers, but I’ve grown to accept that may just be the way it is with the Cardinals.  And as long as they win, I probably won’t complain (too loudly) and last night they were able to win.  Combine that with the Reds loss and it was a pretty good night.  Unfortunately, the Cubs won.

After a night when the big boys ripped the cover off the ball, it was not so big guys making the noise last night.  Yadier and Descalso each had an RBI to knot the game at 2-2 and after the Braves homered to make it 3-2, Descalso hit a sac fly to again tie the game at 3-3 in the 9th inning.  Then it went to extras where things got interesting.  You figure the 10th inning is where they have to make it happen.  They have Pujols, Holliday, Berkman coming up that inning.  Back to back to back jacks, perhaps?  Nope.  They go down easy, 3 up, 3 down.

But in the 11th inning, the Cardinals start to make some noise.  With 2 runners (via a HBP and walk) and 2 out, Nick Punto steps to the plate.  Punto was brought to St. Louis to be an all-around utility guy, because he’s decent with his glove.  Not because of his extraordinary bat.  In fact, going into this at-bat, he’s already 0-5 on the night, hitting .160 for the season.  But on some nights the cards fall just right.  (No pun intended.)  Normally, Theriot would be leading off and in this spot and not Punto, but he was recovering from rib cage soreness.  But the stars aligned and Punto ripped the ball down the right field line for a 2 RBI triple.  And that would be the game. 5-3 Redbirds.

I really do feel bad for Carp.  I know they always talk about team wins rather than personal wins, blah, blah, blah.  But it has to be bad on the morale to go out their game after game and not be able to secure the win.  And Carpenter is equally responsible for their win last night because he kept the game close despite a couple bad breaks.  One that jumps to mind was the play in the 7th inning.  Berkman made a decent throw to try and get the base runner at 3rd and instead hit him in the back.  Nothing you can do about that.  But it meant runners on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out.  So they walk Chipper to load the bases and face Brian McCann.  Carp induces the double play and they get out of that inning that could have been a lot more damaging.

Speaking of that Berkman throw, it would have been nice to see him throw a runner out.  The Cardinals have not had one outfield assist this year.  Not one.  I mentioned before how bad the Cardinal defense is.  This is just a team that is more offense than defense, which has not usually been typical of Cardinal clubs.  I mean, when Edmonds was in the outfield, he would have had several assists this year, not to mention many runners being scared to go on him.  But I do have to give it up for Nick Punto.  He did make a nice play last night.  And with the lack of quality defense has a whole, it’s nice to see the occasional great play.

I’ve been watching the 76 second Reebok recaps of the games.  Sometimes they will include home runs or game winning doubles, but mostly it’s just great defense packed into 76 seconds, which I love.  I watched probably a week’s worth last night.  And not one Cardinal play was on there.  That should tell you something about Cardinal defense.

The only other scary moment of the game was when Gerald Laird got hit in the head in the 9th inning with a bat.  I mean he got hit hard.  So hard that he fell over and looked pretty dazed.  Molina was already out of the game, so if Laird had to come out, it would have called for an emergency catcher situation, which the announcers were saying was Daniel Descalso.  That would have been interesting to say the least.  I had to be the emergency catcher one time on my college softball team.  It was a lot of fun, but I also wasn’t catching a 97 MPH Jason Motte fastball.

So after a horrendous beginning, the Cardinals now have won 5 series in a row.  A win today or tomorrow would give them 6.  They aren’t dominating teams and sweeping them, but that’s okay.  If you win every series, you have yourself a championship.  It’s just one series at a time.  And that seems to be the way the Cardinals are handling it.  And while you have guys like Schumaker and Craig out, or Freese sitting, you need to see guys like Descalso and Punto deliver.  One thing in common of all championship teams is that they don’t just look to their 3-4-5 guys to get it done.  Production comes from surprising places at times and it comes from up and down the lineup.  For maybe the first time this year, I believe the Cardinals really do have a shot to play in October and to play well.  They have this way of rising to the occasion when everyone has doubted them.  Hopefully they can keep it going today.

Takin’ down the chop,
Tiffany