TOWER GROVE — On the St. Louis Cardinals’ dime, Adam Kennedy went on to have a fine season with Oakland, filling in at third base for the Athletics and contributing with a .289 average, 63 RBIs and 65 runs scored. It was the kind of the production the Cardinals signed him for and never saw.

All the Cardinals got in return was … better.

When the Cardinals elected, at manager Tony La Russa’s urging, to release Kennedy, they…

TOWER GROVE — The wealth of information available on Baseball-Reference.com offered an intriguing kernel yesterday when I was digging around the numbers for today’s article on St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick. The goal was to find a snapshot of his consistency in 2008 vs. what he called a “real hot-cold season” in 2009 (check that .200 average in June). Not too far away from those stats, I found this:

Ludwick in wins 2008: BA .373…

LOS ANGELES — It didn’t take long and it happened sooner than planned, but in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series the Los Angeles Dodgers got to flex their biggest strength: Their bullpen.

The Dodgers relievers, who combined for the best ERA in the National League during the regular season, pitched 5 1/3 innings in LA’s 5-3 victory at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. After the Cardinals raked starter Randy Wolf…

LOS ANGELES –For Troy Glaus, it has been seven years. For John Smoltz, it’s 17.

The two St. Louis Cardinals veterans know a thing or seven about what it takes to be successful in the postseason, and they each have personal hardware as an October spoil. Glaus won the World Series MVP in 2002 with the Los Angeles Angels, and Smoltz, the winningest postseason pitcher ever, won the National League Championship Series MVP back in 1992….

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 — There are many examples of a player storming toward his leagues Most Valuable Player award with a strong September that, in most cases, elevates his team to a postseason berth.

See: Ryan Howard.

Enter Tim Lincecum.

The San Francisco Giants righthander Lincecum struck out 11 and muscled his team to a pivotal victory Monday night against the Wild Card-leading Colorado Rockies. Lincecum skipped his previous start because of back trouble and returned to throw the…

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…

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…

TOWER GROVE — When the St. Louis Cardinals left Cleveland having lost a three-game series to the momentarily resurgent Indians, manager Tony La Russa dialed up general manager John Mozeliak and left him a short, succinct voice mail. The exact words have been forgotten in the weeks since. But the message was clear:

If we can get him, get him.

Him was Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Mark DeRosa. On Sunday night of that series, DeRosa homered off…

MANHATTAN — Earlier this week, St. Louis Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro’s shutout of the New York Mets gave everyone plenty of looks at what’s become a hallmark for the Cardinals this season.

No, not Pineiro’s sinker, but Albert Pujols’ one-foot-in-the-dugout catches at first base.

“The old withdraw thing?” manager Tony La Russa said this week. “It’s kind of stylish. His signature play. I worry more about the runner than Albert. It’s a little unorthodox. But it works…

MANHATTAN — There’s a subway to catch after some coffee and a clubhouse to harvest for quotes early today. So let’s not dilly-dally, when we can get right to today’s 10@10, one that will evolve throughout the morning …

1. This afternoon’s “marquee matchup” — St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s term — pits the New York Mets two-time Cy Young Award-winning ace Johan Santana against Chris Carpenter, who is only the second pitcher in Cardinals…

TOWER GROVE — One of the bedrock rules of October is pitching wins, and it’s the pitching that the St. Louis Cardinals have received recently — and the pitching only — that supports a bouquet thrown their way this week in the current issue of Sports Illustrated.

It seems some baseball players think the Cardinals have got the goods to win it all.

At least more of think the Cardinals do than, say, the defending champs or…

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….

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…

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…