WHAT HAPPENED??????

Hey, I was gone rearranging my sock drawer. How did the game end up??? Just Kidding!! :)

Actually, I couldn't type because I've been alternately cursing the existence of man on this Earth, screaming like a child at the top of my lungs, and then finally just going comatose on my couch, only to be revived by one of the coolest home runs I've ever seen, and then collapse on to the floor as the final out landed in a stumbling Kerry Robinson's glove.

Even though all I've done is stare at a TV all night, I don't have the energy to dissect the madness of the last two hours right now. All I will say is that if you ever needed to do a persuasive speech on why baseball is the greatest game ever invented, a tape of the 4 hours and 35 minutes that transpired at Fenway Park tonight should be Exhibit A. Each team's fans believed that they had the game won on at least three occasions. Finally, at the end, no one longer knew what the hell to think. You want drama? Well, MLB knows Drama. What a remarkable game.

Hey, there's an insurance run!!! Overall, Edmonds has not hit lefties well this year, but he has hit some big flies off of them. That one was huge.

By the way, is the official scorer in love with Tim Wakefield? He got an unearned run because the pitch that scored Renteria was called a passed ball. What? A knuckler in the dirt is a passed ball?

HERE COMES IZZY!!! And here comes some 94 mph heat. How's this for fun? You miss the first 60 plus games of the season and the first batter you face when you make it back to the big club is Manny Ramirez. Izzy gave up a single on a high fastball but Millar grounds into a DP on the first pitch! Nixon gets a little blooper on 2-2. His fastball definitely has pretty good juice on it. Another dinker hit, this time by Mueller for a double. What? They called it foul! Whoa. My understanding of baseball rules, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if the ball is touched by Rolen in fair territory then it is a fair ball. Is the ump saying he didn't touch it? The Sox aren't arguing. As of right now, I believe we just got a huge break right there. Mueller grounds out and Izzy has himself a scoreless inning. Wow.

Well, it worked but I simply cannot believe that TLR brought Garrett out to pitch the seventh. He had already thrown 112 pitches and they had two lefties coming up. The last two years that's automatic Kline time. But Garrett got through it with maybe his best inning of work yet. Nice job Garrett, seven scoreless!!!!

Will it be Izzy in the eighth and El Dread in the ninth?? Let's get some more tallies just to be safe.

We just blew a chance to score, mostly because we had the bad fortune of getting runners on base in front of Matheny and Robinson. Mike is starting to hit like Mike again after a brief upswing for a couple weeks. This is the second time in three nights that he's popped "pooped" up with a runner on third and one out. And if you're looking for K-Rob to come through with a clutch two-out hit, well Mister, yer barkin' up the wrong tree.

Tonight's game has been interesting. Stephenson has now held the Red Sox scoreless for 5 innings, despite walking six batters and being in three pretty major jams. Tonight, the walks haven't been all his fault as Joe Brinkman has a strike zone that is both small and inconsistent. The one pitch that he expanded his zone for was in the fourth and it would have walked home a run. Brinkman gave him that one, probably because he knew in his heart that the Sox didn't deserve to have a run walked in after all of the close pitches he had already called balls. Give credit to Garrett: To hold this lineup to no runs thru five with a small strike zone being called is impressive. Not to mention that he's overcome two errors, one by Perez in fifth that put the leadoff hitter at second. (Struck out Nomar dude)

The Cards are up 2-0 and might have a couple more runs (or have had at least a few more chances) but the Red Sox have been playing great defense tonight and throughout the series, which doesn't really fall in line with their actual fielding prowess. Renteria just stole seond and took third on a wild throw. Edgar refuses to stop hitting well. The play of the team, coming off last nights loss, has been encouraging so far. But then again, it is only the sixth inning.

As we approach tonight's first pitch, here's my response to the rants of the most knowledgeable Cards fans in the world.

