Opening Day Comes and Goes

The Cardinals took care of Philly today with a 13-5 win. Albert Pujols had two long balls while Rolen came back with a grand slam.

Carp worked five innings, throwing 4 strikeouts and giving up 4 runs. Wainwright saw an inning of activity. He gave up the only hit to Jimmy Rollins. What about Aaron Miles? He went 4-5. The inning that Wainwright did have, well, it was not so pretty. You know that he did give up the hit to Rollins but let's see what else happened with that:

Monday wasn't an absolute zero for the home team All-Star shortstop Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to 37 games with an eighth-inning double against Adam Wainwright. Hitless after putting the ball in the air in four previous at-bats, the Phillies shortstop took three balls from Wainwright as those remaining from a crowd of 44,614 booed. With the Cardinals ahead by eight runs, La Russa signaled Wainwright to feed Rollins a strike.

Wainwright complied, and Rollins yanked the rookie's 3-0 pitch between Pujols and the first-base line for a double. The hit leaves Rollins eight games shy of Wee Willie Keeler's NL consecutive game mark and 19 from Joe DiMaggio's allegedly unbreakable 56-game streak set in 1941.

"Obviously a guy who plays as hard as he does and gets a streak going like that, I respect that streak," Wainwright said. "It's kind of a pitcher's duty if a guy has something going like that to give him a chance at it."

In minor league news, two additional players will make the opening day roster for the Swing of the Quad Cities.

Top pick Colby Rasmus and A.J. Van Slyke, son of former Cardinals player Andy, headline the names unveiled by the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday as members of the 2006 Swing of the Quad Cities. The opening day roster will include 16 selections from the 2005 draft, 10 players who spent time in the Quad Cities last season, and three teenagers.

The Cards take Tuesday off and will resume the three game series on Wednesday.