Jeff Gordon previews tonight's St. Louis Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates game at Busch Stadium (7:15 p.m., FSM):
THE STAKES: Another dreadful road trip knocked the Cardinals out of the National League Central lead. They staggered home after suffering a 4-0 shutout against the Mets.
Once again the team will try to regroup at Busch Stadium, this time at the expense of the last-place Pirates. But Pittsburgh just won two of three games at Colorado, pushing the Rockies closer to "sell" mode as Saturday's waivers-free trade deadline nears.
PITCHING FOR THE CARDINALS: Chris Carpenter (11-3, 3.09 ERA): It's not surprising that Carpenter has an 11-1 career record against Pittsburgh with a 2.29 lifetime ERA. The Pirates have remained steadfastly awful during Chris' entire NL tenure.
Several current Pirates have done OK against Carpenter, though, including Ronny Cedeno (3 for 10, double, homer), Lastings Milledge (3 for 7), Andrew McCutchen (2 for 7, double), Garret Jones (2 for 7, double, homer) and Delwyn Young (2 for 5, double, RBI).
PITCHING FOR THE PIRATES: Jeff Karstens (2-6, 4.72 ERA): He beat the Cards 2-0 back on May 8, allowing just three hits in six innings. He joined a long list of no-name pitchers to completely overwhelm Cards hitters this season.
But Karstens has won just one of his last 10 starts since coming back out of the bullpen and into the rotation.
LINEUP INTRIGUE: Rookie outfielder Jon Jay has to keep playing. In an otherwise listless Cards performance Thursday afternoon, he reached base twice (double, walk) and threw out a runner at home from center field.
Regular center fielder Colby Rasmus got a pinch hit coming off the bench and Tony La Russa will want to get him back on track ASAP. Ryan Ludwick is 6 for 16 since returning from the disabled list, so he, too, needs to get at bats this weekend.
La Russa wishes he felt the same sort of angst while sorting through his infielders. Tyler Greene got Thursday's start at shortstop and committed another error, reminding everybody of Brendan Ryan's high defensive value.
BULLPEN INTRIGUE: Erratic Dennys Reyes delivered an incident-free inning when it didn't matter, but La Russa still appreciated him throwing strikes. Mike MacDougal walked two batters during his inning, reminding everybody why he has bounced around the majors.
But battling through six innings, Blake Hawksworth saved the relief corps from extra abuse on the heels of a 13-inning game. So that was a small plus on an otherwise poor day.
DOWN ON THE FARM: Thursday was a good day for a couple of key Cardinals prospects at Memphis.
Hitting machine Allen Craig smashed three doubles and drove in three runs during the Redbirds' 8-5 win at New Orleans. And reliever Eduardo Sanchez bailed closer Josh Kinney out of trouble and earned his second save of the season.
Also, Mark Hamilton hit a double and homer, pushing his season batting average to .304. In his last nine games he is 11 for 30 with four doubles and three homers. The lefthanded slugger started in left field so the rehabbing Nick Stavinoha could play first base.
To reach the Cards any time, Hamilton would obviously have to play passably in the outfield.
Fans of the Springfield Cardinals wondered why Opening Day starter Shaun Garceau went south this year (0-6, 5.65 ERA), then went on the team's inactive list, then got released. Now they know. The Springfield News-Leader reported that Garceau was arrested in Florida on drug trafficking charges involving the painkiller oxycodone.
