TOWER GROVE - Manager Tony La Russa uses the word “core” with such reverence that when he dubs one of his players as a member of the Cardinals’ “core”, we take note.

In a casual conversation with reporters last season, he called David Eckstein a “core” player and that sent the scribbling class rifling through their notebooks to see if he had ever said that before about the shortstop. Juan Encarnacion has, at times, been designated as a “core” player. He was called that few times after signing and a few more times last season when he was collecting 37 RBIs in May and June and spending some games in center field.

When talking about the club’s offensive woes this season, a growing anxiety first apparent in spring training that continued through the series sweep at Pittsburgh, La Russa offered a more select definition for his “core”:

At least a  $10-million salary.

“The games count,” La Russa said last week. “It’s one our core guys, the three of them, to be themselves. That’s all we need. It they’re just themselves and you can get (complementary) contributions, you have a solid offense. We just need our $10-million (players) to be themselves.”

That’s quite a burden for three bats.

Too much.

By La Russa’s definition of the offensive “core” of the Cardinals is “Jim, Scott and Albert,” he said. Jim being Jim Edmonds. Scott being Scott Rolen. Albert being El Hombre. Of that “core” trio, only one was in the lineup Tuesday night at Pittsburgh. Rolen missed the game, as he’s missing today’s game, with back spasms. Edmonds made a late-game appearance as a pinch hitter, sitting for a second time this season against a lefthanded starter. (He’s in the lineup today.)

And Albert Pujols left that game with a .167 average, having gone 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.

Edmonds may have the salary needed to fit La Russa’s definition but he doesn’t yet have the health or strength. He’s conditioning on the job and to expect him to handle a third of the role of pushing the offense is unreasonable. On Monday night, he was lifted for a pinch hitter - Preston Wilson would supply the insurance runs in that victory - and La Russa told reporters afterward that “later in year” he’d probably let Edmonds take that at-bat because he’ll be more himself as a hitter.

You can’t have a core and sit it, too.

It reveals that there’s more needed than just the “core”.

The Cardinals entered today’s game with a .230 batting average, and after winning Wednesday had scored 26 runs in nine games this season (10 of which came in one afternoon in Houston). Of the “core” trio, only Edmonds came into this afternoon’s finale at Pittsburgh with a batting average better than .200. Rolen leads the team with six RBIs, but the trio combined has just eight as I type this. Certainly the cold start to this season by the Cardinals’ bats can be traced back to this “core”. But their troubles, fleeting as they probably are, should not mask a larger issue.

The lineup has been meek.

Knowing that the pitching performance thus far - a 2.88 ERA by starters - will have some hiccups, the offense is a chief concern. But to hoist the responsibility of the Cardinals’ offense - and therefore the blame for what ails it - on the core trio because of contracts is faulty.

The core theory needs to be reconsidered.

The responsibility needs to be delegated.

New core pledges — ahem, Chris Duncan — have to be identified.

Over the first two games of the series this past weekend in Houston, the Cardinals’ 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 0-for-22. The “core” was 0-for-18 with one walk. That was an intentional walk to Pujols with runners in scoring position to load the bases for Rolen. (Rolen struck out.) Yet, the Cardinals were able to win Friday’s game $$ with the heart of the order going 0-for-15 $$ because of Duncan.

Duncan, batting in the No. 2 spot, drove in three runs on three hits. All three of his hits were off lefthanded pitchers.

On Sunday, Pujols’ home run provided the game-winning runs but the late burst of production from the middle of the order only served to pad the score. Rolen’s four RBIs in the game came in the eighth and ninth innings as the Cardinals built on a 3-0 lead en route to a 10-1 victory.

On Tuesday, Edmonds made only the cameo appearance, Pujols was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and Rolen was out with his back injury. Yet, the Cardinals won because of four hits from Aaron Miles, three from Gary Bennett, pitching (naturally) and several poor plays by the Pirates. When wondering why the Cardinals struggle against lefthanded pitchers $$ as they were on the verge of losing to Tuesday $$ one theory that wafts around the clubhouse is that the Cardinals don’t put out their best lineup against lefties.

Edmonds sits. Or Duncan sits. Or this bat sits to get this bat work.

Et cetera.

(For numerical proof to support that theory check RIFFS below.)

But therein lies the truth of the Cardinals offense this season and the misleading nature of a “core”.

