LOS ANGELES — Through an intermediary, St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus has received suggestions from pinch-hitter guru — and, you’ll recall, hitting coach to the stars (OK, well, Shaq) — John Mabry. In the past week or so, Joe Thurston picked Mabry’s brain for suggestions on how to better prepare to be all but exclusively a pinch hitter, and he took that info to Glaus.

Mabry, as he has done with others since his time…

DOWNTOWN — If the St. Louis Cardinals flipped the first face cards of trade-deadline hold ‘em with the acquisitions last week of Julio Lugo and Matt Holliday, the Philadelphia Phillies responded by upping the ante Wednesday with a trade for lefty Cliff Lee.

Your deal, Dodgers.

Sitting in the visitors’ dugout Wednesday afternoon some 53 hours before the end of that night’s game — or thereabouts, roughly estimated — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said it’s…

HOUSTON — By now you’ve read that St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa gets an upset tummy when it comes to the salvos of criticism launched against outfielder Chris Duncan. His point, while somewhat lost in the colorful description of his digestive troubles, is that Duncan is not alone in his slump.

True enough.

Like May, like some of June, like so much of this season, a handful of Cardinals are a drag on the lineup…

DOWNTOWN — In the St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup Brian Barden and Joe Thurston often share a position, and in the Cardinals’ clubhouse they share the same area, their lockers pressed next each other. So, when Barden was trying to get his gears going to answer the P-DQ questions recently, there was one reason why he roped Thurston into helping.

Location. Location. Location.

Or maybe there was more to it. As Barden answered his questions, he liked to bounce…

DOWNTOWN — The bases were loaded in the sixth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals had one of their several opportunities to chomp into the Philadelphia Phillies lead Tuesday night. Working with a short bench, manager Tony La Russa still responded to the Phillies call to lefty Scott Eyre from the bullpen by removing his two-way glove, Skip Schumaker, in favor of a righthanded pinch hitter.

La Russa says Schumaker is hitting lefties better this season….

TOWER GROVE — As a tandem, they make for one productive player.

The St. Louis Cardinals are split-shifting third base with steady success so far this season, sharing the at-bats and innings at the position between Joe Thurston and Brian Barden. Colleague Joe Strauss reported in this morning’s newspaper that despite their length of time in the minors and sporadic appearances in the majors, both of the Cardinals’ utility infielders are considered “rookies” when it comes…

DOWNTOWN — St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright spent much of his early major-league career studying and mimicking the ace of the Cardinals staff, Chris Carpenter. Beyond just watching how he pitched and what he did to bedevil hitters, Wainwright even wanted to borrow Carpenter’s mannerisms.

It’s no wonder he remembers vividly the last time he saw Carpenter start. It was at Wrigley Field, against the Chicago Cubs, and Carpenter wasn’t feeling right. Something was…