DOWNTOWN — Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be fined an undisclosed amount but will not be suspended for his ejection Monday at Milwaukee, the club learned from Major League Baseball on Wednesday.

After arguing a couple calls with home plate umpire Paul Schrieber, the official ejected Molina from the game. Before leaving the field, Molina shed his equipment, deliberately, and then left it in a trail leading from home plate.

“I think it was fair,” Cardinals…

TOWER GROVE — One thing about a player being on base all the time: he gets loads of practice running them and has plenty of opportunity to excel — and fail. Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols showed this past week that he can pound out the headlines with more than just his bat; carrying a big stick does not require always walking softly.

In the span of a few games, Pujols showed the plus and minus of…

GRAND CENTER — It was about 300 at-bats ago center fielder Rick Ankiel made his debut as a major-league outfielder, and tonight’s home run was his 18th since he made his return on August 9, 2007.  Track that statistics from that day forward and Ankiel ranks with baseball’s best sluggers — and one sudden star coming to town this week — in such numbers as homers, RBIs and slugging.

From August 9 until the start of…

DENVER — Even after the game, in the Cardinals clubhouse, there was quiet discussion about which of Rick Ankiel’s two lightning bolts from deep center field to third base were the best.

The first one beat one of the fastest runners in baseball by at least a stride to third base. The second, well, it, Larry Walker joked, traveled further from the outfield than Ankiel’s home run had traveled over the outfield in that same…

DENVER — Cardinals lefty Mark Mulder is on his way to St. Louis — not to throw a bullpen or workout at the facilities at Busch Stadium, but to meet with the team’s doctor about his twice surgically repaired left shoulder.

Manager Tony La Russa said in the debriefing of Mulder’s rehab start Monday night in Memphis it mentioned the lefty “felt some shoulder fatigue.” Mulder will meet with Dr. George Paletta on Wednesday morning…

DENVER — With all of the hairpin turns and high jinks that the Cardinals and Colorado crammed into tonight’s riveting game at Coors Field, there was one pivotal player whose role was obscured.

Good thing he got the win.

It was hardly the prettiest inning of the game for a Cardinals’ pitcher, but Randy Flores’ eighth inning took on added importance, especially after Albert Pujols’ 180-foot sprint on Rick Ankiel’s game-winning groundout.  Flores faced six batters, allowed one run,…

SOUTH GRAND — It was way late at night or way too early in the morning — depending on your disposition — and this was supposed to be a mixer, a posh see-me-see-you party in Miami. But that didn’t stop Rick Ankiel from talking baseball.

Specifically, the fine art of holding a runner on base.

The young, teen-idol-faced Ankiel was describing how he prefers to do it. His companion, a cigar-smoking, profanity-spewing sportswriter and lapsed…

Manager Tony La Russa was spending time with some of his best and furriest friends Thursday morning when his phone twittered. There are few calls that take him away from a tour of an animal rescue shelter or a conversation about the need to have and hold and save pets.

This was one.

“That was the White House,” the manager explained. “The President wants me to greet him at the airport.”

Post-Dispatch staff writer par excellence Elizabethe…

DOWNTOWN – Not too often the Cardinals wake up on the last day of April with a chance to make a little franchise history. But that’s the case today.

The Cardinals won their 17th game of April last night against the Reds. It came in a 7-2 victory that saw manager Tony La Russa tinker just enough with his lineup to add depth of power and watch it work. That win tied a franchise record for…

TOWER GROVE — What with two dugout-clearing donnybrooks this weekend and the ever-agitating Chicago Cubs coming to town this weekend with first place possibly up for grabs, this little island of three games against Cincinnati seemed so quaint, so tranquil.

Then Walt Jocketty used a most curious word.

Vendetta.

“Trust me,” he said at the press conference announcing his hiring as general manager of the Reds. “Me and (manager Dusty Baker) are very motivated. We’re…