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 — With 2009 speeding to a close, discussions about the decade behind us are already popping up. Some baseball writers, like Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci’s have picked their Team of the Aughts, others have just explored who might be the Player of the Decade. Here we’ve been convicted of over-stating the Decade Triple Crown notion (scroll down).

Time to look at the bigger picture.

In the past week or 10 days, the St. Louis Cardinals have clinched the…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals starter John Smoltz returns to the rotation tonight a few days earlier than expected and into a situation that isn’t entirely surprising, he explained the other day. A veteran of these September marches to the postseason, Smoltz admitted he would “stoked” to pitch in the game that cinched a postseason berth.

But slumps happen, he said. And instead of being a clincher tonight, the Cardinals need him to be a stopper.

The…

DOWNTOWN — For the first time in his young career and perhaps the only time in his career, St. Louis native and former Mizzou All-American Max Scherzer made a start for the Cardinals last night.

Scherzer, who grew up a fan of the hometown club, pitched 7 1/3 innings for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday and held the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run on seven hits. He struck out four, and he collected his ninth…

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…

DOWNTOWN — The difference this season between Houston Astros switch-hitter Lance Berkman batting from the right side of the plate and batting from the left side of the plate is 100 points in his batting average.

The difference Wednesday for the Cardinals was having a pitcher to trust when turning him around.

Book-ended last night by Joel Pineiro’s seventh consecutive winning decision and Ryan Franklin’s third save in as many games was a brief one-out appearance from…

TOWER GROVE — For the moment, St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright pulled ahead in wins. On Tuesday night, he set a new career high with his 15th victory of the season, and he’s the first National League pitcher and the second pitcher in the majors to reach 15. But, as he said after the game, he’ll have to keep his “sprinting shoes on” if he plans to stay ahead.

Chris Carpenter is coming.

“I like the push,”…

TOWER GROVE — The way Todd Wellemeyer describes it, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals at a vulnerable time in his career. He could not figure out why good stuff was getting bad results. He had just been hammered by the Detroit Tigers in consecutive games against them, and he was about to face the Tigers for a third time in four appearances after being a Cardinals’ waiver claim out of Kansas City’s pitching staff.

He…

SOUTH GRAND — There were few, if any, members of the St. Louis Cardinals’ traveling party thrilled to be at Shea Stadium for a one-day, barnstorming trip in the final week of a disappointing 2007. But, as one Cardinal said in the clubhouse after the win: At least it was a fruitful trip for a teammate.

Joel Pineiro cashed in on that visit.

The frustration the Cardinals had for their late-season, one-game stop at Shea went beyond…

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…

FROM THE FANFEST — Writing through the din of the FanFest here in downtown St. Louis, just a few feet away from former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andy Benes and his furiously signing right hand, today’s 10@10 will be done in live-blog fashion.

C’mon on by. Suggest a topic for any of the open numbers below.

In the spirit of the FanFest, this has been an interactive 10@10.

The Cardinals are playing the Cubs this afternoon in the…

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…

MANHATTAN — St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is allergic to scouting reports.

He winces when one of his pitchers talks about how he needs to improve his fastball or use his slider more. He cringes when told that pitching coach Dave Duncan discussed in a little too much detail how, say, Adam Wainwright isn’t spotting his two-seam fastball with the same effectiveness or how, well, one of the young-gun relievers hasn’t been able to…

CLEVELAND — Cue Tippi Hedren. The ‘Birds are coming. The ‘Birds are coming.

A day after a flock of seagulls swooped in on Progressive Field — from the nearby Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? — and tormented the Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Cardinals arrive for a three-game interleague series having really taken flight offensively in Florida. The Cardinals scored more in two games against the Florida Marlins (19) than they had scored total…

TOWER GROVE — As much as health and staying in good shape throughout spring training has boosted St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joel Pineiro on his strong start to this season, the righthander does have a silver bullet to explain his 3-0 record. He came into this season with a revived faith in his two-seam fastball, and, as teammate Kyle Lohse said Wednesday night, “he’s out there throwing it like it’s some kind of new toy.”

Behold,…