Josh Schulz, "The Stat Man" at Go Cardinals talked about Calero's performance, astutely wondering whether the four IP were because it was an emergency or because they want to stretch Calero towards starting. I say both. I think he's a better fit on this team as a starter, simply because unlike 60 % of our starters he has pitches where he can consistently get swings and misses or puny ground balls. He allows a lot of baserunners, something that you especially don't want in a reliever. We'll see what happens but I certainly wouldn't mind some new blood in the rotation, as opposed to just blood, as in a bloody mess.

Also, Josh commented about Tony Gwynn's observation that Tomko throws too many fastballs. It's quite true. I noticed in the little of the first two innings I saw that Tomko simply cannot throw his curve for a strike and that it really doesn't "curve" that much either. The Post-Dispatch agreed with me on this, calling Tomko's deuce "worthless." That's a good thing to call Tomko right now. Nice work Dunc, you've really brought him around.

Yes, Orlando Palmeiro should bat lead off. EVERY GAME. Is it that hard to understand???

The Brothers Gunn at Redbird Nation have fine-tuned their site into what I like to call "Cool-Ass"....

Mark and Brian both had plenty of enightenment following last night's thrashing. My thoughts...

Wilson Delgado: I'm not a Rule 5 Pick, but I play one on the Cardinals

Nomar needs to get knocked flat on his ass, maybe that will teach to quit annoying the crap out of fifty million baseball fans.

Yes, Coco Crisp is an Indian. However, look at this way, if he were still in the Cards organization he'd still probably be at AA, with a .500 OBA, and Tony would be saying that "we don't want to rush him, he's got a lot to learn" Oh, there's 0 for 1 for Miguel. How can you possibly swing and miss at a pitch that slow?

Keep this in mind when you read Will Carroll. He is the best at what he does, but he is also a Cubs fan. Rarely does he ever have a positive thing to say or prediction to make regarding the Birdos. He has no idea what will happen to Izzy anymore than the rest of us. Of course, if our starters keep pitching this way he won't have to worry about getting overused.

How 'bout the Birdhouse, what are Ray and his gang talking about? Oh the usual, some of the Cards players need to start playing baseball like real men, Tony needs to stop giving his relievers an excuse to fail, Ray's wondering if Hermanson forgot that the Red Sox traded him last night. My biggest problem is still wondering why K-Rob and Wilson Delgado are on the team. Delgado showed his stuff last night and K-Rob made us all remember why we hate him so much tonight when he swung at a ball after a five pitch walk was given to Matheny. Robinson has no concept of doing what's best for the team. He's out there for himself, to hack away at everything so that HE might get noticed if HE gets a hit. If there is a guy I would want to face in a competition it would be Robinson because he plays baseball like he doesn't care whether does good or not.

SOME GOOD NEWS ALREADY!!

Astros lose to Yanks, 6-5. Go Orioles!

SO MUCH TO SAY, SO MUCH TO SAY........

There's a lot of great discussion going on about the Cards right now and I want to try to comment about as much of it as possible.

Let's start with the obvious...... OUR STARTERS ARE GIVING UP RUNS AT A SLOWPITCH SOFTBALL TYPE OF PACE!!!

Last night was one of the most wretched pitching performances I have ever seen. And before I go on, yes I know that it was the Red Sox we were playing. The Red Sox who have seven regualrs batting over .300 and slugging over .500. That does not, however, give anyone the excuse of just giving up. Brett "Hitman" Tomko can cry all he wants to the media guys about how he is a mental wreck because of how poorly he's been pitching, but last night in the middle of the second inning he might as well have just dropped his pants, grabbed his ankles, and said "Let me have it." The result was nine ernies in two-plus innings, and a long night of groaning by Cards fans everywhere. And speaking of Tomko's thoughts he shared with the media, BRETT, GROW A SACK AND BE A MAN!! Everybody has failed in their life. Your constant worrying about it is turning you into a really shitty pitcher that looks like a big puss to boot!! (Puss N' Boots! HA!) Why is it that the Cards lead the league in mound headcases?? First there's Ankiel, who is probably too damaged at this point to ever be worth anything. Then we've got Captain Insano Steve Kline earlier this season talking about how he never wants to see a baseball again. Now we've got Tomko getting emotional after getting his ass handed to him AGAIN. Act like you care Brett and don't just say you care because you have to say it. Maybe then you'll have better results.

