TOWER GROVE — If there is a game so far in this season when Adam Wainwright deleted all of the fancy adjectives we’ve been attaching to ace in front of his name — de facto, budding, pro tempore, fill-in, stand-in and, my personal favorite, proxy — and just became the Cardinals’ ace it was his 126-pitch start Saturday against Houston.

He didn’t have his best stuff. He wasn’t dominant.

But he won with what he…

TOWER GROVE — What with two dugout-clearing donnybrooks this weekend and the ever-agitating Chicago Cubs coming to town this weekend with first place possibly up for grabs, this little island of three games against Cincinnati seemed so quaint, so tranquil.

Then Walt Jocketty used a most curious word.

Vendetta.

“Trust me,” he said at the press conference announcing his hiring as general manager of the Reds. “Me and (manager Dusty Baker) are very motivated. We’re…

SOUTH GRAND — Starting with a possible trade partner that probably doesn’t have what the Cardinals are looking for and ending with a question about the chances of a fan-favorite outfielder trying on an infielder’s glove, this week’s edition of the mailbag is loaded with all manner of things middle infield.

Oh, and there is also an advocacy of a four-man rotation.

Reliever Russ Springer is back. Rico Washington gave everyone a great story. And…

DOWNTOWN — In the eighth inning of a rather usual July game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen stepped into the box and faced Bucs lefty Joe Beimel. Isringhausen had come in to close out what was a 9-6 ballgame, but a turn of the lineup had put a bat in his hand with the bases loaded.

So, naturally he ripped a triple, and the box score reads: 

Rolen Scores; Renteria Scores; Matheny…

TOWER GROVE – The PostCards inbin was overrun with spam and the Cyrillic alphabet – who knew four years of Russian would help me wade through questions for a baseball mailbag? спасибо Большое. One email that had the subject line: “Thanks Houston/We Have Liftoff!”

Thought for sure that was a love letter to Brandon Backe. But no.

It was a religious group’s mass email with a space travel pun. Houston? Liftoff? Getit? Dah. (Just wait until…

GRAND CENTER — A year ago, Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez allowed 22 home runs, but only three of them were to lefthanded hitters. One was by Chris Duncan.

Could be a reason why tonight manager Tony La Russa decided was the night for Duncan to make his first appearance in the starting lineup since opening night.

In his career, Rodriguez has proven equally difficult against lefties and righthanded hitters when it comes to batting average….

GRAND CENTER — Settling in here at the FSN Midwest studios (read: Channel 9), and an early-game excerise, courtesy of producer Max Leinwand, is inspired by the 75th anniversary of prohibition’s repeal. What Major League Baseball rule, Leinwand wonders, should be repealed. Soberly, of course.

Some initial suggestions:

• The designated hitter.
• The All-Star Game determining home-field advantage in World Series.
• The Division Series being a best-of-five.

Any others? Tal’s Hill, maybe?

One that has been discussed on the blog and around the…

TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals jet off on their first road trip of the season having let so few of their opposing hitters take flight at all this season. Much has been made of the Cardinals rotation’s sub-1.00 ERA through six games and the staff as a whole has an ERA of 1.83, better than every team in baseball save the LA Dodgers and their 1.70.

That’s the macro picture. The micro is even more…

DOWNTOWN — Manager Tony La Russa either pulled off a great bluff, or a few of us totally ignored his tell. Probably it’s more of the latter than the former, as the Cardinals manager sided with experience, service time and the obvious when he made out his lineup for Opening Day.

With a caveat that he could flip-flop two hitters before tomorrow’s first pitch, La Russa planned to post the following lineup for the Cardinals’ opener against NL…

JUPITER, Fla. — The news this morning wasn’t so much who was on the lineup card, but who wasn’t at their lockers anymore in the clubhouse.

The Cardinals made two reassignments to the minor-league camp this morning, putting both righthanded pitchers Cliff Politte and Chris Perez in Triple-A Memphis. Politte got encouraging words before his assignment as the team told him they needed him to go there, get innings and he’ll “pitch in the big…