CHESTERFIELD — Manager Tony La Russa remembers how the pitcher looked in at the catcher, the distinctive and dogged look of a confrontation that was going to decide the game. It was a pivotal moment in one of the finest complete-game performances La Russa has ever seen. It left him gobsmacked.

“A classic bit of pitching,” he said in his office Thursday night.

And he could have been talking about Chris Carpenter’s nine-inning gem against the Cincinnati Reds that had ended just a few minutes before. Carpenter needed just 95 pitches to blaze through 28 batters, one more than the minimum. Out in the bullpen, Kyle McClellan said the relievers just watched, barely stirring, and only then out of habit, not of out need. (”It was the seventh inning,” McClellan said, “so I was like, ‘Guess I could start stretching.’”)

But La Russa wasn’t talking about Carpenter’s start. He’d already raved about it. He’d already used it as a chance to compare Carpenter to Dave Stewart and the other pure aces he’s managed. Asked if Carpenter was the best, La Russa unpacked his “tied for first” line and only allowed that he couldn’t think of one better.

It was one of his best that he talked about later.

As he searched for the NBA Finals game on his satellite TV, the St. Louis Cardinals manager described another complete game, one rich with history that had a connection with what history happened last night — pitcher Tom Seaver’s 300th win. Out in Washington D.C., lefty Randy Johnson became the first pitched since Seaver in 1985 to win his 299th and 300th win in back-to-back starts. Johnson is the 24th pitcher to reach the hallowed milestone. La Russa was Seaver’s manager with the Chicago White Sox when he got to 300, and La Russa still has a memento from that night.

It’s a picture of Seaver’s glare from the mound, and it’s a good story to begin the 10@10 …

1. There were runners at the corners and two outs in the eighth inning when pitching coach Dave Duncan and catcher Carlton Fisk trudged to the mound to talk with Seaver. The Yankee Stadium crowd of 54,032 was pulsing. Dave Winfield was at the plate as the tying run, and Seaver’s chance at winning 300 was in the balance. “He was running on fumes — you could just see it,” La Russa recalled. “Both Dunc and Fisk go out there and say, ‘This is the batter. Hey, this is the hitter you’ve got to get.’” La Russa’s souvenir from that game is a picture of what happened next. It’s taken from behind the catcher and it focues on Seaver staring in at the batter. There’s a 3-2 count and in the picture “you can tell it’s Winfield because there’s just this hulking figure standing over the plate,” La Russa said. “You can just see the exhaustion in Seaver’s face as he looking in.” Seaver fired a full-count changeup and Winfield swung — and missed. Seaver pitched a scoreless ninth, getting pinch-hitter Don Baylor to pop up and securing his 300th career victory. La Russa beamed Thursday as he recounted each pitch of the frozen at-bat against Winfield. He has the picture, and its autographed by Seaver, complete with a message. It reads: “Not bad for an old man.”

2. Carpenter completed Thursday night’s victory with a 0.71 ERA — which would definitely lead the National League if not for those pesky weeks he missed with a torn oblique. To qualify for the ERA title, a pitcher must have at least one inning for every one game his team has played. He’s 16 short. That could mean eight more starts for Carpenter before he qualifies. If he averages seven innings a start and makes his start every five Cardinals’ games, Carpenter will qualify with 94 innings in the Cardinals’ 94th game. The ERA leader in the NL right now is Johan Santana at 2.00. Say Santana stays put, to essentially equal the Mets’ lefty Carpenter must have a 2.89 ERA over his next 56 innings. Should Carpenter snap back to his career ERA over the next 56 innings — his career ERA is 4.02, FYI — he’ll hit 94 innings with a 2.68 ERA. That would currently rank him ninth.

3. OK, so Randy Johnson (who rocks with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, apparently) won his 300th game Thursday. Does that make him the most dominant and best lefty of the era — the best of his time? Possibly. There was a time when former Cardinals starter Mark Mulder was setting up camp as one of the finest lefties of this era. He’d been a Cy Young Award contender. He was one of the winningest lefties in the game from the day he arrived until the day he rolled into St. Louis. Heck, his .632 winning percentage still ranks fourth among lefties since 1995. But injuries and a perplexing shoulder issue means Mulder is no longer in the debate that makes up today’s poll. All statistics (W-L, ERA) are since 1995.

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4. While we’re on the subject of performances since 1995 … Albert Pujols doubled and homered Thursday, reaching base at least twice for the 15th consecutive game. That tied a club record for the past four decades. Keith Hernandez reached base at least twice in 15 consecutive games from Sept. 12-26, 1980. Pujols’ run is the fourth-longest in baseball since 1995. It trails: Barry Bonds – 28 (2004) … Steve Finley – 18 (1996) … Bonds, Mark Grace and Deion Sanders – 16 (2002, ‘98 and ‘94) … and tying four others: Ichiro Suzuki (15 in 2006), Shawn Green (15 in 2003), Jeff Bagwell (15 in 1997) and Jay Bell (15 in 1996).

5. Pujols has doubled in five consecutive games. He brings a seven-game hitting streak into this weekend series against Colorado. And while that isn’t all that much, consider what he’s done in those seven games: He’s gone 13-for-25 (.520). Eight of those 13 hits have gone for extra bases, including three home runs. And he’s driven in eight runs. He’s also walked five times, three times by intentional walks.

6. Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Andrew McCutchen made quite a splash in his major-league debut Thursday. He scored three runs, singled in his first at-bat, stolen a base and drove in a run. McCutchen’s arrival in Pittsburgh is something just short of a civic holiday, but it also marks a milestone for that robust 2005 draft. Now, all of the outfielders (or infielders who became outfielders) from the first round of the 2005 draft have played this season in the majors. Nine of them were taken in the first 30 picks. All nine have at least one at-bat and one RBI in the 2009 season, including the outfielder the Cardinals picked in that fertile round. They are:

• Justin Upton, AZ … 1st overall … 50 games … .333 BA, 10 HR, 33 RBIs
• Ryan Braun, MIL … 5th overall … 51 games … .312 BA, 10 HR, 34 RBIs
• Cameron Maybin, FLA … 10th overall … 26 games … .202 BA, 1 HR, 3 RBIs
• Andrew McCutchen, PIT … 11th overall … 1 game … .500 BA, 0 HR, 1 RBI
• Jay Bruce, CIN … 12th overall … 51 games … .212 BA, 14 HR, 30 RBIs
• Trevor Crowe, CLE … 14th overall … 18 games … .182 BA, 0 HR, 4 RBIs
• John Mayberry, PHI … 19th overall … 3 games … .222 BA, 1 HR, 3 RBIs
• Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS … 23rd overall … 52 games … .308 BA, 1 HR, 15 RBIs
• Colby Rasmus, STL … 28th overall … 48 games … .248 BA, 6 HR, 20 RBIs

7. Quick hits starting with another draft mention here: The Cardinals have the 19th pick overall when the draft starts Tuesday, and the last time they picked 19th overall was 2004 — The Lost Draft — when they selected Chris Lambert. The righthander, since traded to Detroit for Mike Maroth, is 1-5 with a 5.63 ERA in Class AAA Toledo with 48 strikeouts and 19 walks in 54 1/3 innings. … Former Cardinal Brian Barton spent one day with the Atlanta Braves before being returned to the Triple-A on Thursday to make room on the roster for Nate McLouth. Barton is hitting .250 and slugging .357 (two doubles, two triples, two homers) for the Braves’ Class AAA team. The player the Cardinals got in exchange for Barton earlier this season, reliever Blaine Boyer, was DFA’d on Thursday. …  Former Cardinals lefty Randy Flores has yet to allow a run in seven appearances for Colorado as he returns to Busch Stadium today. Flores has thrown 4 1/3 innings for the Rockies since May 16, and he’s struck out five without walking a batter. He’s struck out four of the 11 lefthanded hitters he’s faced.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: The Cardinals’ affiliates had an 0-4 day. Starting with OKC shutting out Memphis, 6-0. Allen Craig went 2-for-3 in the loss, and he’s raised his average to .281 by hitting 12-for-37 in his previous 10 games. … Lefty Evan MacLane took the brunt of the loss, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits in his 6 2/3-inning start.  … Brett Wallace went 0-for-4 to drop to 5-for-40 in his previous 11 games. … Daryl Jones went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple in Springfield’s 8-1 loss. … Brad Furnish struggled in his return to the rotation. The lefty allowed six runs (all earned) on four hits and five walks in two innings. Furnish is the pitcher taking Tyler Herron’s spot in the rotation. … Outfielder Chris Swauger was the only member of the Palm Beach lineup to get a couple hits as the High-A affiliate lost, 9-5. … Mark Diapoules continued the trend of rickety starting pitching Thursday by allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits and three walks in three innings. Casey Mulligan found a bit of that Low-A groove he had — striking out three in two scoreless innings. … Quad Cities lost, 5-4. Alex Castellanos went 3-for-5 with an RBI. … Hector Cardenas, a lefty, allowed six runs (four earned) in 3 2/3 innings. He walked two and allowed six hits. … The Cardinals had shifted the Quad Cities to a traditional rotation, abandoning the piggyback rotation that had starters sharing and alternating starts every five days.

9. MiLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo is out with another mock first round for the coming draft, and he has the Cardinals taking … a shortstop. That’s new. The perception in many corners — even internally — is that the Cardinals will lean toward taking a lefthanded starter (hope to put up some scouting reports on possibilities later today). Mayo’s mock draft, however, reveals a scenario where the lefties the Cardinals are intrigued by are gone by 19. Mayo has the Cardinals selecting Grant Green, the shortstop at Southern Cal. By some pundits he’s considered the second-best position player in the draft after Dustin Ackley. Check out the page on Green. And here’s a little video of the shortstop:

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Other crystal-ball picks from Mayo: local prep pitcher Jacob Turner going to Detroit (9th overall), a common selection for the pundits; Aaron Crow of Mizzou going fourth overall to Pittsburgh; current Mizzou ace Kyle Gibson going 12th overall to Kansas City, and one spot later the player often linked to the Cardinals, Lipscomb lefty Rex Brothers, goes to Colorado in Mayo’s mock.

10. In a quirky twist only baseball could provide, umpire Derryl Cousins worked third base Thursday night at Busch Stadium during Carpenter’s victory — and it was Derryl Cousins who was behind the plate for Seaver’s 300th win, the one described at the beginning of today’s 10@10.

Of course, in that game, La Russa said, Cousins ejected him in the sixth inning.

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