The weekend series with interstate rival Kansas City reunited the Cardinals with Reggie Sanders and Mark Grudzielanek.
On Friday, Chris Carpenter started against Mark Redman. The cards won 9-6 as Albert Pujols went yard for the 20th time this season. This home run moved him into sole posession of 4th place on the Cardinals all-time list. Chris Carpenter picked up his 4th win of the season while Adam Wainwright was rewarded with his first career save.
On Saturday, Anthony Reyes was called up to start as Brian Falkenborg was sent down to Memphis. Reyes got his second career win as the Cards won 4-2. Jason Isringhausen moved one step closer to tying the Lee Smith's club record as he got his 14th save of the season. The 8th inning saw a 3-run home run by Albert Pujols. Just about every reliever pitched for the Cardinals (Tyler Johnson, Braden Looper, Randy Flores, Josh Hancock, Jason Isringhausen). After the game, Reyes was sent back down to Memphis and prospect Chris Duncan was recalled.
Today, Jeff Suppan started the game and went 6 strong innings. It's the top of the ninth right now and he's been relieved by Randy Flores (7th) and Brad Thompson (8th-9th). The first run on the board was the 22nd home run this season for Albert Pujols. You would think that the Royals would have learned their lesson but nope, they wouldn't pitch around him until his thurd at bat when they intentionally walked him. They also pitched around him in the ninth inning as well. The fifth inning saw Chris Duncan, who started in the DH spot, hit his first home run of the season since being recalled. Two batters later, Hector Luna, starting at short for the first time this season, went yard for the third time this year. The Cardinals batted around in the 7th inning where they scored five runs. Bigbie scored on a sac bunt by So Taguchi. JRod grounded out, scoring Gary Bennett. Pujols IBB'd to load the bases for Jim Edmonds. Edmonds singled, scoring Hector Luna and Aaron Miles. In the ninth inning, the Cardinals have the bases loaded with So Taguchi at the plate and two outs. So just singled to bring home Albert Pujols. Barring a KC miracle, that's a winner! Pujols goes 1-3 with a home run, 3 runs, two walks, and an RBI.
Remind me to thank Dave Karaff for signing Albert Pujols!
Milestone watch:
Albert Pujols needs 5 home runs to tie Ray Lankford for 3rd all-time in club history with 228.
Jim Edmonds needs 5 home runs to tie Mark McGwire for 5th all-time in club history with 220.
Jeff Suppan needs 1 win for 100 career wins following the victory today.
Jason Isringhausen needs 6 saves to tie Lee Smith for 1st all-time in club history with 160.
This is kinda sad to read. It deals with the Wizard of Oz, Hall of Fame short stop Ozzie Smith.
While Smith, 51, may be comfortable in these surroundings, the same cannot be said about the surroundings of Busch Stadium and the Cardinals. He is finishing up a 10-year, $2 million personal services contract with the club that started upon his retirement in 1996, but most of the services have had little to do with anything on the field. His commitment has consisted mostly of being on hand for opening day festivities and before playoff and World Series games.
Smith said he hadn't felt he belonged with the Cardinals since his last year with them coincided with manager Tony La Russa's first year as manager.
"I think everybody knows that I didn't fit in," Smith said. "And when you don't fit in . . . that's one of the reasons why I kind of backed off (of doing on-field work with the Cardinals). I won't do anything as long as the current management is in place."
Smith wasn't specific if this meant La Russa or general manager Walt Jocketty or both.
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