What an awful and damaging road trip for the Cardinals, going 1-5 in the southwest tour of Houston and Arizona. In their three days in Phoenix, the Cardinals had an excellent chance to win all three games. But they lost two of three to the Diamondbacks and missed a swell opportunity to pick up some ground on the Brewers, who were swept (0-3) by the visiting Mets. 

A lot went wrong on the road trip: 

* Unless the Cardinals were bashing homers, the offense wasn’t scoring much. Of their 24 runs against Houston and Arizona, 17 came via homers. It’s never a good thing when the attack is so overly dependent on home runs.

* The bullpen got smoked in the six games: 7.71 ERA, 28 baserunners allowed in 14 innings, a .333 BA against. And 10 of the 20 hits given up by the ‘pen were for extra bases.

* Kyle McClellan is clearly the Cardinals’ rookie of the year — who else? — and he’s had an exciting season. But he’s laboring now. In his last seven appearances, McClellan has given up 10 earned runs and allowed 19 baserunners in 6.2 IP. During that time, LH batters are 9 for 16 vs. McClellan (a .563 BA).

* And this continues a trend. From the start of the season through June 15, LH batters hit .184 against McClellan and couldn’t crank on him at all. In 49 ABs against McClellan, the LH hitters didn’t touch him for a homer, not even a double. That’s right: no extra-base hits allowed. At all. None. But since June 18, the LH swingers are hitting .281 against McClellan, with a .361 OBP and .547 SLG.  The 18 hits against him during this time include 3 homers and 8 doubles. That’s a dramatic difference.

* So what gives?  Well, the LH hitters may be adjusting to McClellan by sitting on his fastball. He’s killed ‘em this season when he doesn’t give them the fastball. When McClellan gives the LH hitters a curve, slider or changeup, they were batting only .089 against those pitches through Aug. 30. But when McClellan gives the LH the heat, they were batting .382 against the fastball through Aug. 30. And he’s become predictable when he uses the fastball, too. As a first pitch to LH, he goes with the fastball 49 percent of the time. But when he’s behind in the count, McClellan throws LH the heater 80 percent of the time. Surely, they’re catching on.

* Or maybe McClellan is tired. It’s been a long rookie season. A starter in the minors, he was converted to relief this season, and he’s been used a lot in a new role. The pride of Hazelwood West could be dragging. I hope manager Tony La Russa freshens him up a bit. Or maybe it’s just that McClellan’s fastball is more hittable these days. I don’t know. But I’d hate to see him come up with some sort of arm ailment this late in his rookie campaign.   

* The first-place Cubs are leaking oil, having lost five in a row. Ace Carlos Zambrano was held out of a start last week (tired arm) then departed early in Tuesday night’s start against Houston. Zambrano, experiencing discomfort in the arm, and was scheduled to have an MRI on Wednesday, but the MRI never happened. And no one with the Cubs could explain why. In his last nine starts, Zambrano has a 5.26 ERA. Meanhwhile, Rich Harden is also going through some difficulty. The Cubs skipped Harden’s turn in the rotation to give him some extra rest, and he’s supposed to resume pitching on Sept. 10 in St. Louis. But Harden also acknowledged that he’s feeling some “minor” discomfort. He’s been superb for the Cubs so far, going 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA since being obtained from Oakland. That includes 75 Ks in 54 IP.

* Since we’re talking Cubs, here’s a Jim Edmonds update: since homering twice on that Friday Aug. 8 game against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field, Edmonds is 10   7  for 47  (.149) with two homers and six RBIs. But he may be heating up; Jimmy hit an important homer to tie Houston in Tuesday’s game, which ended in an Astros’ win.

* Phillies at Mets, 3 at Shea, beginning Friday… with the Mets having opened a 3-game lead in the NL East. Pelfrey vs. Myers, Martinez vs. Moyer (in the duel of golden oldies) and aces Santana vs. Hamels. Good stuff.

* The Mets, by the way, have the NL’s best record (45-26) since Jerry Manuel replaced Willie Randolph as manager on June 17. And there have been some bumps along the way; starter John Maine and closer Billy Wagner are on the DL.

* So with Milwaukee losing three at home to the Mets, and the Cardinals skidding on the road, and the Phillies inexplicably dropping two of three to the hideous Washington Nationals … suddenly … here come those Houston Astros. The Seabiscuit of the NL Central, the Astros were known for their late-season charges down the stretch under previous manager Phil Garner. And it’s happening again this summer under manager Cecil Cooper. On July 26, the Astros were stumbling along in last place in the NL Central with a 47-56 record. They were 12.5 games out in the wildcard race, and 9.5 behind the Cardinals. But take a look now: the Astros have won 8 in a row as part of a berserk 27-10 run since July 27.  The streak has whisked the Astros to within one game of the third-place Cardinals, two games behind the wildcard-contending Phillies, and 6.5 games behind wildcard leader Milwaukee. Over the last 37 games the Astros have slammed 54 homers, and their bullpen has saved 15 of 17.  (The magnifico closer Jose Valverde hasn’t allowed a run in his last 12 appearance and is a perfect 12-12 in save opps). And as for the starting pitching, the Astros are 14-2 in games started by Roy Oswalt and Randy Wolf since July 27. And the Astros are doing this without leftfielder Carlos Lee (28 HRs, 100 RBIs) who was lost for the season on Aug. 9. (Broken finger).  

The Astros still have a big chunk of ground to make up if they aim to make the postseason. But then again, of their 19 remaining games, 13 will be played against the Pirates (7), Reds (3) and Braves (3). It will be interesting to see if they can maintain this torrid pace without C. Lee. And I wonder where they’d be had Oswalt had been healthy for the first two months or so. A hip condition really impacted his performance earlier in the season, but he’s rolling now.

The Cardinals aren’t going to fall all the way to fourth place, are they?

Thanks for reading…

-B