ST. LOUIS -- Pinch hitters Ryan Theriot and Adron Chambers fueled a six-run splurge in the seventh inning and delivered the Cardinals to a 11-6 victory Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
Theriot and Chambers combined to score or drive in all six runs in the inning with pinch-hit extra-base rips. Theriot's ground-rule double gave the Cardinals their first lead of the evening. Chambers' bases-clearing triple assured that the Mets wouldn't challenge it.
The win allowed the Cardinals to keep pace with the Atlanta Braves, who shut out the Florida Marlins earlier in the evening.
The Cardinals trail the Braves by 2 1/2 games in the Wild Card race.
The Cardinals' trailed by as many as four runs, as the Mets mounted an early attack on starter Edwin Jackson. Guided by four hits from Albert Pujols and a key two-run single by Lance Berkman in the fifth inning, the Cardinals chewed up the Mets' lead, fell briefly behind, and then surged in the seventh.
Pujols' four hits leaves him with a .304 average. He also drove in his 97th run of the season. Berkman also surpassed 90 RBIs on the season.
The winner was Octavio Dotel (4-3) who fished the Cardinals out of trouble in the top of the seventh inning. The Mets had two on and were threatening to break the game open against Kyle McClellan, when Dotel took over and struck out No. 3 hitter David Wright.
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Theriot and Chambers rally Cards, drive them toward a rout
ST. LOUIS -- It took manager Tony La Russa using a pinch hitter for a pinch hitter twice in the same inning -- twice! -- but it worked for a six-run inning that gave the Cardinals their first lead of the evening and the makings of a veritable and sudden rout.
Ryan Theriot had the breakthrough hit that gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game. Adron Chambers added a bases-clearing triple, and he scored to punctuate the six-run inning. All six runs scored with two outs in the inning.
The Cardinals lead 11-6 going into the eighth inning.
Neither Theriot or Chambers were the first batters sent to the plate for the at-bats that change the game at Busch Stadium on Tuesday. Originally, Daniel Descalso was going to pinch-hit for pitcher Octavio Dotel with the bases loaded and two outs. The Mets went to th bullpen and dragged out a lefty. La Russa countered with Theriot, a right-handed batter. The Cardinals one-time everyday shortstop drilled a ground-rule double to left-center field that brought home two runs and flipped a 6-5 deficit into a 7-6 lead.
After an intentional walk to Yadier Molina to load the bases, La Russa sent up right-handed hitting Tony Cruz to face Tim Byrdak. The Mets bet back to the bullpen, this time for a righty, D.J. Carrasco. Carrasco has shifted to a submarine style delivery this season. La Russa removed Cruz and sent up the rookie Chambers.
The speedster connected for a line drive into the right-field corner that swept the bases clean and gave him his first major-league triple.
Nick Punto drove Chambers home with a single.
Marc Rzepczynski has taken over in the top of the eighth with six more outs to get in order to keep pace with Atlanta.
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Mets walk away with a lead against McClellan
ST. LOUIS -- It was probably the second inning that did it.
With Edwin Jackson out of the game after five innings, the Cardinals needed their bullpen to handle 12 outs (at least) and that meant getting two innings, if possible, from Kyle McClellan. The first inning went fine, with a one walk to pitch around and no real problems. The second inning ... not so much.
McClellan brought some trouble on himself when he dove for a popped up bunt that was out of his reach. His dive cut off Yadier Molina's chance at fielding the ball and gave Josh Thole a bunt single. Three walks made the inning much, much worse. With the bases loaded and two outs, McClellan struggled to find the strike zone and walked Angel Pagan to force in the go-ahead run.
The Mets lead, 6-5.
It took Octavio Dotel coming in to help McClellan and pull the Cardinals out of what could have been a more significant mess. Dotel got a called third strike on David Wright and end the inning.
The Cardinals know what awaits them with a loss. The Atlanta Braves, true to Chipper Jones' promise earlier today, completed a 4-0 shutout of the Marlins to put the pressure on the Cardinals to keep up. A loss would put the Cardinals 3 1/2 games back of the Braves with eight games to play.
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Berkman knots game with two-run single in fifth
ST. LOUIS -- With each turn of the lineup, the Cardinals get better and betters swings on Mets starter Mike Pelfrey.
It took three looks at him for Lance Berkman to tie the game.
Berkman skipped a two-run single up the middle to score Albert Pujols and Allen Craig for a 5-5 tie Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals trailed at one point by four runs, but have rallied in their second and third shots at Pelfrey for five runs on 10 hits. Craig opened the fifth inning with a leadoff single, and Pujols followed with a single past shortstop Jose Reyes. Craig took third on Pujols' base hit, and Pujols stole second when the Mets ignored him. That put him in easy scoring position for Berkman to drive home with a single, his first hit of the game.
