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…

DOWNTOWN — Turns out, there may be more than meets the eye about new Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus’ apparent trouble hitting at Busch Stadium.

Glaus left Friday night’s game after his second strikeout of the evening, a bases-loaded whiff in the second inning of the eventual loss to Houston. The Cardinals said Glaus left because watery eyes made it difficult for him to see. After the 3-2 loss, manager Tony La Russa elaborated on…

TOWER GROVE — Albert Pujols came one walk shy last summer of a first in his career, a 100-walk season. This season, he’ll get there by August.

Pujols has 13 walks in 54 plate appearances so far — so early — this month. Take his average season of 677 plate appearances and at his current rate he’ll walk 163 times this year. That would break by one base on balls the franchise record, set in…

TOWER GROVE — After the Cardinals sleepwalked to one run Thursday night at AT&T Park and have not exactly electrified scoreboards with offense this season, this may come as a surprise: The Cardinals have the fifth-most at-bats (89) with runners in scoring position (RISP) so far this season.

Mainly due to Albert Pujols, they have the fourth-most plate appearances with runners in scoring position (111). And, when ranked by RISP at-bats, the Cardinals have three of…

HOUSTON — While neither side apparently had much to say publicly after the game about Albert Pujols’ slide into home plate that upended catcher J. R. Towles in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game, one person felt the need to address is privately.

Pujols called the Astros’ clubhouse after the game to talk with Towles about the play, the young catcher told a few other reporters and me this evening. Pujols at first declined to…

TOWER GROVE — Rick Hummel’s look at how Milwaukee has adopted the “Crazy 8″ lineup to such success that catcher Jason Kendall is leading the league in hitting jogged my memory about a email received earlier Tuesday. This one comes from ACTA Sports, the publishing house of Bill James and others, and it’s John Dewan’s “Stat of the Week.” This week’s topic:

Whose batting slot is the best in baseball thus far?

Using on-base-percentage-plus-slugging (OPS), Dewan ranks the best…

GRAND CENTER — On the first or day of spring training, with his full squad warming up in the background, manager Tony La Russa insisted that this year’s team would be a better defensive group. It took a few March weeks of fumbles and foibles, but …

So far, so good.

Todd Wellemeyer just escaped the third inning with consecutive defensive gems by his infielders. Troy Glaus gambled with a throw to second base to…

TOWER GROVE — A little more than a year ago, the Cardinals’ starting rotation was stringing together a ludicrously long streak of scoreless innings. The starters’ ERA for the month was less than 1.00, and dropping because of what one righthander was doing to the Minnesota Twins.

Opposite Johan Santana and facing a lineup that included MVP Justin Morneau and batting champ Joe Mauer, this Cardinal pitcher kept throwing up zeros. He held the Twins to…

DOWNTOWN — Manager Tony La Russa either pulled off a great bluff, or a few of us totally ignored his tell. Probably it’s more of the latter than the former, as the Cardinals manager sided with experience, service time and the obvious when he made out his lineup for Opening Day.

With a caveat that he could flip-flop two hitters before tomorrow’s first pitch, La Russa planned to post the following lineup for the Cardinals’ opener against NL…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse didn’t have his best stuff Thursday, but he had enough stuff to continue the club’s sizzling close to its Florida schedule and he had the kind of stuff he’d take in any regular-season start.

Lohse worked five innings against Florida and pushed the Cardinals halfway to a 2-0 victory against the Marlins on Thursday. The Cardinals finished Grapefruit League play on a seven-game winning streak and 12-1-1 over…