Okay, I’ll be honest. I haven’t seen nearly as much of the Redbirds the last week or so. I’m not a fair weather fan so much as I’m simply a sore loser. In all fairness, the games I have seen lately have been excruciating. Adam Freaking Kennedy playing in the outfield two days in a row? I think La Russa may have quit on his team as much as they have quit on him.
The Redbirds season is becoming a lot like Debra Winger at the end of Terms of Endearment. You’re 99% sure they aren’t gong to make it, but you also can’t imagine a story ending so terribly and yet, there’s a part of you that really just wants the damned thing over with already.
It’s still hard to complain all that much, but it hurts even more because we’ve had our chances to make a dent and didn’t. The Brewers and Cubs appear to be falling apart faster than a Paris Hilton relationship and the Cards have had ample opportunity to take something away from either team’s lead and they just didn’t come through.
It’s beginning to feel as if I’m saying the same damned thing every week, but once again, the Cardinals are still hanging in there. They’ve been either winning or splitting their series all week, just like they’re supposed to. The problem is, that really isn’t good enough anymore because time is running out, or at least beginning to run out.
What makes it even tougher is that even though they just took two out of three from the Braves, it wasn’t good enough. In almost any other year, it would be considered fine, but the Braves aren’t exactly stacked with talent this year and it’s really a situation where they needed to sweep. Splitting a two game series with the Pirates isn’t really anything to brag about either.
I’m really growing to hate the Cards/Cubs series. The games are usually pretty close and lately the Redbirds seem to be barely coming out on the wrong end of the good score. Honestly, I’m not sure this series was all that important as far as the division race goes. St. Louis is pretty much in a position where they have to rely on a wild card birth if they are going to see post season.
Well, there’s no other way to say it, last week was a real bastard for the Cardinals. We come out of the break — sweep the lowly Padres and things look all peachy. All of a sudden Milwaukee comes to town and we get swept right back. Follow that up with losing a series to the Mets and it’s hard to be especially optimistic. For some reason though, I’m still not as pessimistic as I probably should be.
The worst part is that Milwaukee is back in the race and we were the team that let them get there. We let them get there in a really ugly display of a bullpen. The Cards probably should have at least split with them, maybe even taken three out of four, but it didn’t turn out that way. If they would only play six or seven innings, I can’t help but feel we would look a lot better. Sadly, they still play nine.
I figured it’s time to do a mid-season report, since it’s the All Star break, even though it’s a little past mid-season. It’s tough to complain much since we’re still hanging in there, but I actually think we should have had four or five more victories so far, and Saturday’s debacle against the Pirates is a perfect example. You can’t blow a big lead in the late innings against a team that’s just not very good. A stupid loss like that can bite you in the ass come September. Anyway, on with the grading — after the jump.
I finally got to see the Redbirds in person a couple of weeks ago. It was against the Royals and I really didn’t have a good feeling coming in. It wasn’t because of the competition so much. It was mostly because I was staring right into the face of an all-you-can-drink buffet in one of those fancy schmancy club rooms. I was basically like the Cards at that point: just trying to keep my head above water.
Both of us barely did.
We ended up losing not only that game, but every damned game of that series. I wasn’t really surprised or even all that disappointed. This entire season has been like a soap opera where only bad things happen. At that point, staff ace Adam Wainwright had been on the DL for a week or so. Albert Pujols finally succumbed to a calf injury that had been ailing him and also went to the disabled list. It could have been the beginning of the end of this season, but once again, the other fellas didn’t quit.
There was a moment late in Sunday’s game against the Astros that I felt may be indicative of the Cardinals this year. The birds had just scored five runs on two hits, a couple of errors, and a passed ball to take a 5–4 lead. When Houston came up to bat in the eighth, it was pretty apparent the game was on the line with Tejeda and Berkman coming up. It struck me as an important moment not only in the game, but maybe the season.
I said earlier in the year that this Redbirds team was fun to watch and I still can’t waiver much from that statement. They’re also sort of excruciating to watch sometimes. It’s understandable because this is the youngest team we’ve had in a long time. They leave men on base like it’s a life calling. Still, a certain degree of slack comes with youth. If you shit your pants when you’re thirty — kind of a problem, but when you do it at three years old, it’s all just part of growing up. The young cardinals seem to be growing up quickly, with a fewer pains along the way than I expected.
Not to seem overly pessimistic, but with high expectations often comes excruciating pain. At the beginning of the year, my hopes for the Cardinals were somewhat optimistic with a certain amount of understandable trepidation. All of a sudden, we start looking pretty good and I assume we should win every damned game we play. It’s easy to complain, much harder to be realistic.
The Cardinals are still hanging in there. The pitching has remained pretty decent to almost great and the hitting has been just good enough to win more than a few ballgames. I would have been much happier if they could have managed to put a hurting on the lowly Giants, but they took two of three from the Astros, so that will suffice. It’s at least better to play tough within your own division. The team still doesn’t seem that great on paper, but since that isn’t where the games are played, I suppose that’s just fine. I’ve been frustrated quite a lot with the managing so far this year, so I feel I should write about that this week.
I’m just going to admit it. Tony LaRussa is smarter than me about baseball.
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m very happy and somewhat surprised by the Cardinals so far this season.
Sure, we’re towards the top of the standings, but that’s not why I’m happy necessarily. We’ve had great pitching thus far, and though that gives me a nervous thrill, that’s not even why I’m happy. Our hitting looks functional and our defense looks vastly improved, but even those things aren’t really why I’m so happy with the redbirds.
I’m happy because they are once again fun to watch.
It’s hard to know what to think of the St. Louis Cardinals this coming year. Like a first trip to a Thai restaurant, I’m both excited and fearful. Actually, it may be more comparable to taking home an insanely drunk girl after last call. I’m fairly sure it will be sloppy, with a few exciting moments, eventually leaving me with a sort of unclean feeling. In reality, it will probably be most like a cancer patient: good days and bad days with an ending I had dreaded yet totally anticipated. The Cardinals may end up being just fine, but I really have my doubts.
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