some very important subthoughts in bold print below inside this article about the cards
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The Cards should be four games behind the Chicago Cubs. They should have taken three of the four games in this series at Busch Stadium and lopped two games off Chicago's advantage in the NL Central.
But they didn't.
The Cards had some pretty good rips at Cubs starter Jon Lieber early in Thursday's afternoon game, but they failed to build the big early inning needed to seize control of this game.
Then it got away late, with the Small Bears pulling away to a 5-2 victory.
Sure, Lieber settled down and pitched extremely well, even after a significant rain delay. Give him some credit. It was easy to see why he has gone 5-1 in his last six starts. Once Lieber settled in, he was able to make many members of The Home Team look pretty foolish.
And the Small Bears played some terrific defense in this series, racing into the alleys and back to the wall to rob the Cards of some timely hits. Chicago deserves praise for playing like a first-place club despite their third- or fourth-place lineup.
But the Cards were NOT sharp in this pivotal game. In the fourth inning, Albert Pujols made a rookie mistake by needlessly trying to stretch a single into a double.
With Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa loping toward the rolling ball in right field, he took off toward second base. But Pujols doesn't have an extra gear and Sosa has a tremendous throwing arm.
So Sammy gunned down Pujols with ease, helping hold the Cards to a single run when they could have scored many more. Albert has been a godsend this season, but he must remind himself that he can beat foes with his bat, not his wheels.
The Cards' defense was suspect as well. Shortstop Edgar Renteria muffed what would have been a double-play liner, but starting pitcher Andy Benes managed to work out of that trouble.
Ray Lankford's dropped fly ball in deep left didn't hurt the Cards, either, but the Small Bears DID score their key fourth run after Lankford failed to get a bead on Joe Girardi's eighth-inning double.
Teams having to play some serious catch-up baseball ? like the Cards are facing at this point of the season ? can't make these sorts of mental and physical mistakes. They can't give away outs and they can't run their way out of scoring opportunities.
A victory Thursday afternoon would have given the Cards six wins in seven games and sent them rolling into a tough weekend series against San Francisco.
Instead, they remained stalled at six games back. Not only did they drop the last two games of this series, but they burned up their bullpen in the process. While squandering a wonderful opportunity to improve their standing, they may have set themselves up for further trouble against the Giants.
At some point, manager Tony La Russa's nightly Parade of One Thousand Relievers could leave the bullpen in ashes.
With the red-hot outfielder J.D. Drew shelved for who knows how long, the Cards will have to play very good baseball to win. And Thursday's effort just wasn't very good at all.
Carrying Thursday's lethargic play into the weekend series against San Francisco would be a Giant mistake.
