Game #3

REDS 2, CARDINALS 1

Boxscore <--- (With even more interesting features.  Courtesy of mlb.com.)

Brad Penny had a great debut today for the Cardinals.  He pitched a typical Brad Penny game.  Seventy of his 100 pitches were strikes, and his fastball was effective when he located it.  When he misses, hitters usually take advantage, and the Reds appeared to do so today with six hits off Penny.  But only one run allowed in seven innings is a good debut.  Penny wasn't blemish-free, but like I said, it was a typical Brad Penny game.  He's not usually a dominator like Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.  Penny will give up hits, and he will walk a guy here and there; there will be baserunners.  But he keeps from allowing the small damage to pile up into runs, and that is what he did today.  This was the kind of outing that Penny usually can win with.  The Cardinals just couldn't get it done today.

Props to Bronson Arroyo.  The high-leg-kicking righty quieted the Cardinals' heated bats today with eight sparkling innings, allowing four scattered hits, and the only one that was hit really hard was Matt Holliday's first home run of the season, which accounted for the Cards' only run of the game.  Also, Arroyo drove in the only run that Penny gave up with a two-out single in the fifth inning.

Though I can imagine Cardinal nation is probably beating this subject to death already, I'll just say the bullpen hasn't shown anything to be happy about yet.  But do I really need to elaborate on it?  Everybody figured the Cardinals may not be strong at the far end of games this season, and no one is surprised to see some shakiness already out of the gate.  But I think it is alittle ridiculous to begin doing this...

...when we only have a sample size of three games.  Look, I realize the bullpen will probably not be a strength this season.  I don't expect Ryan Franklin to be Mariano Rivera, and I don't even think he will be in that role all season long.  Let's give Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan some time to evaluate these relief pitchers and determine which roles best suit each reliever.  Soon, they'll discover somebody who can handle a tie game in the ninth or extra innings situation better than Jason Motte did today.  Just let it flesh out.  Hopefully, TLR can figure it out.  And if it is not figured out by midseason, then expect the Cardinals to seek some relief help from outside the organization, perhaps through a trade before the deadline.  If that has to happen, then the good news would be that the Cardinals should not have to give up too much value for bullpen help.  Let's put it this way, don't expect the Cardinals to give up nearly as much for reinforcements this season as they did last season.  We've come a long way in only a year, folks.

So, the sweep couldn't happen.  Oh well.  The weekend should be interesting.  Kyle Lohse makes his first start tomorrow. On Saturday, Jaime Garcia will make his first start as an official member of the Cardinals' rotation.  Garcia was originally going to pitch on Sunday night, but La Russa didn't want the young pitcher making his debut on national television.  Good call by the manager.  Instead, Carpenter will go on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.

This will all be against the Brewers.  Let's keep those shirts tucked in!

Jaime Garcia news courtesy of stltoday.com.