Cardinals vs. Cubs, May 4

It wasn't easy and sometimes it wasn't pretty. But the Cardinals took two of three from the Cubs to secure their grip on first place and hush a few more of the pundits who say they aren't for real.

Albert Pujols gets the honor of View From the Cheap Seats Cardinals Star of the game for putting the Cardinals on top with a two-run double off of former teammate Jason Marquis. Pujols struck out on a pitch a foot outside in his first at bat against Marquis and hit into a double play the second. But he still was able to make the difference. Honorable mention goes to Todd Wellemeyer who gutted through five innings even though he struggled to throw strikes.

The lowlight of the game goes to Cesar Izturis who booted a relatively easy double play ball in the first inning that required Wellemeyer to get five outs to retire the side.

For the Series:

Starting pitching: B... Wainwright was awesome, Lohse not so hot and Wellemeyer somewhere in between.

Relief pitching: C... Jason Isringhausen blew a two-run lead in game one, but was perfect in game three. The rest of the relief crew seemed to like living dangerously, issuing too many walks with narrow leads on the line.

Offense: B... They scored enough to win two out of three. But what is it that makes the Cardinals a bunch of zombies when they face struggling pitchers. Ted Lilly was 1-3 with a sky high ERA coming into game two, but was able to completely tame the St. Louis bats.

Defense: B-... It's getting a little sloppy.

Comments

[k Wimpe]

I thought it was odd that the ESPN guys gave Wellemeyer player of the game, as Pujols ended up with the most crucial hit of the game. After Marquis struck him out way outside, as you stated, he came inside twice on Albert, the first being a called strike, and regrettably for a second time resulting in a hard double to the left field corner.
MY lowlight would have gone to Rick Amkiel. Twice he popped up after a Pujols at-bat preventing the Cards from really opening up the game. The latter was after reliever Sean Marshall delivered his first pitch and Rick promptly fouled out halting any chance of the Cards adding an exclamation point to the series. Early mistakes often get buried when the team that commits them ends up reconciling them but yes if Izturis makes that play, the score would have been different.
Honorable mention could have gone to Ryan Franklin. He came into a heavy leverage situation in the 7th and pitched a perfect 8th. Not an easy thing to do against the Cubs lineup.
By the way, I thought Lohse started Saturday, not Pineiro.

[View From the Cheap Seats]

I guess, ultimately, it's the final result that matters. But I didn't give Ryan Franklin a pat on the back because I was irritated to death that he came into a game with a small lead and started walking people,

Not only did he walk the leadoff batter in the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate. But he went to three balls on the next two batters, too. And because of it, he was forced to give them something decent to hit.

Frankling has a good ERA and looks nice on paper. But he makes me awful nervous this year when last season he was lights out.

[Fred McTaggart]

Franklin thought he was being squeezed by the plate umpire, and I agree. It took him one batter to find out how tight the strike zone really was, and he adjusted after that.

I missed the boot by Izturis, but I am pleased with his defense so far. Seems to me he has considerably greater range than Eckstein...not to mention the arm. And now and then he's contributing a key hit. I'd give Tony high marks on the way he's handling a less than perfect middle infield situation. What I considered a major weakness is turning out to be at least better than last year.

Wellemeyer was okay, but I don't think it was his best outing. He was not very efficient in his pitch count.