The RBIs were Berkman's 90th and 91st of the season, giving the Cardinals two hitters with at least 90 RBIs this season.
The tie game gives Edwin Jackson a no decision for the evening. The righty had a give-and-take evening. He gave the Mets a rally in the third with an error and two walks, and took a run back from the Mets with a leadoff single that keyed the rally for the Cardinals in that same inning. Jackson finished having allowed five runs (all earned) on nine hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out four.
Kyle McClellan inherits the tie game and is in position to pluck another victory from a late-game assignment.
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Freese's two-out double puts Cards within a run
ST. LOUIS -- Pitcher Edwin Jackson started the rally with an infield single, and he hastened the Cardinals' first run by scoring all the way from first base on Rafael Furcal's double.
Scoring standing up, as colleague Rick Hummel reminds me.
Jackson's infield single was the first of four hits the Cardinals had in the bottom of third inning as they rallied to cut the Mets' lead down to 4-3. Furcal had the RBI double that scored Jackson; Albert Pujols had the groundout that brought home Furcal for his 98th RBI of the season; and David Freese made the most of the opportunity with a two-out double that chipped again into what was a four-run lead for the Mets.
Freese entered the game locked in a 5-for-33 spell, and he saw some of his playing time transfer to Daniel Descalso this past weekend in Philadelphia. Back in the lineup this evening, Freese grounded out in his first at-bat and then faced Mike Pelfrey as the tying run with two outs in the bottom of the third. Freese lashed a double to right field that scored Allen Craig.
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A walk here, an error there and Jackson comes undone
ST. LOUIS -- It will take more forensics than we have time for here at the live blog to determine which errant throw was the most costly one for Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson.
Or, perhaps it was the misfires in concert that led the Mets' 4-0 lead.
In the top of the third inning, Jackson botched a throw to first base, flinging a ball wildly toward Albert Pujols and allowing the runners to trot up a base. That same inning, Jackson walked Jose Reyes and walked Lucas Duda at a time when he needed an out or a ball in play and not another free base. And he complicated that inning with a wild pitch that meant even a groundout would bring in another run for the Mets.
All of those mistakes added three earned runs to his evening and put the Cardinals behind 4-0 while the Atlanta Braves asserted a 4-0 lead in Florida.
The key hits came from Angel Pagan, who reached on a bunt single that coaxed the error from Jackson on the throw to first. David Wright then grounded out to push in one run, as did Willie Harris. Josh Thole had an RBI single with two outs that set the current score.
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While Atlanta leads, the Cardinals fall behind
ST. LOUIS -- Bringing old meaning to the practice of "two-screen viewing," the Cardinals are playing on the field, but plenty of eyes are on the scoreboard.
Atlanta leads Florida, 3-0, on one scoreboard.
The Cardinals trail, 1-0, on the other one.
The New York Mets struck for a quick lead in the first inning with three base hits off Cardinals' starter Edwin Jackson. The first two batters of the game -- Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan, respectively -- singled. Jackson found traction with a strikeout from No. 3 hitter David Wright before first baseman Lucas Duda delivered. Duda poked a double down the left-field line that easily scored Reyes and put two more runners in scoring position.
Jackson tamped down the trouble with a strikeout of Willie Harris and then a lineout to left that ended the inning.
The Cardinals began the evening trailing Atlanta by 2 1/2 games in the Wild Card race with nine games remaining in the season.
"The end is in sight, and you have a chance for October," manager Tony La Russa said of his team even needing to do a little scoreboard watching these days. "It really is about us winning."
Said GM John Mozeliak this afternoon: "We are certainly going to make thes last 10 days very interesting."
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Mozeliak said contract talks are "slow" with Berkman
ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals GM John Mozeliak discussed the ongoing negotiations with free-agents-to-be Lance Berkman and Rafael Furcal this afternoon with the media, and he came up with one adjective to describe the process at this point.
"Slow," he said. "Slow at this point."
He could also have gone with "slowed."
As reported in this morning's paper, the talks with Berkman have lost some pace in the past week or so. Berkman and the Cardinals have had an open dialogue for some time about what it would take to re-sign the outfielder/first baseman. Berkman said during the previous home stand that he believes he could command a multi-year deal on the open market. He's willing to take a one-year offer from the Cardinals, but he wants the salary to reflect what he believes is his worth.
Mozeliak said one of the reasons for talks "slowing" is that he has been involved in other late-season aspects of running the organization. He said there have been "organizational decisions" that have had to be made at this point of the season, and that while he'd be open to have deals done before October arrives with either Cardinal there isn't a rush. The Cardinals do have all of October and five days after the end of the World Series to negotiate exclusively with their own free agent.
