TOWER GROVE — Say this about St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter as he makes a backstretch bid for an invitation to the 80th All-Star Game — he’s doing it with an increasing degree of difficulty.

Carpenter will face his fourth different former Cy Young Award winner in his past seven starts tonight, and the punctuation at the end of this streak has more trophies than the other three combined. Carpenter started the run of Cys against San Francisco lefty Barry Zito (Cy, 2002) on May 30. It’s picked up speed with three Cys in his previous four starts, beginning with Cleveland’s Cliff Lee (Cy, 2008), continuing with New York’s Johan Santana (Cy 2004, 2006) and ending tonight with five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson. This will be Carpenter’s final start before his game Sunday at Cincinnati, the same day that All-Star teams are announced. In effect, this is his final bid for a berth in the All-Star Game, which will be held at Busch Stadium on July 14. He’s got a heady resume — sub-2.00 ERA in 10+ starts — but lacks the wins that sometimes draw the eye.

Johnson continues the Giants’ slate of pitchers that, were this soccer, the Cardinals could call a “group of death.” On Day 1, Tim Lincecum pitched a two-hit shutout, tying a season-best, low-hit performance held by several pitchers including Cardinals’ starter Joel Pineiro. More on Lincecum, the possible All-Star Game starter,  later in the 10@10, which also includes an explanation on how Mark DeRosa could start his Cardinals career with an understandable 0-fer and a map of the All-Star Arches around town.

But a day after Lincecum’s gem, the Cardinals face a pitcher with 269 more victories than him, and that’s the place to start today’s 10@10 …

1. Cardinals’ outfielder Ryan Ludwick is 2-for-5 against The Big Unit, with a home run as one of his two and each of his hitless at-bats being a strikeout. Went to him for a scouting report on Johnson, who has struggled on the road (63 baserunners in 36 innings): “He’s been known as a power pitcher. Has a good fastball. He works with leverage, and he’s tall so the ball gets on you and he’s got that good slider. Over the years he’s worked on a changeup. He’s the type of guy who attacks hitters and you want to get up there and loo for you pitch to hit and try to play it. … Being a player of his caliber, a Hall of Famer, there’s a lot of fun that comes into play when you face a guy like that.”

2. Four of this current generation’s All-Star pitchers have won 300 games, with recently retired Greg Maddux leading the way at 355 career victories. Maddux has slipped quietly into retirement. Tom Glavine was released by Atlanta and still wants to pitch again — eventually. Johnson starts tonight. And Roger Clemens, well, is Roger Clemens. The Rocket certainly isn’t going down without a bang. All that is the context for today’s poll:

3. Of the pitchers who have reached 300 wins in the past decade, only Johnson has a losing record against the Cardinals. He may be 13-0 in his career against the Chicago Cubs (today’s brief “CUBS IN CHAOS” report), but he’s 6-7 with a 4.12 ERA in his career against the Cardinals. Pulled the career records for six of the more modern 300 winners to compare how each has done against the Cardinals in his career:

Greg Maddux … 355 wins … vs. Cards: 26-20, 2.84 ERA, 6.1 K/9

Roger Clemens … 354 wins … vs. Cards: 4-1, 2.50 ERA, 7.1 K/9

Steve Carlton* … 329 wins … vs. Cards: 38-14, 2.96 ERA, 6.8 K/9

Tom Seaver* … 311 wins … vs. Cards: 25-13, 2.69 ERA, 6.9 K/9

Tom Glavine … 305 wins … vs. Cards: 20-6, 3.46 ERA, 5.8 K/9

Randy Johnson … 302 wins … vs. Cards: 6-7, 4.12 ERA, 10.6 K/9

The (*) indicate statistics culled from the priceless Baseball-Reference.com, and the Web professes that some splits for players from this era may be incomplete. Wanted to add the (*) to indicate that the splits were pulled from incomplete numbers.

4. Chris Perez made his debut for the Cleveland Indians a memorable one Monday, as the righthanded reliever pegged the first two batters he faced — Alexei Ramirez and Jermaine Dye. He walked  Jim Thome to load the bases, and then he failed to cover first base on a potential double play ball. Perez came in to hold a 2-0 deficit for the Indians, and he gave up four runs in 2/3 inning. Perez told reporters that he became “tentative” after plunking Ramirez and that on his AWOL play at first base: “I had a mental lapse, and it snowballed from there.” Perez is wearing No. 54 for Cleveland. To Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer Perez was succinct about his first throws for his new team: “Not the first impression I wanted to make.”

