TOWER GROVE — Twice this season, St. Louis Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro has had streaks of four consecutive starts without walking a batter. Thirteen times this summer, he has started a game and not allowed a walk. For this, he credits his father.

“My dad taught me that,” he said this past weekend. “You don’t want to walk people. You don’t want to let them get on base. You don’t want to help them start their innings so they can get it going on their own — with hit-and-runs, bunts, steals. He used to tell me before a game, ‘No walking. No free passes.’ I’ve always been aware of that walking thing.”

Being stingy with walks is a key part of the season that has changed his career.

For that, he credits his sinker.

But this is not the sinker you’re thinking of.

Wrote about the true grip of Pineiro’s sinker a little bit this morning in an article about how Chris Carpenter and a meeting before the season helped set the tone for what’s become the Cardinals’ Big Three starters. For awhile now, I’ve tried to stop referring to it as a two-seam fastball — the standard stand-in for a sinking fastball — because, as one player told me couple weeks ago, Pineiro’s sinker is not a two-seam sinker. It’s a one-seamer. Pineiro puts the seam of the baseball, right near the horseshoe, between his index and middle finger. It’s a pitch that’s been so successful for him that Adam Wainwright, as mentioned in this morning’s paper, has adopted it as a second sinker, throwing it about 30 percent of the time. Kyle Lohse has played around with it, but cannot get command of it, and Carpenter has tried as well. One pitcher denied the existence of the one-seam sinker, playfully, because he said “then our hitters won’t have to face it.” A quick search of the Internet reveals that Jon Lester, of Boston, and a few others already throw it.

As Pineiro, who has won seven straight, takes the pitch that has reinvented him as a pitcher into a start against the pitcher that the Cardinals’ reinvented as a starter, Milwaukee’s Braden Looper, a little behind-the-seam info on the sinker is where today’s 10@10 starts …

1. He learned it years ago from former Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach Bryan Price. He would throw a few of them every so often while with Seattle as a starter. But when he went to Boston and slid into the Red Sox bullpen, Pineiro ditched it. He felt being a reliever meant tapping into his power pitches and relying more on his four-seam fastball. “Instead of being 2-0 and 3-1 and having to throw that hard four-seamer,” Pineiro said, “now I can throw 87, 88, with a lot of movement on it.” Pineiro threw a few of the sinkers in his final couple starts last season, and that was enough for Dave Duncan to suggest he lean more heavily on it. He wanted him to get a grip he was comfortable with. Two-seam. One-seam. Whatever. As long as it sinks. Now here’s where Pineiro’s dad comes back into play. Pineiro gained faith in the one-seam sinker quickly during spring training, but mostly because it allowed him to be aggressive in and on the edges of the strike zone. If he’s going to live by the groundball, die by the groundball, then it’s essential to keep walks to a minimum so that when a groundball or two bounces through the infield there aren’t, say, mitigating baserunners. Pineiro has 84 strikeouts to 18 walks in 170 2/3 innings this season.

His 18 walks are the fewest by any pitcher in the majors who has thrown at least 100 innings.

2. Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse threw a bullpen session Sunday, the second of his in-house rehab assignment. It was before his previous one that Lohse attempted to add some levity to what’s been an unlucky season for the righthander. Walking out of the trainers’ room last week and delighted by how his groin, forearm, elbow, knee and back all felt, Lohse spied a box of bubblewrap that the Cardinals use for packing. When he emerged again from the training room, Lohse — who first described this on “The Hot Corner” radio show I co-host Sunday morning’s on 101.1 FM/ESPN — had bubblewrap around both elbows, his knee, his back and his groin. “Everything felt really good,” Lohse told me later in the clubhouse, “and with the way things have been going I didn’t want to take any risks before I got on the mound.”

3. Bernie Miklasz, the other St. Louis baseball writer who has a Cy Young ballot this season, offered a primer on the Cy Young race this past Monday, looking at it through the candidacy of Adam Wainwright. Over on ESPN’s “Cy Predictor”, Wainwright leads the pack. It is a topic ripe for discussion in St. Louis as the Cardinals boast two bona fide leaders for the Cy Young Award. That said, it’s a mistake to dismiss the righty out west, who may just be the most dominant pitcher in the game. So, that’s the poll — one that could be revisited — for today’s 10@10:

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4. The Cardinals starting rotation leads the National League with 821 innings pitched and with 60 victories. The staff’s 3.53 ERA is second in the NL to San Francisco’s 3.52. It’s not unusual for the pitching coach to receive a bonus if his overall staff leads the league in ERA, and pitching coach Dave Duncan’s staff is currently third with a 3.62 ERA behind San Francisco (3.55) and Los Angeles (3.50). For today’s article, I did a lot of digging into the history of the NL leaders in ERA, the Cy Young-award voting and anything and everything that could help illustrate what the Cardinals’ “Big Three” has pulled off this season. Right now the Cardinals have the ERA leader (Carpenter), No. 3 Wainwright and No. 12 Pineiro. Here are the previous threesomes to rank in the top 10 in ERA, including their ERAs and where they ranked …

2005 Florida … Dontrelle Willis 2.63 (2nd), Josh Beckett 3.38 (9th), A.J. Burnett 3.44 (10th) — Marlins did not qualify for the postseason.

2003 Arizona … Brandon Webb 2.84 (3rd), Curt Schilling 2.95 (4th), Miguel Batista 3.54 (10th) — Diamondbacks did not qualify for the postseason.

2003 Chicago … Mark Prior 2.43 (2nd), Carlos Zambrano 3.11 (5th), Kerry Wood 3.20 (6th) — Cubs lost in the NLCS to Florida.

