Greetings from Busch Stadium.

After watching the Brewers humiliate the surprisingly tepid Cardinals by a 12-0 score on Tuesday night, it’s probably time to face up to the obvious reality here:

The Brewers are superior to the Cardinals.

They own the Cardinals in 2008.

After years of dominating the Brewers, the Cardinals find themselves turned around and are suddenly on the receiving end of a pretty thorough beating from their former patsies. I’m searching for an analogy here; I guess this is sort of like when the boxer, Larry Holmes, used to serve as Muhammad Ali’s sparring partner and take his lumps in the gym as Ali trained for the next big fight. And then one day Ali wasn’t quite Ali anymore, and Holmes was now the dominant fighter, and when they met in the ring, Holmes routed the fading Ali.  Just punished him all night, until the ref stopped the fight with Ali sitting on his stool in the corner. No, the Cardinals aren’t finished, even if the Brewers now have a 4.5 game lead in the wild card with 29 games remaining for STL. Manager Tony La Russa’s team will rise again, and try to find a way to launch a counterattack. They’d better do it Wednesday night, with Adam Wainwright seeking to ward the Brewers off and at least temporarily staunch the bleeding. At best, the Cardinals will be 3.5 games out when they head onto the road for visits to Houston and Arizona. At worst, they’ll lose again to Milwaukee and be 5.5 out as they fly into the night, en route to Texas. This is a huge game for the Cardinals on Wednesday. And oh, by the way: the Cardinals are also tied with the Mets in the WC race. 

– The facts are evident. The Cardinals won the season series from the Brewers for eight consecutive years (2000-2007), but the cycle has reached the end. The Cardinals are only 4-10 against Milwaukee this season, and have stunningly lost seven in a row to the Brewers. Cardinals pitchers have been rocked for 13 homers in those 7 losses. And the Cardinals have scrimped for an average of 2.18 runs in those seven bangups.

– With so much at stake, it was shocking to see the Cardinals play such sloppy, listless baseball on Tuesday night. Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel each made an error and AP’s allowed a run to score. Cardinals’ batters went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position in the first four innings, when it was still a contest. (And that one hit, a single by Aaron Miles, didn’t score Yadier Molina from second base. Pujols had a key miss early, flying out to shallow left field in the third inning with runners on first and third and one out. Elsewhere, Cardinals pitchers threw two wild pitches and hit a batter. It was just a dreadful performance in every way by the home team.

– Nothing new there; the Cardinals are now a glaringly mediocre 15-19 at Busch since June 2.

– Ankiel was 0-2 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, and clearly hasn’t been the same hitter since being slowed by an abdominal injury nearly a month ago. Since Aug. 2, Ankiel is 8 for 45 (that’s .178) with a .296 OBP and a .311 SLG. 

–  And I’m not sure why TLR continues to bat Ankiel fourth in the lineup. Ankiel has done OK there but it’s nothing extraordinary. His batting line in 205 ABs as a 4th place hitter is .264 / .346 / .512. 

– Ryan Ludwick has provided substantially more impact in the cleanup slot this season; in 192 ABs there he’s .307 / .387 / .620 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs. But in recent days, Tony has mostly gone with Luddy in the two hole, with Ankiel fourth.

– One of the problems is, it doesn’t make much sense to flip them because Ankiel hasn’t been effective as a No. 2 hitter, with a line of .236 / .295 / .458 in 72 ABs.

– This is a small sample (46 ABs) but Ankiel seems to be comfortable hitting in the fifth slot, with a .326 BA, .392 OBP and .522 SLG.

 – La Russa likes that danger in the two spot, but with the way the roster has shaped up late in the season, he’s limited by what he can do there because of Ankiel’s struggles. Ludwick has been outstanding as a No. 2 hitter (.340 / .395 / .698 ) but if he bats second, it leaves a void at cleanup. Troy Glaus isn’t good at No. 4, either.

– Maybe TLR should consider backloading the lineup by using his second baseman in the two hole. Adam Kennedy is batting .375 as a No. 2 hitter this season (in only 56 ABs) and Aaron Miles is a .364 hitter in the two hole (140 ABs). If you go, say, Miles as the No. 2 hitter then you can pack a lot of punch in the 3-4-5-6-7 spots with a procession of Pujols, Ludwick, Ankiel, Glaus and Yadier Molina … or something like that; flip Ankiel and Glaus if you’d like.

– One more thing: I simply do not understand what the Cardinals are trying to do in their approach to Milwaukee bopper Ryan Braun. This kid simply murders them, and the numbers almost read like fiction.

– In 57 ABs vs. the Cardinals this season Braun has 28 hits for a .491 BA. He’s slammed 7 homers  and has 13 RBIs. His OBP is .516, and his SLG is .965 …

– In his two-season career, Braun has 99 ABs against the Cardinals and he’s raked ‘em for 43 hits … that’s a .434 BA … and he has 10 homers and a SLG of .838.

– And yet the Cardinals keep pitching Braun the same. In yesterday’s blog I relied on the STATS scouting reports to offer a glimpse at Braun’s weak spots as a hitter, and basically you pound him low with fastballs and sliders and mix in the change. Or you can ride the fastball up and get him to chase it. What you don’t do is throw this guy any heat from the top of the knees to the belt; he’ll destroy you. And you don’t try to blast him inside; Braun loves to turn on those pitches in. So what do the Cardinals keep doing? Of course: throw the mid-thigh gas, and try to smoke him inside. That was their strategy Tuesday, and Braun launched a thigh-high fastball into the Milwaukee bullpen for a two-run jack. And he added two singles. That’s right: give it to Braun exactly where he likes it. And let the dude keep mauling them. It’s almost comical the way Braun slaps them around. And they simply refuse to alter their approach. It’s as incomprehensible as anything I’ve witnessed of this team in recent years.  Yep, the Cardinals will keep showing Braun that they’re right; you just watch.

-B