5. For Mark DeRosa’s sake the Cardinals might have at least waited a week before making a deal and forcing him to make a first impression against this slate of pitchers. Some welcome DeRosa is getting. A dialed-in Francisco Liriano one day, no-no good Tim Lincecum the next and, hey, Johnson tonight. Swell. Glad to have you aboard, Mark. Do what you can to spark the offense. Check out DeRosa’s career stats — some of which are of the Hates to Face variety — against the pitchers he’s seeing in his first five days as a Cardinal:

• vs. Francisco Liriano … 2-for-7, 1 K … .286/.286/.429
• vs. Tim Lincecum … 2-for-13, 2 walks, 2 Ks … .154/.267/.231
• vs. Randy Johnson … 1-for-13, 3 Ks … .077/.077/.077
• vs. Matt Cain … 1-for-9, 3 walks, 3 Ks … .111/.333/.111
• vs. Barry Zito … 7-for-28, 7 walks, 7 Ks … .250/.389/.571
• TOTAL … 13-for-70 for .186 batting average with 17 strikeouts.

6. The Cardinals have been involved in some of the finer pitched games in baseball this season — two against and two for, both by Joel Pineiro. The Cardinals have thrown one of the low-pitch shutouts (92) and had the other low-pitch shutout thrown against against (Cliff Lee’s 93). Using the game-scoring system (50 points to start, points for innings completed, strikeouts; points reduced for earned runs, hits, etc.) to gauge a pitcher’s performance here are the four that are near the highest-”scoring” in baseball this year that involve the Cardinals:

May 14, Pineiro vs. Cubs … W, 3-0 … 9 ip, 3 H, 5 K … 92 pitches … 86 score

June 14, Lee vs. Cardinals … L, 3-0 … 9 ip, 3 H, 6 K … 93 pitches … 85 score

June 23, Pineiro vs. Mets … W, 3-0 … 9 ip, 2 H, 1 K … 100 pitches … 83 score

June 29, Lincecum vs. Cardinals … W, 10-0 … 9 ip, 2 H, 8 K … 95 pitches … 91 score

7. Matthew “Pip” Philip, the fine and studious author of Fungoes, has done the legwork for everyone to help map their own Arch March. Scattered around the St. Louis there are arches painted up with All-Star Game themes. There are a couple around Busch Stadium III (perfect for that wedding party photo or just that Flat Stanley background for the grandkid) and a handful more all around St. Louis. Philip snapped some pics and put together the programming for this gateway to the arches, like this one:

8. FARMNIK REPORT: First-round pick Brett Wallace has a 13-game hitting streak that he’ll take into tonight’s Class AAA Memphis game just on the outskirts of the Big Easy. In his previous 10 games, Wallace is hitting .396 (15-for-38) with seven extra-base hits and three RBIs. … The Redbirds were rained out in NOLA last night. … Class AA Springfield outfielder Daryl Jones is taking a few games off to rest sore knees. With the All-Star break approaching, the Cardinals want to score him some rest before he appears at Busch Stadium in the Futures Game. The S-Cards clinched the first-half division title over the weekend. … Luis Mateo homered and doubled from the leadoff spot in Johnson City’s 9-8 victory. Robert Stock, the recent second-round pick, went 2-for-4, and he’s batting .333 so far on this young season. … Tulsa clobbered Springfield, 6-1. Pete Kozma went 2-for-4 and he’s batting .308 in his previous 10 games. Two pitchers drafted to be starters pitched a couple innings combined in relief for Springfield. Brad Furnish and Eddie Degerman are being used out of the bullpen, and Furnish allowed three runs on five hits in his inning of work. Degerman walked two and allowed a hit but pitched a scoreless inning. … Palm Beach cracked 15 hits and six different players had at least two hits. Chris Swauger hit a pinch-hit home run. Scott Gorgen was, well, apparently effectively wild. He struck out seven and walked six. He allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits in five innings. PB-Cards lost 9-8. … Newly drafted third baseman Matt Carpenter is batting .484 and he drove in two runs for short-season Batavia in the first game of a doubleheader. Ryde Rodriguez also drove in two runs and he’s batting .344 after his 2-for-4 Game 1 on Monday. … D’Marcus Ingram went 2-for-3 with a triple in the Game 2 loss for Batavia.

9. Speaking about making a push for the All-Star Game, have you checked out what Scott Rolen is doing for Toronto? The former Cardinals third baseman, dispatched in the Fissure Trade of 2008, extended his hitting streak to a career-best 17 games Monday night. His .332 average this season is second-best in the American League and sixth-best in baseball. During his hitting streak, Rolen, who doubled Monday night, is batting .439 with two homers, six doubles, 11 RBIs and 14 runs scored. Rolen is a stacked position in the AL — Evan Longoria, Mike Lowell, Brandon Inge and that dude in the Bronx — but he has the highest batting average of the group, he has the deserved defensive reputation … and wouldn’t it just be a better story if his return to St. Louis was as an All-Star, as opposed to a Blue Jay or Padre or a Brewer or whatever?

10. Will be a pinch-hit co-host Wednesday with FSN Midwest uber-anchor Pat Parris on his 101 FM/ESPN show, which can be heard streaming at the radio station’s home page from 9 a.m. to noon. I’ll be sitting in for adverb-happy and Stan Musial-statue obsessed Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell while he goes all Hollywood.

No, not for a “Longest Yard” sequel.

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