Those silly Cardinals
Oh, those silly Cardinals. They just love to get beat up by teams with records under the .500 mark, don't they? A day after losing a series to the sub-par Tigers, the Cards dropped their fourth game of the year to the mighty Royals. Some of that is due to an unlucky draw -- the Tigers and Royals have been sizzling lately, especially the Royals, who own the Majors' best interleague record.
I'm just ready for the Cardinals to start driving some guys in. They are among the league leaders in batting, but they are in the middle of the pack when it comes to scoring runs. The Cards are awful with men in scoring position because they routinely ground into double plays and also strike out. When it comes to making a productive out such as grounding out to the right side in order to advance a runner from second to third, the Cardinals are just horrid. They kind of seem selfish at the plate right now. Here is a typical Cardinal inning as of late:
1. Leadoff man coasts into second with a leadoff double.
2. Next man (usually Chris Duncan) strikes out.
3. Next man pops up on the infield or in foul territory.
4. Next man makes the final out to strand a runner in scoring position.
Mix that in with a bullpen that has been very shaky in the late innings, and you have a recipe for less-than-stellar performances, which has become a staple of the Redbirds in these last couple series.
On a brighter note, Troy Glaus had another solid day at the plate, but he tends to have a knack for driving in runs in games that are a wash while looking silly at the plate in a close game. Mulder has been activated and will pitch out of the bullpen, and I'm excited to see how that goes. The Cards sure could use a lefty arm in the bullpen since Flores is on the shelf now and Villone is useless.
- -- Posted by sfurby on Sun, Jun 29, 2008, at 11:45 AM
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