Good evening from a suddenly stormy, soggy Busch Stadium.

The rains came moments after the Cardinals locked up a 5-4 win over the Pirates.

This one will be a quickie….

One key reason for the demotion of Chris Duncan: the Cardinals’ outfield was becoming increasingly weak against LH pitching. That’s an issue in general, but in the short term, the concern was more immediate, because the Pirates have three lefty starters going at STL in the four-game series.

Duncan was essentially nullified by LHP. In 147 career at-bats against LH, Duncan was batting .197 with a .261 OBP and a .333 SLG.

But he wasn’t alone in the struggles against lefties.

Let’s take a look at the outfield splits against LHP this season:

Rick Ankiel:  .269 / .321 / .462

Ryan Ludwick:  .241 / .352 / .586

Skip Schumaker:  .212 / .281 / .231

Brian Barton:  .261 / .404 / .348

Chris Duncan:  .111/ .158 / .167

There are some decent numbers in there; Ludwick has 6 HRs vs. LH and a big slugging percentage against them. Barton’s OBP against LH is very good, and that’s made to order for a top of the lineup guy. And Ankiel has held his own against LH until recently; he’s 0 for his last 8 against them.

Clearly, manager Tony La Russa didn’t have as much flexibility or attractive options for the outfield when confronted by LH pitchers.

Enter Joe Mather …

At Class AAA Memphis, Mather absolutely punished LH pitchers, batting .354 with a .446 OBP and a .771 SLG for an OPS of 1.217.  He was damned good against RH pitchers, too, with 8 homers and an OPS of 1.006.

Mather should give La Russa more lineup muscle against those lefties.

With Mather in the mix, La Russa can go a number of ways vs. LH.

Friday, it was (left to right) Barton, Ludwick and Mather… with Ankiel coming in later in CF, Luddy moving to LF.

Another fine trio vs. LH would be Barton (LF), Mather (CF) and Ludwick (RF).

(Though Mather in CF probably isn’t what La Russa wants, defensively, at least not now… but now that we think on it,  Luddy in CF ain’t exactly Curt Flood…)

Or: Barton (LF), Ankiel (CF), Ludwick (RF).

Then again: Ludwick (LF), Ankiel (CF) and Mather (RF).

I guess we can install Barton in RF if the park fits his somewhat limited arm.

(Then again, there’s the cutoff man… which, by the way, C. Dunc hit most of the time).

Actually, you can whip up any fun alignment you can think of as long as it includes a choice of three from the pool of Ankiel, Ludwick, Barton, Mather.

(Sorry, Skip… unless you be facing Barry Zito; you’re 2-3 against him… and actually you’re 1-2 vs. several LHP. So we have to be very selective here).

All of this, of course, is based on Mather hitting in the bigs. We’ll see how he does.

But if Mighty Joe Mather comes through, La Russa will enjoy putting together these combos against the lefts.

By exchanging Duncan for Mather, La Russa and the Cardinals potentially strengthened a vulnerability when the LHs take the mound.

-B