Daily Rant: Cardinals avoid skid with win over Mets

After dropping five straight, the Cardinals were hoping to finally put another notch in the wins column. The Birds got solid pitching out of Kyle Lohse and offensive contributions from the returning Allen Craig. Who else aided in the victory? Find out after the jump.

Box Score

The Positives

• After an 0-5 night, Rafael Furcal rebounded with a hit, an RBI, and a stolen base. The steal was his ninth of the season.
• Matt Holliday, Allen Craig, and David Freese all had two hit nights. Craig was the biggest offensive contributor as he had a single and a two-run home run that won the game.
• Adron Chambers picked up a hit in his second consecutive start in place of the ailing Jon Jay.
• Kyle Lohse still didn’t pick up a decision, which marks his fifth consecutive start without one. He pitched well, though, only giving up one earned run through six innings of work.
• Jason Motte picked up his first save since May 23rd, and his ninth of the season after pitching a scoreless inning and a third and striking out two.

Justin’s Jeers

• Not a good night for Carlos Beltran or Yadier Molina as they went 0-5 and 0-4, respectively. We can’t expect the big bats to produce every night, but Beltran left four men on base and both hitters struck out twice.
• Daniel Descalso also struck out twice and went 0-3 on the night. He did walk once though and picked up his second stolen base of the season.
• Not great work out of the bridge guys, as Marc Rzepczynski and Eduardo Sanchez gave up three earned runs through an inning and two thirds and almost threw this one away. The bullpen has been shaky all season and may require a look at the trade deadline.

Three Stars

3) David Freese – Freese had two hits and scored one of the Cardinals runs.

2) Matt Holliday – Holliday also had two hits and scored two runs, including the game-tying run on Allen Craig’s two-run blast in the eighth inning.

1) Allen Craig – Craig had two hits and three RBIs in this game. He also hit the aforementioned game-winning home run in the eighth inning.

Standings

Today’s Game

The Cardinals start a three game set in Houston with the Astros tonight at 7:05. For the first game, the Cardinals will send out 3-3 Jaime Garcia against 4-4 Lucas Harrell. Garcia experienced elbow soreness in his last start and hasn’t pitched since May 26th. He hopes to rebound from a loss against the Phillies that saw his ERA shoot up to 3.78. Harrell currently has a 4.71 ERA and does not have a good track record of success against the Cardinals in two starts against them.