Hermanson once again pitched like POOP. He just really doesn't have much stuff anymore and kind of has to try to get by with grit, which doesn't work all that well against disciplined hitters like those on the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Calero pitched four pretty good innings and TLR made the comment that he might be optioned down to Memphis in order to get a fresh arm in the bullpen. The Post-Dispatch speculated that this could be a move to have Calero start a few games down there and then get a crack at the rotation. I don't know if Tony said anything to that effect or not. What I do know is that the newspaper had many more things that are worthy of being commented on.

In both the gamer (that's sportswriter slang for the game account) and Bernie Miklasz's column, the need for better starting pitching was the hot topic. However it was a topic that was discussed in a slightly hazy and contradictory way. First off, it is said that finding more starting pitching is now the number one priority in the organization. It then goes on to say that the Cards have no money with which to acquire a pitcher. It also says that Tony has been lobbying Walt for more starting pitching. Then it quotes Tony as basically saying "These are the five best guys we have right now." And then it later quotes him as saying, "If we have to make a change then we have to do what we have to do." Is anyone else's head spinning yet??

What is known is that aside from two starters that have been really good (and overworked, which means don't count on them being this good all year) the rest of the staff has been the opponents personal launching pad for the last month and a half. Tomko and Stephenson showed promise in April, and Simo has mixed in a good start or two, but as of today, Tomko has not won a game since April 25, opponents are batting over .300 against him, and Simo and Stephenson have given up 28 dingers in 132 IP. Incredibly, the team is 34-29 and has won 7 of its last 9 despite this. As Bernie says, something must be done if the Cards are serious about going anywhere, which TLR swears they are.

Well, if they were truly serious about going anwhere in my opinion, Chuck Finley would've been signed on May 1. But Finley is not an option, Sidney Ponson (whom the O's have smartly approached the Cards about trading for since he dominated them last Saturday) apparently isn't an option because of his salary. Okay, so then who is??? Kiko Calero wouldn't be a bad bet, and the Post-Dispatch wondered about the possibility of Dan Haren coming up and starting, something TLR would not rule out. That right there should be a huge sign of how dire the situation is right now. I wouldn't mind seeing Jason Ryan getting a start or two, he's started in the big leagues before. And of course there is Chris Carpenter, whom the Cards have been saying they want to work in relief when he returns, but who may be forced into the rotation by necessity. But one thing is dead on in Bernie's article: SOMETHING"S GOT TO GIVE.

Another thing, now with Izzy back and the bullpen doing better, it's time to lighten up the load on Morris and Woody. It has been disclosed that Matty Mo has been pitching with a knot in his shoulder, a knot that apparently caused a large drop in his velocity in his last outing when he was roughed by the O's. Matty Mo's curve is so good that he can get past team like the Pirates sometimes without a good fastball. But it's not going to work against good hitting teams. The team is giving him an extra day of rest and he is scheduled to start Saturday in Yankee Stadium. Caution must be exercised. Woody I am not nearly as worried about because he didn't throw a ton of pitches in the first part of his career and he is old enough now and far enough removed from any arm problems that he can probably be ridden pretty hard this year. But you gotta be careful with a guy like Matt who has already buckled to a big workload once in his career and is a TJ surgery survivor.

The question: Should I even watch the game tonight, hoping that by some miracle Stephenson might pitch a good game against this incredible lineup? Man we got screwed on the inter-league schedule, a makeup for last year I presume. Just remember, we get six games against the fast-fading Royals, whose pitching staff is in total shambles, while the Cubs and Astros have to play two teams that can be dangerous in the White Sox and Rangers. Of course, whether they WILL be dangerous remains to be seen. The Cubbies will hopefully feel the effect of Scammin' Sammy's absence more the next week than they did last night. Will there be an Izzy sighting tonight? God loves us if we win this one......

LET'S TALK MINORS SHALL WE?

