The Cardinals were swept the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, and swept out of first place in the process. Sure I'm bummed about it; what Cardinal fan wouldn't be? St. Louis finds itself in second place in the NL Central now, 1/2 game back of the Brew Crew. I didn't see that coming. Everyone said that Milwaukee would be a force to be reckoned with this season, but I was pretty skeptical at first. I guess I was still worried about Cincinnatti.The Brewers simply played better baseball than us, and they deserved to win. It seems that the Cardinals forgot how to crawl back into games and get those come from behind victories.
I am not Tony La Russa. I have not managed 5,002 Major League Baseball games. On a side note it is reassuring to see that he hasn't changed his hairstyle since the late '70's. Right on Tony. I'm not second guessing his decision, I'm simply saying that I would have done things differently. We were up 3-0 going into the bottom of the 6'th. Pitcher Jake Westbrook was solid up until this point. Then he gave up a single, a double, and another single. Still no outs. So far this season, Westbrook has proven that when he starts to fall apart, he loses it fast.
Fireballer Jason Motte was warming up in the bullpen in a hurry. The score was now 3-2 with a runner on, and Prince Fielder coming to the plate. I would have made Westbrook step off the mound and check on the runner a couple of times in order to stall, and allow Motte a few more warmup tosses. Prince Fielder is one of, if not THE hottest hitter in baseball right now. Westbrook's day should have been over at this point. Jason Motte should have come into the game and faced the Prince. Instead, La Russa left Jake in, and Fielder blasted the ball over the wall to give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.
I can't predict the future. Motte might have given up an even longer home run than Westbrook did. I just don't know why Tony didn't take him out before Prince came to the plate. All of this damage was done with no outs. It was obvious that Jake was done, so why let him pitch to someone who could make us pay dearly for a mistake?
The Cardinals were outplayed and outmanaged while we were swept. We went into the series leading the NL Central by 2 1/2 games, and left Milwaukee with out tails between our legs, now down by 1/2 game. I'm sure Brewers fans are thrilled, but as a die hard Cardinal fan I am just plain disappointed.
I've decided to annoint a new Cardinal killer. Lance Berkman, when he played for the Astros, did a pretty good job of this back in the day. I'm sure everyone remembers Carlos Beltran of the Mets in his heyday giving Cardinal pitchers fits. The newest Cardinal killer is Prince Fielder. He took us out like we were a plate of double cheeseburgers. Prince has the Cardinals number.
I just hope this doesn't last long, or it's going to be a long second half of the season. The Birds take on the Nationals starting Tuesday. Jaime Garcia takes the mound for us and looks to turn things around. Let's hope he can come off his last outing (a loss in Houston) and put up a W for the good guys.
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