St. Louis Cardinals Shut Out Brewers

First place is in the grasp of the St. Louis Cardinals, or at least a share of the lead.

The Cardinals got a strong performance from their pitching staff on Thursday and shut out the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-0, at Busch Stadium.

For everyone that panicked at the Cardinals’ slow start, the answer all along was not to do it. This is only the first two weeks of the season. Championships are not won in April, at least in most cases.

What matters now is the Cardinals have a share of first place at 5-3 overall, tied with the Chicago Cubs. The Cincinnati Reds are a half-game back in the standings, and both the Reds and Cubs have Thursday off.

Let’s take a look at the day that was:

*After a few outings where the Cardinals had to dip deep into the relief corps, St. Louis’ bullpen largely got a rest Thursday thanks to John Lackey.

Lackey struck out eight batters in seven innings of work and surrendered just five hits as he won for the first time this season. An even better indicator was the hits given up were all singles.

*Following a slow start to the year, bench player Mark Reynolds came through with a double and an RBI. He had two of the team’s 11 hits. Along with Matt Carpenter, Jhonny Peralta and Yadier Molina, those were the players that had two hits apiece for the Cardinals.

*We haven’t mentioned other pitchers besides the starters and Trevor Rosenthal too much, but it looks like Jordan Walden will be a big part of the bullpen in St. Louis for quite some time if things keep up. Walden had two strikeouts in relief.

All in all, this was about a good a win as you could get going into a big series. The Cardinals have the Cincinnati Reds next up.

Check back with Redbird Rants for a preview of this exciting series, and stick with us for more recaps and analysis throughout the weekend.