First a note to the Birdhouse--That massage I gave J.D. Drew seemed to be working wonders when he cracked that three-run dong last night :)

All right, now on to the up and comers,

AAA Memphis--Jon Nunnally has returned to Earth a bit but he still has a .962 OPS. He'd look a lot better on the Cardinal Bench than K-Rob. (Have I mentioned that before?) The two position players at Memphis who could actually have some sort of major-league career are playing quite well. Dee Haynes leads the team with 12 homers and 41 RBI, and has raised his average to .251. He still doesn't take near enough walks, but his slugging percentage is approaching .500. John Gall meanwhile was 3-4 with 3 ribbies last night and is now batting .282. Both could make viable pinch-hitting options somewhere down the road. Scott Seabol and Bill Selby, both veteran infielders who have played in the majors before, have been crushing the ball since the Cards acquired them. Seabol is 19 for his first 48 with 4 homers and 14 RBI already. Selby is 9-23 with a dinger since the Cards acquired him. I dare say that either of these two is a better option than Wilson Delgado.

On the mound, yes, we let Nerio Rodriguez go to Japan. But, Jason Ryan and Steve Stemle have both thrown well. Ryan is 4-3 with a 2.93 ERA. And Dan Haren has adjusted to AAA just fine after getting his first start out of the way. Since getting knocked around in his Memphis debut, Haren has allowed just eight runs in 25 innings. This means the Cards have options should they continue to get disappointing pitching perfromances from their starters, or if there is an injury. Jimmy Journell has settled nicely into the bullpen. He had a string of something like 10 straight scoreless outings. And Mike Crudale has pitched well since his demotion back to Memphis, working several scoreless outings. All in all, the pitching isn't the problem at Memphis and there's no need for a continued tolerance of lousy performances by guys names Yanni and Russ Jr.

AA Tennessee--Not a lot of great hitting going on here either. 2B Caonabo Cosme continues to hit well. He has 22 doubles and a .490 slugging percentage. The team's best hitter has been minor-league vet Bucky Jacobsen. who's got a .283/.368/.566 line with 15 dongs. Yadi Molina has hit better lately, raising his average to .278. He'll be ready for a move to AAA next season barring a collapse in the second half of 2003.

Rhett Parrott has been a disappointment this year, but judging from his 77/23 BB/K ratio, I'd say he's getting a bit unlucky. Opponents are hitting about .240 against him with a K an inning, yet he has a 4.44 ERA. As long as his peripherals continue to be good, he's still a prospect to watch. Nick Stocks has hit the wall after such a promising start. How frustrating.....his ERA has ballooned to 4.52. Closer Mike Lyons has been nasty in that role. He has 18 saves and a 1.57 ERA in 28 2/3 IP, with 40 K's. The Cards may take a look at the minor-league journeyman later this year. By the way, Rick Ankiel managed to almost go six innings in his last start. He's still giving up a bunch or runs though.

A Palm Beach--Shaun Boyd, one of the better prospects in the organization, was finally moved from second base, where he has committed about one error every three games since the start of last season. Boyd is now in center and don't be surprised if his offensive numbers continue to rise. He is one of the few young players the Cards have who can both hit and draw walks. He has also stolen 16 of 21 bases and could be the leadoff hitter of the future. He was the only player on the team hitting until Gabe Johnson came back from his injury. Johnson has hit six homers since his return but still strikes out all the team and hits for a low average. But he does have some real offensive potential. He's drawn 17 walks in 129 AB's.

Starters Chance Caple, Tyler Johnson, and Chris Narveson have respective ERA's of 3.51, 3.38, and 3.08. Narveson has pitched the best easily of the three. He is the only one to allow less than a hit an inning and has a 58/16 K/BB ratio. He could be the one guy who possibly gets a promotion if he keeps it up. He's been going six innings consistently in his starts and his performance has to be the best news of the year, as he looks to be fully recovered from his Tommy John surgery. Meanwhile Blake Williams is still trying to come back from surgery and is struggling, while Justin Pope has struggled more than expected as well. Williams is an ugly 0-7 and while he hasn't pitched that poorly, his ERA is 4.96. Pope is at 4.21 and has thrown only 36 1/3 innings this year.

