Thursday, June 12, 2008

Izzy could be back soon

When the Cardinals play the Cubs in the first weekend of July, the Cubs will be without Alfonso Soriano, who broke his hand yesterday against the Braves.

Mark Mulder might be back before the All-Star break. In the meantime, Mitchell Boggs has recieved a second start.

Izzy may be back soon.
"At that point, I was mentally exhausted," Isringhausen said Wednesday. "Not because I kept getting beat, but because I care about my teammates and I beat myself up even harder because I let them down. I've never been one to not want the team on my back. I always wanted to be the guy who wanted to carry the team.

"I didn't want to do it anymore," he said, "because I wasn't doing a good job of it."

Many of the Cardinals' horses and several of the closer's friends help put Isringhausen back together again. Immediately upon his arrival at the Cardinals' facility in Jupiter, Fla., Chris Carpenter and Josh Kinney spotted a flaw in Isringhausen's delivery that may have caused him problems. Along with Matt Morris, they were there Monday when Isringhausen trotted out his refined mechanics and pitched two shutout innings in his first rehab start.

Sent to Springfield on Wednesday for a second appearance in three days, Isringhausen was joined at Hammons Field by Mike Matheny and John Mabry.[...]

During his hiatus in Florida, Isringhausen and Carpenter discussed if that could be a cause for his problems — the lure of a career milestone. Recently, several hitters have slowed as they approached historic home run totals; starters can scuffle as they approach 300.

The two Cardinals pitchers wondered if a closer could do the same.

"I can't say yes or no to that," Isringhausen said. "I try not to think about it. I've never been caught up with it before. I can't let that consume me. But you see guys going for 600 (homers), 500 home runs and they take awhile to hit it and then when they do they're better.

"Everything then is better."

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