DOWNTOWN — For the second time in as many playoff games, St. Louis Cardinals prospect third baseman and St. Louis native David Freese homered to provide the only run Triple-A Memphis needed.

In the clincher of the Redbirds first-round playoff series against Albuquerque, Freese hit a opposite field home run that proved the difference in a 1-0 victory. Last night, in Memphis, Freese broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning of the Pacific Coast League championship…

TOWER GROVE — If reliever Brad Thompson received a three-game suspension for what the Major League Baseball pitch cops deemed “intentionally throwing a pitch in the head area of David Wright” then is it fair for the St. Louis Cardinals wonder what looms today for Pittsburgh Pirates closer Matt Capps?

What kind of punishment does the precedent demand?

Capps, who gave one of the more entertaining P-DQs earlier this season, smoked Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols in…

TOWER GROVE — Even by his own admission, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols believes the year he didn’t win the National League MVP may have been his best year, by the numbers, so far. In 2006, Pujols said recently, he didn’t have that prolonged lull. He missed games by being on the DL, but when he was able to hit, he always hit.

All the way to the tune of career highs.

Pujols finished second…

TOWER GROVE — What Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel wrote earlier this week about the National League Central being a logjam in the standings is even more true to today.

A win last night at Miller Park against the St. Louis Cardinals put those pitching-poor Milwaukee Brewers — OK, so those were “deputy” GM Ryan Braun’s exact words — within a game of the division leaders. This afternoon the top teams in the NL…

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…

TOWER GROVE — The first big headache and the first big trade of John Mozeliak’s tenure as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals are forever linked because he used one as the aspirin to cure the other.

At Mozeliak’s first Winter Meetings at the helm of the Cardinals, his manager popped off publicly about a ruptured relationship with third baseman, Scott Rolen, and how Rolen had to re-earn some “points” with the organization and with…

TEMPE, Ariz. — The St. Louis Cardinals have three saves so far this season and they are by three different players — and not one save is from the guy who broke spring training ostensibly as the club’s closer.

Manager Tony La Russa’s take on the ninth-inning jumble can be summarized: Get used to it.

After giving young gun Jason Motte two save opportunities and see him struggle in both, the Cardinals have elected to slide him out…

JUPITER, Fla. — With The Post-Dispatch’s photo maestro Chris Lee and the skilled lens of Scott Rovak around the ballpark constantly, there are plenty of snappy pics of and about the St. Louis Cardinals. No doubt many who are reading this have clipped a few from the paper or taped a Rovak-made poster or two to the wall.

Lee’s snapshots from spring training are still available as slideshows on the Post-Dispatch’s web site (follow this link). And Rovak,…

JUPITER, Fla. — What with Skip Schumaker learning a new position, Joe Mather reintroducing himself to an old position and a whole gaggle of prospects who could use some tutoring at their positions, one of the hardest working men in Camp Cardinals this spring is a coach.

The club that once asked Jose Oquendo to play every position, now needs him to coach every position.

Seemingly all at once.

On the field furthest from the clubhouse here at…

TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals sudden and curious move to release Adam Kennedy on the eve of spring training leaves them with a hole at second base and an open casting call for the job.

So, it’s business at usual down in Jupiter.

With all due respect to the St. Louis Blues, whose revolving door in goal was chronicled and counted in this morning’s paper by Dan O’Neill (ah, where have you gone Tom Barrasso?), the real…

TOWER GROVE — When it comes to the St. Louis Cardinals, the question “Who’s on first?” is rhetorical. You might as well ask who is hitting eighth. What’s going on at second was discussed in this morning’s Post-Dispatch with Joe Strauss’ latest dispatch from Jupiter, Fla. But when it comes to wondering which player will be at third base on Opening Day …

Don’t know.

Just yet.

The 11th-hour news that incumbent third baseman Troy Glaus required a January surgery…

TOWER GROVE — Five years ago the St. Louis Cardinals and the finest hitter of his generation were steaming toward what could have been a dicey and milestone arbitration hearing when, in the 11th hour, Albert Pujols agreed to the largest contract in franchise history. The deal, still active today, made Pujols the ninth $100-million man in baseball history and, at 24, the youngest ever to reach the salary threshold.

As the MVP enters the penultimate year…

TOWER GROVE — Fresh from an offseason that included a new contract, a slimmer frame and a healthier knee, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina sat in front of his locker at the Jupiter facility and talked instead about what was missing. It was his first day of spring training and he had no need to hide his personal goal for the 2008 season.

He wants to win a Gold Glove.

“I won’t stop, I’ll keep working…

TOWER GROVE — Gentlemen, start your transactions.

General managers from around baseball are converging at AIG’s favorite hangout in Dana Point, Calif., today and all week for the first round of window-shopping and swap-talking. Unlike last year when the pitching market was headlined by Carlos Silva and trades were the currency of winter, this offseason has the high-watt free agents (CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez) and the superstar trade chips (Jake Peavy and Matt Holliday). There…

TOWER GROVE — It took the record holder, fittingly, to clue me into the record challenger and just what this newcomer could pull off this season.

A few weeks ago, Ken Reitz pulled me aside at the ballpark with a simple question: “Hey, how many errors does Glaus have?” The answer then is the same as it is now: Five. Glaus being third baseman Troy Glaus, of course, and errors being of chief interest to Reitz,…