Game # 20

CARDINALS 5, BRAVES 4

The Cardinals' bullpen almost allowed a three run lead blow up last night against the struggling Braves, but thanks to Trevor Miller and Jason Motte, the bleeding was stopped and the Cards held on, guaranteeing at least a split in this four game set.  Three of four would be awfully nice, and the Cardinals are in a great position to do that, and maybe sweep, with Jaime Garcia pitching tonight and Adam Wainwright tomorrow afternoon.

Chris Carpenter pitched six strong innings and allowed two earned runs on three hits.  Carp also batted in a different spot, the eighth spot in the lineup, last night.  Batting the pitcher eighth is nothing new for Tony La Russa, but the idea behind this move is likely much different than it has been the last time he did it.  La Russa batted the pitcher eighth for most of last season (before Matt Holliday arrived) and all of 2008, and his philiosophy was to have an "extra lead-off hitter" in the lineup to provide more RBI chances for Albert Pujols.  This time, it seems merely to get the struggling shortstop Brendan Ryan, batting .167 so far in 2010, going offensively.  Ryan made the move pay off last night by sparking the four run rally in the sixth inning with a leadoff single.  However, you can also say the swap in lineup positions slightly hurt the Cardinals in that inning because Carpenter's spot in the lineup came up with two outs and two runners on.  Carpenter, who had a healthy pitch count of 89, was pinch hit for, thus removing him as a possibility to pitch the seventh, which turned out to be a near disaster as the Braves turned a 5-2 STL lead into a one run game.  This somewhat shows why the pitcher batting eighth doesn't have much of an impact, and I don't see why so many people make such a fuss about it.  I don't mind it for now; if La Russa wants to send a message to Ryan by batting him ninth, I'm fine with that.  But as soon as Ryan starts showing signs of improvement, I hope La Russa just goes back to batting the pitcher ninth. No biggie for now, however.

Ryan Ludwick and Yadier Molina were the prime offensive heroes in this game. Ludwick had a solo home run and tied the game in the four run sixth with an RBI double. Molina gave the Cardinals the lead with a bases-loaded single that scored two.  Though he's only batting .214 with runners in scoring position, Yadi is proving to be a trustworthy clutch hitter the Cardinals can count on.  Along with the game winning hit on Monday and the go ahead hit last night, Molina also had that epic game tying hit in the 19th inning og the 20-inning marathon against the Mets a couple of weeks ago.  The Cardinals desperately need a guy to come through with timely hits, and Yadi is coming up big.  And it's not like this is anything new.  Surely you remember this...

...Yeah, you do. Let  Yadi's knack for timely hits be known.

Boxscore courtesy of mlb.com.  Pictures (in order from top to bottom) courtesy of fanster.com and nytimes.com.