Pujols isn’t going to hit sub-.100 for long. (News flash.) Rolen’s shoulder is as close to normal as it can get following several surgeries and there’s no reason to believe his numbers won’t get there, too. Edmonds’ power is an unknown, but he did enough with limited time, pop, and health last season to gauge how much he’ll contribute. The thing is that the core can be itself and the Cardinals can still struggle to score runs, like they have done against lefties.

The real key to driving the Cardinals’ offense isn’t the core, it’s the core’s surroundings. It’s finding complements.

Pujols has to be put in position to drive in runs, like he has been in eight of the first nine games this season. Last season (and possibly already this season), Pujols has been known to expand his zone and plunge himself into trouble in an attempt to carry the offense when others are either lagging or absent because of injuries. Rolen has to have protection in the five spot. Those two cannot be an island of production until themselves, even they are just “being themselves”.

That won’t spur the so-far pedestrian offense.

Consider Wednesday’s fifth inning. Pujols was intentionally walked, but Eckstein and Wilson came through with RBI singles to invert a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. Wilson, as La Russa pointed out during spring, is needed to propel the offense, especially in Encarnacion’s absence. Scott Spiezio, who whiffed in the fifth, is needed to chip in.   Adam Kennedy, who did not start for a second consecutive game Wednesday, is needed to help turn over the lineup.

Duncan, with another solo home run as I edit this entry Wednesday,  is hitting his way into a newly defined core where salary need not apply. Production does.

For proof, the Cardinals need look no further than their pitching staff. Chris Carpenter has been inducted in the Cardinals’ “core”, but without him the rotation has still chugged along even without a known 200-inning pitcher. Adam Wainwright cuts the figure of a bona fide top-of-the-rotation pitcher. Kip Wells has always had the stuff to be a top-flight starter and has pitched like it. The complements fill the vacancy, redefine the core.

That’s what needs to happen with the offense.

The “core” trio is a large reason why the Cardinals are in annual contention, why they are perennially in the playoffs. (Look no further to the teams mimicking the Cardinals’ approach.) The “core” trio is the cornerstones of the roster and the supports on which to build quite a team over the course of a season. But not to support an entire lineup, not the way the Cardinals put together the lineup. The “core” can be called on to amplify the offense. The “core” trio certainly keys the offense. But the “core” cannot be the offense.

The core needs help to emerge and this lineup hasn’t yet proven to be deep enough.

The Cardinals can not get by on the core alone.

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DIGITS: With his pinch-hit, game-winning home run Wednesday, Duncan added to what was a statistical quirk of spring training. Including March, he’s now 6-for-7 as a pinch hitter this season with three home runs, a double and two singles. His only miss was in the Civil Rights Game at Memphis.

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RIFFS: It’s important to remember when wringing your hands about the Cardinals’ ongoing struggles with lefthanders that they hit .264 against lefties last season (14^th in the majors; seventh in the National League). Where they really struggled was with “damage” against lefties. They had a .401 slugging percentage, third lowest in the majors, followed only by the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners. The NL average was .426. The Cardinals’ OPS vs. lefties last season was .731, fourth lowest in baseball and well below the .766 NL average. … The Cardinals and Anthony Reyes, Friday’s starter, have discussed often his need to keep his pitch counts low from inning to inning. His first start of the season, last Saturday in Houston, provided a tremendous example. It took Reyes 27 pitches to get through the first inning. On his 27^th pitch that same day, Houston ace Roy Oswalt was one strike away from his ninth out of the game. … Amaury Cazana Marti, loaned to a club in the Mexican League, where he’s hit .381 over his first six games. On Tuesday night, he smoked his second home run of the season and drove in three while walking twice. … Taking two division series on the road erases the ugliness  of the Mets’ sweep at home from the standings, if not from the memories.

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PINGS: Some belated Mizzou notes. Sophomore lefty Rick Zagone was named the co-pitcher of the week in the Big 12 and is automatically on the watch list for the Roger Clemens Award because he was selected as a national pitcher of the week. Zagone carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning Saturday against Kansas State. He finished with a complete-game, one-hit shutout, striking out 11 and improving to 6-0 this season. The Tigers won, 3-0, on Saturday and then took the series at Manhattan, with Trevor Coleman’s 12^th-inning homer Sunday. At 24-9 overall, 6-4 in the Big 12, Mizzou made its debut at No. 25 on Baseball America’s Top 25 poll this week.

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