Rick Ankiel completes Great American hat trick
CINCINNATI — While starting for the third consecutive game of this three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, Rick Ankiel will also appear at his third different outfield position in three games.
Friday it was center. Saturday it was right. And today he’ll complete the hat trick with a start in left field.
Ankiel’s shift is because right fielder Ryan Ludwick returns to the lineup this afternoon for the rubber game of the St. Louis Cardinals visit to Great American Ball Park. Joe Thurston starts at third base, partially because manager Tony La Russa is lacking options at many positions — candidates are either slumping or hurting, or, in some cases, both. Brendan Ryan’s rumbling tummy has cleared and he’s starting at shortstop. The lineups for today — All-Star Announcement Day — along the Ohio River:
CARDINALS
- Skip Schumaker, 2B
- Colby Rasmus, CF
- Albert Pujols, 1B
- Ryan Ludwick, RF
- Rick Ankiel, LF
- Yadier Molina, C
- Joe Thurston, 3B
- Chris Carpenter, P
- Brendan Ryan, SS
CINCINNATI
- Chris Dickerson, LF
- Willy Taveras, CF
- Joey Votto, 1B
- Brandon Phillips, 2B
- Jay Bruce, RF
- Edwin Encarnacion, 3B
- Jerry Hairston Jr., SS
- Ryan Hanigan, C
- Bronson Arroyo, P
Check back in Cardinal Beat this afternoon for the All-Star lineups and for some video from the Cardinals who are selected for the game, which will be played July 14 at Busch Stadium.
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Why not give Hoffpaur a start at 3B. He was hitting in the minors, got a good hit the other night. Word is he’s not much defensively, but neither is Thurston.
no more ankiel, duncan, or thurston. i don’t care who starts in their place, but they are all done. and tyler greene obviously needs to be in memphis.
and thurston again….can we see what hoffpauir can do? can’t be any worse than thurston
When DeRosa is healthy, have to wonder if Thurston goes down (if he has options).
la russa is a great manager, hof for sure. i don’t know how to manage a team, but my observation is that baseball players, more than any sport it seems, are creatures of habit. constantly switching spots thwarts consistency, and familiarity. how can a player become a great cf, if he plays it only sometimes?
THE GENIUS;Tony larussa has made the decision that rasmus and i assume ludwick need to be in the lineup on an everyday basis.I agree w/ tony, this is a great move by the future hall of famer.Its amazing how great minds work and i can only wonder how tony was able to some how figure this out.This move rates right up there right along side some of his other incredible decisions like pulling kip wells after kip lost his 14th start in a row and placing izzy on the dl after jason said he wasnt going to take the mound and hurt the team any more, or other almost psychic moves like not playing pujols in the all star game and pinch hitting for mark mcgwire in the playoffs.We are so lucky to have this supercaptain steering our ship.I wonder what other legendary manuevers we will see in the future.I could only guess maybe calling up the clutch hitting stavinoa or the hitting phenom brett wallace. I know im not worthy to even ponder such difficult decisions and whatever moves tony makes im sure will be well thought out and could take several months or years before he finally puts his stamp on them. I thought about this move [with the outfield]about 3 mnths ago and im so proud now that tony has confirmed that hey i was right.So continue on Supercaptain steer us on into the future, we are so proud to be just a small part of your legendary career.
colby “beef” rasmus is my new hero! let’s leave the cheese in wisconsin “sign guy”.
This lineup is almost perfect…. just put DeRosa when healthy in the 5 spot and put ankiel as 7th. Colby should be an everyday player for this team and bat in the 2-spot ahead of Pujols.
This is the lineup order that should be used consistently (minus Joe Thurston). Let’s hope the fact that we scored 10 runs against a starter like Arroyo will get Tony to wise up and stop meddling with the batting order. Leave Rasmus hitting before Pujols and stop sitting him out of the game entirely like the other day. This outfield has very little weakness defensively and Ludwick is showing signs of coming around. As for Thurston…. Yikes! What does this guy give you outside of running hard to first base after a walk??? Put in Hoffpauir, Greene or call up Barden and let’s be done with it!!!