TOWER GROVE — Asked Sunday morning if his lineup would look a little different if the St. Louis Cardinals were playing a team out of contention, manager Tony La Russa paused, rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, and finally acknowledged: Probably.

If he didn’t offer a complete answer, he’ll start today.

Of the five teams either in the playoffs or in the playoff picture (looking at you Colorado and Atlanta), the Cardinals are the only team that…

HOUSTON — The last of the Killer B’s still buzzing around — unless, that is, Michael Bourn has graduated to the hive — Houston Astros first baseman Lance Berkman has become one of those likable adversaries that populates the St. Louis Cardinals’ best rivalry of the past decade.

Berkman will have spent much of his career as a divisional rival — and really a complement — to Albert Pujols. Berkman is a career .300 hitter. He…

HOUSTON — This past weekend it was a familiar face that fed the St. Louis Cardinals their first loss of the second half, and this week it’s a familiar race that confronts them in their first road series of the second half.

The Cardinals arrive in Houston to find an Astros team unexpectedly and inexplicably still in the race, sitting four games back of the division-leading Cardinals and certainly buoyed by the second-half surges of seasons…

TOWER GROVE — And you thought Chris Carpenter had a monstrous season debut for the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. Check the minors.

Down in Springfield, Mo., Brett Wallace made quite a first impression.

Carpenter took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and won his first regular-season game since he was backed by a three-run homer from Juan Encarnacion and out-pitched San Francisco’s Matt Morris in September 2006. The Cardinals’ returning — no longer rehabbing — ace allowed…