Low A Peoria-- Incredibly, the Chiefs are 29-35 after starting 10-1. One of the big reasons is that their hitters have cooled off. Travis Hanson is all the way down to .270/.322/.431. He has 43 RBI. Reid Gorecki, the outfielder who had a strong short-season debut last year, has started hitting much better in the last few weekes. He has 11 doubles and 4 triples to go with 6 homers and 10 steals. Another future leadoff candidate, Matt Lemanczyk, is getting on base at a .354 clip and leads the organization in steals easily with 29 on 34 attempts. John Santor has cooled off the last week or so but he is still among the best hitters in the league, with a .322/.402/.476 line.

On the hill, starters Blake Hawksworth, Don Graves, and Miguel Martinez have been the brightest starts for the Chiefs. Hawksworth has been handled with care, and has a 1.69 ERA in 42 2/3 IP. He has struck out 46 and walked 8 while giving up only 28 hits to be one of the league's most dominating pitchers. Batters are hitting under .200 against Hawksworth. We'll see if the Cards challenge him with a promotion to Palm Beach later this year. Graves has a 2.08 ERA in 12 starts, where he averages about six innnings per start. Graves has only allowed 12 walks this season. Martinez has an ERA of 2.66 and a WHIP of nearly 1, as he has allowed just 61 hits and 18 BB's in 74 1/3 IP. Tyler Adamczyk continues to struggle, as his ERA approaches 5. The best bullpen pitcher has been Ben Julianel, who has a 1.65 ERA and 34 K's in 27 1/3 IP.

Notes on the Cards Second Day of Drafting

21st pick was Robert Burch, a 6'5 righty with good velocity who was one of the top releivers for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2003. 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA

22nd pick was Derek Drewitt, from Watson Chapel HS in North Carolina. He's a lanky righty who MLB.com says has the best splitter they've ever seen on a high school pitcher.

25th pick was Tavaris Gary a lefty slugging outfielder from tiny Cumberland University. The 6'1 185 lb. Gary hit 15 homers and drove in 58 while batting over .390 in the Trans-South Conference

26th pick was 1B Levi Webber from Oregon St. He's a huge kid with good power potential but not much numbers to show for it. 6'5, 235 and ambidextrous, though he bats only righty.

28th pick, Tanner Wootan, was drafted by Red Sox in 2001.

29th pick was Brantley Jordan, who is the lefty specialist for the defending NCAA champ Texas Longhorns, who are back in Omaha again this year. 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in 29 appearances this year.

30th pick was Matt Lane, a 6'8 225 righty from Iowa Western CC. He was all-state in everything in HS, both as a pitcher and a football QB, playing at a small high school in Minnesota. He was 5-2 in eight starts with a 3.53 ERA. 29 K's and 24 BB's in 32 2/3 IP. Sounds like a poor man's Chad Hutchinson to me.

31st pick Mike Tamulionis has the distinction of being drafted in the 31st round in back to back years. (Last year it was the Rangers) He was a reliever in his career at St. John's. He had a 2.11 ERA and .150 opponents batting average this season. Throws righty

Cards got a nice hitter with the 33rd round pick in Casey Grimm, an outfielder from Matty Mo's alma mater, Seton Hall. Grimm had a .370/.470/.662 line for the Pirates this season. Hitting 10 homers and drawing 24 walks in 154 AB's

Lifelong Cards fan and native St. Louisan Sal Fraselli was picked in the 37th round. He's a righthanded outfielder who had a .425 OBA and a slugging % well over .500 his senior year at Southern Illinois University.

Bloomington South HS (IN) Ace T.J. Brewer pitched a one-hitter Monday night to lead his squad to the IHSAA Sectional Championship. Brewer is a 6'2 180 lb. righty

Round 40 pick Peter Soteropoulous played first base and pitcher for UConn. He hit .380 with 43 RBI and had a 7.88 ERA, but the Cards drafted him as a pitcher. Why? He's lefthanded.

The Cards final pick before they stopped drafting was Kameron Mickolio, a 6'8 righty (lots of big righties taken by the Cards) who had a 3.05 ERA for the College of Eastern Utah in a pitcher-dominated conference.

