A Misfire

Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals finally figured out that earning a win takes all aspects of the game.  They finally were firing on all cylinders. They had outstanding starting pitching from Adam Wainwright, the offense surged with three home runs to give the Redbirds another early lead, and the bullpen allowed only one run in 3.2 innings to preserve the win.  The Cards won big, 8-2.

Today’s game got off to a similar start.  The offense got it started, courtesy of Troy Glaus’ 300th career home run, giving the Cards the lead in the third.  Kyle Lohse threw a superb six innings of shutout baseball, where he allowed five hits and struck out seven.

The difference proved to be the bullpen once again.  Kyle McClellan put Arizona back in the game, allowing two runs in his .2 innings of work.  Later, one of the newest Cardinals, Jason Motte, came in with the game on the line and struck out Mark Reynolds to end the seventh.  Motte also pitched a scoreless eighth before giving way to rookie closer Chris Perez in the ninth.  Perez couldn’t close the door, picking up his third blown save of the year.  A misfire. Arizona won 4-3.  Here’s the full recap and box score.

The Cardinals really could have used a win today.  They picked up a game on the Wild Card leading Milwaukee Brewers with last night’s win, but remain 5.5 games out after today’s loss despite the Mets’ triumph over the Brew Crew earlier.

For those that haven’t seen the complete list of September call-ups, here you go:

•  Randy Flores  P
•  Kelvin Jimenez  P
•  Josh Kinney  P
•  Jason Motte  P
•  Mark Johnson  C
•  Brian Barden  IF
•  Josh Phelps  IF
•  Brendan Ryan  IF

Of course we already know what to expect from Ryan, Flores, and Jimenez. Phelps is again getting accustomed to the bigs, and Motte had a remarkable Major League debut tonight.  I’m hoping Kinney is as impressive as he was the last time we saw him, during the run to the ’06 World Series Championship.

The Cards have the day off tomorrow before hosting the Florida Marlins for three games.  To stay in the hunt, they’ll need a big boost after their 1-5 road trip.