Cardinals vs. Rays, May 16

p>Andy Sonnenstine pitched a great game for the Rays, don't get me wrong.</p>

<p>But Friday's performance by the Cardinals offense is one of the worst that I have ever seen in a major league baseball game.</p>

<p>St. Louis batters didn't do anything to make Sonnenstine break a sweat. Down by three runs in the seventh inning, the St. Louis batters made Sonnenstine throw four pitches to get three outs. FOUR PITCHES! It's nearly impossible to make it any easier on a hurler. And that's just not doing their job on any level.</p>

<p>On the rare occasions that the Cardinals got anyone on base, they could do nothing at all to move runners around the bases. It was like they had no plan whatsoever.</p>

<p>Not only was the offense terrible, the defense was spotty, too. </p>

<p>Rick Ankiel dropped a ball. </p>

<p>Cesar Izturis was eaten up by a grounder.</p>

<p>Even the Gold Glover Albert Pujols dropped a ball in a game where his streak of getting on base came to a quiet end.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, Tampa's speedy outfielders ran down anything the Cardinals could get into the outfield and their infielders gobbled up anything that came their way.</p>

<p>What a crazy world it is when the Redbirds can't match the pitching talent and team defense of Tampa Bay.</p>

<p>The one positive to walk away with is that closer of the future Chris Perez made a strong major league debut. He lit up the radar gun at 100 miles and hour, broke a bat and had a strikeout. One a lousy night like Friday, that's good enough for the View From the Cheap Seats Cardinals Star of the Game award.</p>

<p>The lowlight collectively goes to the seventh inning hitters.</p>

Comments

[FireHalMcRae!!]

Can we get rid of Hal McRae? I'm so sick of seeing this team not hit!

[k Wimpe]

The Rays are no joke and that starting rotation of theirs has been tantalizing the entire American League as well. These aren't your older brother's Rays!!

[Jesse]

I was happy to see Duncan make the adjustment to be able to hit the lone run out of the park. That and Perez's pitching was awesome, reminds me of when Joba came up with the Yankees. Thankfully Pujols's stupid streak comes to an end and maybe now he can focus on doing what is best for the team(along with LaRussa).

[View From the Cheap Seats]

No doubt the Rays are a good team. I'm pretty sure if their GM called ours and asked if we wanted to trade major league rosters that the answer would have to be yes. (Although I'd try to hang onto Albert Pujols...)

The Rays have a great rotation that is very, very young. Their outfield is great defensively and very exciting at the plate. I would kill to have Carl Crawford at the top of the Cardinals lineup.

Too bad the Cardinals couldn't have hung on to Troy Percival. If they would have kept him instead of picking up Izzy's $8 million option, they would have about six more wins and about $4 million more in the bank...

But that still doesn't excuse the Cardinals from not working the count. Maybe they would have lost anyway if they wouldn't have handed Sonnenstine a pillow and said "relax, fella, we aren't going to give you any trouble." But I would have liked to see them at least put up a fight.