PASADENA — When the National League Cy Young Award ballots — which were due yesterday — are tabulated, St. Louis Cardinals budding ace Adam Wainwright may win his first, cementing his arrival as one of the game’s elite starting starting pitchers.

LA’s Clayton Kershaw won’t be far behind.

If this National League Division Series is a stage for young players to burst onto the October scene — Matt Kemp? Skip Schumaker? anyone? — no two figure to…

TOWER GROVE — In his office after Tuesday night’s loss, Milwaukee Brewers manager Ken Macha told a group of us reporters that the “second-most important” at-bat of the Cardinals’ 7-6 victory was by St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.

Apparently, Molina was the first to recognize that.

Of course, the most important at-bat of the game was Matt Holliday’s immediately after Macha opted to “pick his poison” and walk Albert Pujols ahead of the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter….

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…

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…

JUPITER, Fla. — Take a moment to do some math. Pull out a calculator and consider if St. Louis Cardinals leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker had just 11 more hits against lefthanded pitching last season. Just 11. Say, maybe four bloop singles to left field, four grounders that found holes, and three well-struck liners, maybe even a couple for doubles.

With those 11 hits — just 11 — Schumaker would have finished the season with a modest…

JUPITER, Fla. — On Sunday morning, starter Todd Wellemeyer revealed that he is no longer the only Kentucky Colonel patrolling the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse. The population of card-carrying colonels tripled this offseason as Wellemeyer recruited pitching coach Dave Duncan into the group and the Cardinals went out and signed another member, lefty Trever Miller.

That means the Cardinals will take three colonels north for the regular season.

If you’re keeping score, that could be two more colonels…

JUPITER, Fla. — Having removed the rockstar hair from his chinny chin chin the night before, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter rubbed his shaved face and pondered what he saw as a developing theme of spring training.

“What’s with all the facial hair?” he said.

Hey, he started it.

Carpenter arrived at Winter Warm-up with a shaved-slick dome and a tuft of hair to make King Tut envious. What’s followed is a parade of hairy — er,…

DOWNTOWN — Brad Thompson said he was too nervous at his wedding to think twice about the unorthodox choice he and his wife-to-be had made when choosing someone to preside over their nuptuals.  He had other things on his mind and no time for smirking as he stood there, beside his bride and exchanged vows under the guidance of the “reverend” Randy Flores.

He was however concerned about Jason Isringhausen.

“Izzy was the only one I couldn’t look…

TOWER GROVE — Earlier this week, St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan did the radio rounds and spoke about the closer role, closer candidates, the rotation and how so much hinges on the shoulder of Chris Carpenter. He also had a telling comment about his retooled bullpen. Asked in an interview on 101 ESPN if he was confident with the new-look left side of his bullpen, Duncan answered plainly, realistically.

He said he does not…

DOWNTOWN — With National League MVP Albert Pujols topping the charts with a $175 autograph fee, the St. Louis Cardinals announced this afternoon the schedule and cost for the annual autograph pell mell that is Winter Warmup in downtown St. Louis. A total of 81 former or current Cardinals are schedule to attend the autograph sessions that are the headline event at the three-day fanfest, January 17-19.

Admission passes for the event are $40 for adults, $10…

LAFAYETTE SQUARE — As a result of having so many officially retired numbers and several unofficially retired numbers (See: 25, 51 and 32), the St. Louis Cardinals sported a lineup that at times resembled an offensive line. The team simply did not have enough lower numbers for Chris Perez, Joe Mather, Jason Motte, et. al., to score anything lower than Skip Schumaker’s 55 for their backs.

There were a lot of swingin’ 60s out there, and there…

LAS VEGAS — In their past 420 games, a stretch that reaches all the way back deep into that golden season of 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals have had a grand total of ZERO games started and won by a lefthanded pitcher.

Since Mark Mulder won his start on June 15, 2006, the Cardinals have trotted out Mike Maroth, Randy Keisler, Jaime Garcia and Mulder (a few times) to make starts. That group has made 15 starts total…

LAS VEGAS — In a conference call with reporters the day his deal was completed with the St. Louis Cardinals, lefty reliever Trever Miller only alluded to the fact that he would have to reclaim the original value of his contract by pitching for it. He said it was up to him to make the deal worth $2 million.

It will take him 70 appearances to get there.

The tear the Cardinals discovered in Miller’s left shoulder during…