Mozeliak had another word to describe the process of re-signing Furcal, Berkman and, of couse, the biggest of the pending free agents, Albert Pujols.
"Fluid," he said.
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Berkman chooses a return to right field
ST. LOUIS -- In Philadelphia, according to the gang at Fox Sports Midwest, Cardinals outfielder Lance Berkman said he picked left field for that series because it was a shorter jog to the dugout than right field at Citizens Bank Park.
Naturally, he was back in right field then for this series at Busch because the home dugout is on the right-field side of the ballpark.
Or, Berkman could have been joking.
Manager Tony La Russa offered Berkman the same choice today: he could stick with left field, or return to right. The reason Berkman was transplanted to left field at Citizens Bank was because there is a difference in the layout of the field, and left field has a much shorter fence and less ground than right field at the Phillies' home. That landscape difference isn't in play at Busch, which has a symmetrical outfield, right down to the facets that give the outfield wall its diamond-like cut.
Berkman is back in right, ostensibly because he elected to play the position he has mostly played all season and not because of the shorter jog to the dugout.
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Holliday hits off a tee, but status remains uncertain
ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday was cleared to take light swings off a batting tee this afternoon as general manager John Mozeliak said there is increased "optimism" about the slugger's availability at some point in the remaining week of the regular season.
"Over the last 48 hours, we are a little more optimistic," Mozeliak told the media this afternoon. "The easiest way to think about it is as a day-to-day progression. He's been cleared to swing the bat."
What he's cleared to do to tomorrow will depend on how he does today.
The Cardinals are still not sure if Holliday will be available at all for any of the remaining nine games in the regular season.
Holliday injured his finger at some point last week in Pittsburgh. When exactly the injury took place isn't clear. The left fielder felt acute pain while on the on-deck circle, and he returned to St. Louis to have the finger looked at by team physicians. Holliday has significant inflammation in a finger on his right hand, and swinging the bat (i.e., grip strength) is the biggest difficulty. He was not with the team in Philadelphia.
Holliday has not yet spoken with the media about the injury.
Mozeliak said he did not know when or how the injury happened.
"He felt direct pain in the on-deck circle," Mozeliak said. "It could have been something that happened the night before or during batting practice (that day)."
Mozeliak said there has been some "reduction" in the inflammation and that is what allowed Holliday to take cuts today.
Manager Tony La Russa suggested that he does not expect to see Holliday in this three-game series against the New York Mets. He added a caveat -- there is a lefthanded starter scheduled for the Mets on Thursday and La Russa doesn't want to "mentally" rule out Holliday until he's told that day that the left fielder cannot play.
"I don't expect him to be ready this series," La Russa said before suggesting Thursday would be a game he'd like to have Hollliday.
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There will be no coin flip this year
Baseball has done away with the coin flip to determine home-field advantage in the event of a one-game playoff or three-way tie for the Wild Card. That is a reality this season as both the Cardinals (2 1/2 back) and San Francisco Giants (3 1/2 back) hound the Atlanta Braves with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The Cardinals, though, hold a key edge in the event of a three-way tie. They have the better record against the two other teams, combined.
The Cardinals are 7-6 this season against Atlanta and the Giants.
The Giants are 6-8 against the Cardinals and Braves, and the Braves are 7-6 against the two teams. The Cardinals hold the edge against Atlanta, 5-1. So, in the event of a tie with Atlanta, the one-game playoff would be at Busch Stadium. In the event of a tie with San Francisco, the game would be in San Francisco because of the Cardinals 2-5 record this season against the Giants.
In the event of a three-way tie for the berth, the Cardinals would have to choose whether they want one game to win or two games to win at home. That's the decision.
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Freese back in Cardinals' lineup
Slumping David Freese returns to the Cardinals lineup tonight for the start of a three-game series against the New York Mets at Busch Stadium.
Freese opened September with a 3-for-5 game but has gone 5 for 33 since with no homers and two RBIs. His average has dropped from .321 at the start of August to .289.
On the flip side is leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal, whose 3-for-4 game Monday night gave him 11 hits in his last 27 at-bats (.407). Furcal is batting .299 this month as the Cardinals continue their run at the wild card-leading Braves, who play tonight at Florida.
Cardinals lineup:
1. Rafael Furcal, SS
2. Allen Craig, RF
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Lance Berkman, LF
5. David Freese, 3B
6. Jon Jay, CF
7. Yadier Molina, C
8. Skip Schumaker, 2B
9. Edwin Jackson, P
Mets lineup:
1. Reyes, SS
2. Pagan, CF
3. Wright, 3B
4. Duda, RF
5. Harris, LF
6. Evans, 1B
7. Thole, C
8. Tejada, 2B
9. Pelfrey, P
