JUPITER, Fla. — The location was an actual stadium, the hitters weren’t swinging aluminum bats this time, and the competition was a little more intense than, say, facing the Anteaters again, but Kyle Lohse still showed he’s been doing enough on his own that he’s game ready.

The Cardinals put their newest acquisition on the main field and against Class A hitters to see how far along he is and if they can accelerate him through two spring starts and into Game 2 of the regular season. Lohse threw 70 pitches in four simulated “innings” Monday and recorded 20 outs at Roger Dean Stadium.

The verdict: He’s ready. Starting Saturday.

“I was just expecting a simulated game without anybody (fielders) behind me,” Lohse said after the outing. “We had two teams out there. It was pretty close to a true spring training game environment.”

One observer called Lohse “the real deal when it comes to having pitches.”

The righthander has always had that label. Great stuff. Questionable consistency. He showed more of the former than the latter Monday, blitzing through a lineup that consisted of two swing-craving major leaguers — Chris Duncan and Juan Gonzalez – and some noteworthy low minor-leaguers. Lohse sped so quickly through his first “inning” of work that he faced eight batters. He got six outs. And he needed just 21 pitches to do it (17 strikes).

The first “inning”:

• Duncan grounds out to first base.
• Gonzalez strikeouts swinging.
• D’Marcus Ingram swings and misses a slider.
• Adron Chambers rolls a changeup to shortstop.
• A 4-3.
• Matt Arburr cranks a fastball up for a double off the left-field wall.
• Fastball up laced up the middle for an RBI single.
• Isa Garcia fooled by a slider.

“My slider is pretty much always been my go-to pitch,” Lohse said. ”I can throw it for a strike at any count or run it off the plate little bit. I’ve got pretty good cotrol on both sides of the plate with that. I did that today. It’s my go-to pitch, and my changeup is right there, too. It’s come a long ways to a pitch that I can go to.”

Lohse features a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball that runs a little bit — “Mine doesn’t have that great sink that so many of the other guys here have,” he said — and a show-pitch curveball, the go-to slider and the changeup. The change has become a more prominent pitch for him in recent years as he’s become comfortable throwing it to both sides of the plate and confident in it as an out pitch.

He got Gonzalez out in front of a changeup that the former slugger grounded to third base. In his next at-bat, Gonzalez froze on a biting inside slider called for strike 3.

“Nice weapon,” Lohse said. ”Nice one to have.” 

During his four “innings” — which turned into an out every three or four pitches — Lohse had a specific kink to iron out in his delivery. Get this: The Cardinals believe he was tipping his breaking pitches. (You may have heard something like that before.)

Lohse’s hand placement just before going into his windup would give away the pitch he was about to throw. Pitching coach Dave Duncan pointed it out to him, suggested a fix, and by the time Lohse was throwing from the stretch in his final inning the tip had been erased.

“I had heard rumors that teams were picking up some stuff,” he said.

To keep himself prepped for an Opening Day he knew would come — he just didn’t know where it would be — Lohse left his home in Arizona and simulated spring training in Southern California. He worked out at the training facility Scott Boras has for his clients, and when spring started Lohse shifted to a five-day routine. He threw twice to hitters before signing his $4.25-million deal. Once to the Cal-Irvine Anteaters and then to the Cal-Fullerton Titans. Both times the college hitters used aluminum bats.

The self-motivated schedule, however, kept him on pace with pitchers who had teams as they prepped for the regular season.

That simulated spring got him ready for Monday’s simulated game.

Time to stop the simulations.

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Seen at today’s simulated game: A Gibson, in a Cardinals’ uniform, wearing the No. 45. The Gibson in this picture is minor-leaguer Chris Gibson, a first baseman and the son of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson. (Photo courtesy Scott Rovak.) 

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The Cardinals released the following minor-leaguers today: Jason Cairns, Henry Guerrero, Julio Sanchez, Michael Cooper, and Jose Salazar.

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Gonzalez said he planned to spend the afternoon bouncing from Triple-A to Double-A games on the backlots, trying to get in as many at-bats as he can. The Cardinals have not yet released word on the specialist’s findings, though Gonzalez is on a limited-activity program. For example, when the outfielder chopped a groundball in the sim game against Mike Parisi, trainer Barry Weinberg saw Gonzalez break from the batter’s box and yelled: “No sir. No, no.”

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Alan Benes has arrived in Florida and will have a new role with the team this season, though he will still be a part of the front office. Benes, who served as a special assistant to Walt Jocketty last season and roamed the minors, will be in charge of scouting the American League Central.

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Also from the sim game: Gonzalez looped a fly ball to shallow right field and Adron Chambers raced in to make a sliding catch. The Atlanta Braves, stretching in deep center field, gave the minor leaguer a rousing ovation for the catch.

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Though emails and readers and a couple sports columnists who will remain nameless appeared to generate momentum, it does not look like the “Bird Land” t-shirts, as sublimely designed by Kurt Hunzeker, will ever leap from blog to backs. Thanks for all the emails asking about them, including one from the little man wondering if they came in 3T.

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