I'M BACK AND SO IS IZZY!!!!!!!!

I'm also pissed because I had a nice long post ready to go before it was eaten by the imperfect machine known as Blogger. To summarize briefly because I don't feel like writing it all again, The Cards have been hitting the crap out of the ball, notably Tino "Don't Call Me Tina" Martinez and Albert Pujols, who has been the MVP of the National League so far. Albert is batting at a nice .390 clip and has hit a two-run homer in tonight's game.

On the other side of the ball, our starting pitching has been icky. Stephenson and Tomko have faded big time after promising starts to the season. Garrett is a homer machine, we need to start calling him Russ (Springer) Jr. Even Matty Mo had a bad outing on Sunday. Esteban Yan has been a complete bust, and his mess was saved only by Cal Eldred's awesome 1 2/3 inning save on Sunday. The Cards won 5 of 6 against the AL bird teams and they needed to because the Astros were 6-0 and the Cubs 4-2 during that time. Now the test begins as The Cards venture to Fenway and the House that Ruth Built. They'll be facing a suddenly-healed Pedro Martinez tomorrow and Roger Clemens will be going for win no. 300 AGAIN, this time against the Cards at home. The odds aren't exactly stacked in the Redbirds favor.

This game against the Red Sox has been up and down, back and forth. The Cards got four runs with two out in the fifth (Three-run bomb by DREEEWWWWW), but the Sox got three in the seventh with 2 out. Woody was a check swing away from getting the Cards thru 7 with a 7-2 lead, but Nomar tripled home Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez homered after that. Tony got burned big time for not trusting his bullpen again, as Woody simply ran out of gas around the 115 pitch mark. Of course, why should he trust the bullpen? It only took Kiko Calero two pitches to let the Sox tie the game, as he hung a slider that Jason Varitek crushed to tie it a seven in the eighth. I guess Izzy can't pitch every inning now that he's back, huh?

Luckily for our heroes, they are killing the ball right now. Edmonds doubled off of Sox closer Brandon Lyon in the ninth (If Edmonds played half his games in Boston, he'd hit 80 doubles.) Rolen followed it up with a double to score Jimmy and then Scotty scored with a perfect slide following an Ed Perez single. Tony decided against throwing Izzy into the fire in the ninth and El-Dread (Now it's opposing batters who dread him) was nasty in getting another save. THAT'S A WINNER!!!!

To sum up, our lineup is on fire and our pitching still stinks. BUT, Eldred has been great and with Izzy, who we'll likely see tomorrow, gives us a great 1-2 punch at the front of the pen. Kliner has rounded into form nicely. After Varitek tied the game, TLR brought Kline in immediately. After Todd Walker hit a two-out double, Tony showed confidence in Kline to get the lefty by walking BOTH Nomar and Manny. Kline got the hot-swinging David Ortiz to end the inning. Fassero was okay, though he was charged with a run (he walked Trot Nixon right before Varitek's homer). Right now we've got the two lefties, Eldred and Izzy, and then we have Hermy, Kiko, and Yawn at the back. For one thing, maybe if Tony would've kept giving Calero and Hermy work instead of sending Yanni at their every night, maybe they wouldn't have both had a recent disastrous outing. Whatever the case, I still think the bullpen is in the process of turning around. I'd like to see Painter come back and get a role (at the expense of Yan, though that won't happen becuz that would mean admitting that Walt goofed) even if it does mean three lefties in the pen. It could work, or we could use one of them as trade bait. Which one I would have no idea. Juan Acevedo just became available. I wonder if we'll take a shot at him?

On the good news front, Pedro is only scheduled to throw about 40-45 pitches tomorrow, with John Burkett to follow. We'll see what happens. Cards now only one game out of first!!!! Tomorrow I'll try to get back into the swing of things with a look at the minor-league teams.

P.S. Joe Girardi was also activated and Chris Widger was put on the DL. Four Words: REPLACING POOP WITH POOP. Batboy Taguchi was optioned out to make room for Izzy. And I am going to eat some pizza :)