Series Thread: Pirates @ Cards

[theohall]

Time for some home cookin'

[goon attack]

We need a sweep.

[stlmark]

No chance for a sweep now.

[marco]

07/08 Blues?

Young squad, some veterans, start hot and then start a little slump?

[cprice12]

Same story we've seen all year, even when we were winning.
We can't hit with runners in scoring position. We strand way too many runners.
We should have won this game in the 9th.

No biggie. It's only the Cubs in front of us. I'd be surprised if they win over 88 games. They're not as good as advertised...and they certainly won't run away with anything.

Where are you Chris Carpenter?

[choppa4]

Same story we've seen all year, even when we were winning.
We can't hit with runners in scoring position. We strand way too many runners.
We should have won this game in the 9th.

No biggie. It's only the Cubs in front of us. I'd be surprised if they win over 88 games. They're not as good as advertised...and they certainly won't run away with anything.

Where are you Chris Carpenter?

He hasn't even started rehab yet, unfortunately.

[tlg80]

07/08 Blues?

Young squad, some veterans, start hot and then start a little slump?

Seems that way, don't it. Hard to watch Villone out there. Not to mention the Ludwick pop up. Nice patience. Okay, done ranting.

[stlmark]

Ummmm.......losing REALLY sucks.

[theohall]

The biggest problem right now is the bullpen. They started hot, but haven't been able to hold leads or ties when we've had them for about a week now. Then comes the stranding runners thing.

When the Cardinals score 5 runs, they win. They don't, they lose. In all but one of the losses in the past week, the Cards only scored 3 runs. Losing 4-3 twice and 5-3 once is more reflective of the bullpen not holding up.

Record scoring 3 runs or less: 2-14 (That's been going on all season)
Record scoring 4 run: 2-3 (small sample size)
Record scoring 5 runs or more: 19-1 (only loss is 8-9 loss to Brewers when Izzy gave up walk-off RBI single in the 12th)

Gotta get back to producing runs, because the pitching, especially with the bullpen in it's current state, isn't going to keep the score down.

[stinkdified]

Ummmm.......losing REALLY sucks.

when you lose the last 6 of 7 games and your record is 23-18, 14-8 home, yes, it sucks a big one

[cprice12]

This thing with stranding runners is a serious broken record.
Left the bases loaded in the first and left two more on in the 2nd.
Jesus.

[theohall]

It's kind of amazing the Cardinals are up 5-1 and have still left 8 runners on base after only 4 innings.

It's not like the Cardinals aren't hitting. They just aren't hitting with men on base consistently. I can't say it's because the team is so young, because it's usually the veterans (Pujols, Glaus, Kennedy, and Molina) who keep stranding runners.

Today - Pujols 3 and Kennedy 6. Prince Albert seems to be struggling in RISP situations, although he's still leading the league in walks.

[dmiles2186]

It's a nightmare to see a 5-1 lead turn into an 8-5 deficit.

[tlg80]

I'm speechless. That was just...awful!

[stlmark]

Losing 2 out of 3 to the PITTSburgh Pirates is disgusting!

I need to slam my head against something.

[theohall]

Once again the combination of flaws continues:

Weak bullpen
Inability to convert RISP opportunities

It's not an either or thing, it's both happening simultaneously over and over and over again.

Although today, I gotta say it's more on pitching since they did have a 5-1 lead and only lost for the 2nd time when scoring 5 runs. 5 runs should be enough to win most games.

[stlmark]

Izzy will either be DL'd or DFA'd today according to the STL PD.

Sounds like Chris Perez will be getting the call.