Game #7

CARDINALS 5, ASTROS 0

It's good to be home, ain't it?  The Cardinals gave fans the perfect Opening Day in St. Louis with an easy shutout victory accompanied by gorgeous weather at Busch Stadium.  Here is your boxscore.

Adam Wainwright gave the best performance by a Cardinals' starter so far on this young season pitching eight scoreless innings.  Cardinals' starters can do their vulnerable bullpen a favor by going deep into games and not giving them too much to work with.  But then again, I'm beginning to become convinced that the bullpen really won't be that big of a problem this season.  I still don't see it being a strength; there still isn't that one stellar reliever whom you can count on on any given day.  But they have not been that bad.  The bullpen ERA is 3.45 so far, which ranks 12th in the majors so far.  Again, they certainly are not the best, but they're not even near the worst yet.  Of course, it's early, so we'll just have to wait and watch it play out.

More good news from today was Ryan Ludwick's performance in the number two spot in the lineup.  Ludwick was 4 for 4 with an RBI triple and run scored.  He and Skip Schumaker played a huge part in today's win by setting up RBI opportunities for Albert Pujols, and Pujols, being Pujols, delivered today with four RBIs, three of which came on his fifth home run of the season.  Back to Ludwick, though, I think it is safe to say he's coming around now, and La Russa's decision to bat him second is paying off.  Ludwick batted second in last night's loss to Milwaukee, and if you watched the game, you may have noticed Ludwick hitting the ball a lot better.  He almost had his first home run of the season in that game, but it fell just short in deep center field.  His triple today almost left the park.  I'm expecting to see some producting from Ryan Ludwick very soon.

It's good to see the Cardinals back at home.  We'll have an off day tomorrow and get back at it Wednesday with Brad Penny's debut in the home uniform.  Until then, enjoy the weather!

Boxscore courtesy of mlb.com.