Cubs-Cards: Game 1
– Basically, the series opener came down to this: Cardinals hitters made it easy for Carlos Zambrano, who doesn’t require much assistance. Pitching for the first time since June 18 after being shut down with shoulder soreness, the Z needed only 11 pitches to tear through the first inning, 28 pitches to get through two innings, and 42 pitches to post three innings. With such conservation, Zambrano zoomed through six shutout innings. The only chance the Cardinals had was to be patient, make him work, make him use up a lot of pitches early. Instead, they set Zambrano up for a smooth shift.
– In nine career starts in STL, Zambrano is now 5-1 with an 0.95 ERA.
– Cardinals starting pitcher Braden Looper competed his tail off. He was up against it, having drawn the assignment to go against Zambrano, but Looper really battled through six innings. He gave up two solo homers, but when he left, the Cardinals trailed by only 2-0. Looper gave the Cardinals a chance. Looper is 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA in his last 7 starts. He’s been a real grinder.
– The Cardinals have lost 8 of their last 12 games at home. In the 12 games they’ve batted .248 and averaged only 3.4 runs.
– I don’t blame Tony La Russa for being upset with umpire Ted Barrett’s strike zone in the ninth inning, but he’d better hope that the umps will forget TLR’s postgame comments instead of holding a grudge.
– Barrett’s strike zone was so wide in the ninth, I could have walked through it.
– Rookie Cubs catcher Geovany Soto is going to make a lot of money playing this game.
– Congrats to Albert Pujols on No. 300. AP had been in a mini 1-for-14 slump until scratching out an infield single and homering in his final two ABs Friday.
– Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina doesn’t get much attention for his offense, and he isn’t a power hitter … but still: he’s really made terrific progress as a big-league hitter. Molina improved a lot with the bat in 2007, and he’s continued to take it higher in 2008. Since April 23, Molina has batted .328, with a .383 onbase percentage and a .419 slugging percentage.
– Jason Isringhausen looks pretty good. The movement on his pitches is returning. That was career appearance No. 600 for Izzy on Friday night.
– Since June 1, Ryan Ludwick is batting .245 with three homers in 124 plate appearances. In the first two months, his slugging percentage was .684. Since June 1, it’s .409. He’s got to adjust. In a future blog, I’ll take a look at how pitchers are getting Ludwick out.
– Updated numbers: since May 2, Cubs closer Kerry Wood has converted 18 of his last 19 save opportunities, and has an 0.94 ERA.
– But you know what? It’s hard to find a reliever who is on more of a roll than the Cardinals’ Russ Springer. He doesn’t close games, so his brilliance doesn’t warrant as much attention. But in his last 27 appearances, covering 21.1 IP, Springer has allowed only 10 hits and one earned run. The ERA over those 27 outings is 0.45, and the batting average against him is .139. That’s great stuff. Springer pitched a scoreless eighth inning Friday.
– I’m finished with my run of Jim Edmonds sarcasm.
Thanks for reading.
Izzy looked good last night. His fastball had good movement and that set up that big breaking ball of his.
Last night might turn out to be the Cardinals best shot at squeaking out a win against these Cubs. I know Looper made a couple of mistakes where he hung a couple out over the plate to Fukudome and Soto, but all in all it was a very effective start. The Cards need more starts like that. These five and six inning start are going to be what loses the division down the stretch for the Birds. The bullpen has been overworked, by having to eat 3 innings a night, when really they should have to worry the 8th, 9th, and maybe the 7th. If the cards are going to hang in the centeral then they need deep starts.
Horrible calls by the home plate ump in both the ABs for Glaus and Yadi. I knoq the results weren’t great, but I thought Glaus worked a good AB. He took pitches, hung in there and probable should have been on base. I thougt Yadi had a good ninth inning AB ,as well. He didn’t try and do to much with the pitch and he took what the pitcher gave him. I just hate to virtually see a game end with a bad call.
Congrats AP on 300!!!