2002 Atlanta … Greg Maddux 2.62 (2nd), Tom Glavine 2.96 (3rd), Kevin Millwood 3.24 (10th) — Braves lost in the NLDS.

5. The Cardinals made their moves early. The Philadelphia Phillies made their big move near the deadline, and on the last day to add a player for the postseason, the NL-leading Los Angeles Dodgers bolstered their lineup. (The San Francisco giants, meanwhile, followed the Cardinals lead and picked up a discarded Red Sock, Brad Penny.) As part of a last-day flurry of trades, the Dodgers added Jim Thome and Jon Garland, two former teammates together with the Chicago White Sox now reunited in a pennant race. Dodgers GM Ned Colletti, adroit in making such trades, acquired Thome from Chicago and Garland from Arizona for players to be named later. Garland is the starter the Dodgers have been looking for, and Thome will be cast as a “a guy with tremendous power off the bench,” Colletti told The Los Angeles Times. Here’s how the newest Dodgers, including famed Cardinal Killer Thome, and the newest Giant have done against the Cardinals in their careers:

Jon Garland, RHP … 3 games/3 starts … 0-3, 7.36 ERA … 14 2/3 innings, 9 K, 7 W … .338 BAA

Brad Penny, RHP … 12 games/12 starts … 2-5, 4.33 ERA … 72 2/3 innings, 46 K, 22 W … .326 BAA

Jim Thome, DH … 29 games … 100 AB, 43 hits, 18 HR, 40 RBI … 31 W, 20 K … .430 BA, .565 OBP, 1.010 SLG

6. Third baseman Troy Glaus finished an otherwise hard-to-read rehab assignment on an upswing with five hits and a home run in his final 15 at-bats over three games. Glaus is set to rejoin the team this evening as rosters expand to allow for anyone on the 40-man roster to join the major-league team. Glaus hit .191 in August during his second rehab assignment with Class AAA Memphis. He had three extra-base hits, all home runs. He walked 11 times, struck out 17 times and did his best to play a representative third base. He said before leaving for the rehab assignment that he was going out “to come back as a third baseman because that’s what I do; that’s who I am.” How the Cardinals will use him remains to be seen. He is 0-for-2 in his career against tonight’s starter, Looper. This much is sure: Glaus is eligible for the postseason roster if he earns a spot in the next month. Players who are not on the 25-man active roster but were on the major-league disabled list — and therefore on the 40-man — are eligible for the playoffs even without appearing before Sept. 1.

7. FARMNIK REPORT: Todd Wellemeyer started Monday’s game of Class AAA Memphis to assure that he got his required innings in.  Wellemeyer was set to throw about 30 pitches, and he’s expected to throw another 30 or 40 on Wednesday. Wellemeyer didn’t survive the first inning. The righthander, who is recovering from elbow inflammation, went 2/3 innings. He walked two, struck out and gave up a home run to Nashville’s J.J. Hardy (yes, the former All-Star shortstop with Milwaukee). Nashville scored four runs (all earned) off Wellemeyer. … Not the start that the Redbirds needed for their playoff push. … P.J. Walters salvaged the game, however, by striking out eight and holding Nashville to one run in his 6 1/3 innings. … The game was lost in the bottom of the 12th. … Allen Craig drove in two runs for 79 RBIs this season. … Kyle Conley’s RBI single in the ninth inning gave Batavia a 8-7 victory Monday. Conley, the Cardinals’ seventh-round selection in the most recent draft, went 3-for-5 in the game, and he’s batting .384 with six home runs and 23 RBIs in 23 games with short-season Batavia. … Tony Cruz homered in Springfield’s 2-1 victory. It was his 10th of the season. Casey “Thriller” Mulligan struck out two in a scoreless ninth to net his first save at the Double-A level. … Leadoff hitter and second baseman Luis Mateo went 2-for-4 in Johnson City’s 3-0 victory. For the rookie-level team, reliever Chris Notti pitched three scoreless innings for a hold, but really it was worthy of the win. Notti struck out two and held Pulaski to two hits.

8. On Sunday, manager Tony La Russa said he owed Khalil Greene a start in a less daunting assignment than a last-minute shove into the lineup against a new pitcher with what La Russa called “filthy” stuff. Well, tonight makes some sense. Mark DeRosa, whose wrist was sore Sunday and prompted Greene’s relief, is 2-for-20 in his career against Looper. He has seven strikeouts in those 20 at-bats and has a slash line of .100/.217/.100 against the former Cardinals’ reliever/starter. Greene, by contrast, is 4-for-12 with a couple home runs and a couple strikeouts against Looper.

9. Reader Brian Ruyle discovered an interesting numerical void concerning the Cardinals and their history of pennants and World Series championships. They have 10 titles and 17 pennants, and not one of them was claimed in a season that ends with a “9″. They have every other spot in the decade covered by “9″. Ruyle’s research and keen eye found that this season could be the one missing one in a decade-digit sweep:

0 — 1930 (NL)

1 — 1931 (WS)

2 — 1982 (WS), 1942 (WS)

3 — 1943 (NL)

4 — 2004 (NL), 1964 (WS), 1944 (WS), 1934 (WS)

5 — 1985 (NL)

6 — 2006 (WS), 1946 (WS), 1926 (WS)

7 — 1987 (NL), 1967 (WS)

8 — 1968 (NL), 1928 (NL)

9 — Zilch. Not even a postseason berth.

10. This is the 1,001st entry at Bird Land since the relaunch/redesign of the StlToday.com web site a few years ago. Thanks to all who swing by here on a daily, weekly, whatever basis; thanks to the 11,426 comments on those 1,000 entries; and special thanks to those who have logged in from the beginning back in 2005.

Of course that means the Ryan Braun P-DQ was No. 1,000. Could have planned better.

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