Friday Wrap-Up

As the weekend draws near and the week that was comes to a close, we take a look back at the three things we learned in St. Louis and three things to look for in the coming days ahead.

WHAT WE LEARNED

1. ADAM WAINWRIGHT IS THE REAL DEAL

When Wainwright faced off against Wandy Rodriguez of the Houston Astros on Tuesday, I honestly expected them to lose. Rodriguez is a great up and coming pitcher and the Cardinal offense has been sluggish. The combination of those two things usually spells defeats for St. Louis, no matter who is on the mound. But the one run the Cards scored on an Albert Pujols double in the first inning proved to be enough for Wainwright, who pitched around trouble in the first and sparked the team to victory by striking out Jason Michaels with the tying run at third in the top of the 8th. He followed this by doing his best Chris Carpenter impression. By pitching eight innings or shutout ball, Wainwright passed Bob Gibson for second on the list of most consecutive starts of at least six innings pitched while giving up two runs or less. It was Wainwright’s 12th consecutive start to meet these standards. Who’s in first? John Tudor with 15 consecutive. That is some great company to be keeping.

2. THE OFFENSE STILL HAS SOME ISSUES

At the beginning of the week I wrote that the Cardinals needed to start scoring at home. While they did take two of three from the Astros, they did it with pitching and not offense. The Cards mustered a total of seven runs in three games against Houston, which is hardly pouring it on. Granted they did face Wandy Rodriguez, Roy Oswalt and Brian Moehler (who isn’t that great but for some reason makes the Cardinals look like they were all just called up from Triple A Memphis), but I’m still concerned as they have been slowly getting more and more sluggish all month. So far in August, the Cardinals have scored a total of 102 runs, which is slightly better than how they did in the month of May when they only scored 99. This fact has been overshadowed by tremendous pitching as the Cards have only given up 72 runs total. Over the last week, St. Louis is batting .256 as a team with five home runs and 19 RBIs. While these stats are alarming, there is some good news. The Washington Nationals are in town this weekend, which will be a good opportunity for everybody to get hot again.

3. STEVE SPAGNUOLO IS CHANGING RAMS CULTURE

I know it’s only preseason still, but I am getting legitimately excited about Rams football. After a 24-21 victory against the Bengals last night, the Rams defense looks like a completely different unit than it did last year. On the Bengals first play, James Butler recorded a sack and James Laurinaitis recovered a fumbled snap to place the Rams at Cincinnati’s 20 yard line, which five plays later resulted in a Rams touchdown. The Rams defense created four turnovers last night (including a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by James Butler) while the offense played perfectly as far as holding on to the ball is concerned. Through three preseason games, the Rams are plus nine in turnovers. This team is still a ways away from being a true competitor, but Spagnuolo has these guys competing and going in the right direction (which is towards the opponent’s endzone).



WHAT TO LOOK FOR

1. SMOLTZ’S FIRST HOME START AS A CARDINAL

After a great Cardinal debut in San Diego last Sunday, John Smoltz will make his first Cardinal appearance at Busch Stadium tonight against the Washington Nationals. While another outing like the one he had against the Padres would be nice, everyone would settle for anything better than what Kyle Lohse has produced since April. Smoltz’s stats support Cardinal fan hopes that he should be able to deliver. At Busch Stadium II, Smoltz appeared in 20 games going 14-3 with 94 strikeouts while recording a 4.88 ERA. Smoltz has only had one start in Busch III, during which he went eight innings, striking out two and only allowing two runs on his way to earning the victory.

2. ALBERT PUJOLS’ 100TH RUN SCORED ON THE SEASON

Pujols scored his 99th run of the season against the Astros on Thursday. If, and when Albert scores his 100th run, it will be the eighth time in his nine year career that he will score 100 runs. The one year he missed the mark? 2007 when Albert scored 99.

3. THE BRAD PENNY AUCTION

Brad Penny was released by the Boston Red Sox this week to create room on the roster for Billy Wagner. While Penny started out with Boston okay, his second half has been forgettable. In his last five starts, Penny was 0-4 with an ERA of 9.11. While these numbers aren’t very attractive, Penny does have upside. Before going to Boston, Penny was a career National Leaguer spending time with the Marlins, where he won a World Series (2003), and time with the Dodgers, where in 2006 he was named the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game and made the All-Star Team again the very next year. For Penny’s career he is 101-83 with an ERA of 4.18. Just an idea, but why not take a chance with Penny? The Cardinals need a 5th starter and Penny has shown he can succeed in the National League. Plus, you have already found plenty of gold within Boston’s trash, why not take another chance? Adding Penny would only confirm the Cardinals have the best rotation in all of baseball. Just throwing that out there.

That’s it for the week. See all of you back on Monday.


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