Riding the hot lineup, while Rasmus rests aching heel
PHILADELPHIA — St. Louis Cardinals rookie Colby Rasmus will have his sore left heel evaluated by doctors Monday when the team returns to St. Louis to start a four-game series against Los Angeles Dodgers. Rasmus is playable, manager Tony La Russa said, but with Rick Ankiel on the upswing there’s reason to give Rasmus another day (or few) to calm the deeply bruised heel.
La Russa is siding with the same lineup then today that started Saturday, subbing in only Jason LaRue for catcher Yadier Molina. Yes, Todd Wellemeyer is starting, so let the catcher caddy connection continue.
The lineup for today’s rubber game against Philly:
- Skip Schumaker, 2B
- Julio Lugo, SS
- Albert Pujols, 1B
- Matt Holliday, LF
- Ryan Ludwick, RF
- Rick Ankiel, CF
- Mark DeRosa, 3B
- Jason LaRue, C
- Todd Wellemeyer, P
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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.
Team doctors are gonna examine him???? Move over Glausie…Cloby will be in Memphis rehabbing his misdiagnosis in a few weeks. Nice to get part of a season out of him, anyway……….
OOOPs, I meant Colby…………DUH!
love the lineup…offense is dangerous now…i could see these guys scoring 5-6 runs a game and that should be more than enough to win games…poor pitching yesterday doomed cards…i was wondering if Tony Lagenius would sit Lugo for Ryan…but how can you justify sitting Lugo with his 2-day performance…nice to see Tony staying with hot hand…I would like to see Tony go back to the pitcher batting 8th…with DeRosa hitting 2nd and Lugo batting 9th because Lugo (or anyone for that matter) will not be able to steal bases batting in the 2 hole in front of albert and holliday…
I posted yesterday, I’ll post again today. I’m worried that Pujols is absolutely gassed. Or worse, that he’s injured. He’s now 9 for 39 with only 6 RBI and 4 walks in his last 10 games.
With the Duncan crap then the Holliday trade and another awful start by Wellermyer coming up today, this keeps getting ignored. But I’m a little concerned.
Had to argue with staying with the same line up, esp with Rasmus banged up and Ankiel actually looking like he knows what he’s doing all of a sudden. Don’t mind seeing LaRue in there, Molina is a double play waiting to happen, he needs to stay in the 8th hole so he can stop being a rally killer, especially since we’ve actually got some fire power now. I like Lugo in there in place of Ryan as well, the guy has some pop in his bat, Ryan is a singles hitter at best.
So now we’ve got people worried that Pujols is “gassed”. But if TLR rests him, then people complain that we’re not trying to win. Gotta be one or the other, folks.
BTW, 6 RBI in 10 games works out to 97 RBI over the course of a season. Not quite Pujols-esque, but hardly what I’d call “struggling” - and, of course, one reason he’s had fewer RBI lately is because Derosa, Holliday, Ludwick, Ankiel, and even Lugo have been driving them in instead.
Well, I’m most concerned about the 4 walks in 10 games. Is fatigue causing him to expand his zone and chase crap he would normally lay off? Or are other teams simply challenging him and not being forced to pay the price for it?
Albert is amazing. It’s an honor to have him play for my favorite team. And I hope I am knee-jerking at a small sample of games. But I am concerned.
I think Pujols has expanded his strike zone (due to lack of offense before the trades). but he doesnt need to do that anymore with this lineup…Hard to give advice to the best hitter in the game…lol…but take the walks and wait for your pitches…Albert doesn’t have to feel like he has to hit a Home Run every at bat because of lack of offense…The offense is loaded now…hope its not an injury…but he hasn’t looked right since Arizona series…now with that said, watch albert have a 3 for 5 day with a homer and 4 RBI’s…lol
Why is Tony torturing us (and the team) by starting Todd Wellemeyer? He couldn’t possibly think he’s giving this team it’s best chance to win by STARTING Todd Wellemeyer!
We will need to score 10 today in order to stay in it. I love this team but I CANNOT understand why we keep trotting Wellemeyer out there. He’ll never get through 4 full today. Does he have the goods on TLR or something?????????