It’s unclear if the Cardinals were distracted by the prospects of heading back to St. Louis to watch fireworks or play the Reds, but Sunday’s finale against the Rays was one bad performance by our beloved Birds on the Bat.
Yes. Cardinal fan has reason to be upset. The Cards lost to the Rays 8-3 Sunday. Thankfully they play the Reds for some July 4th Fireworks!
And it was the same inning that plagued them Saturday. That dreaded sixth inning!
The Cards got things started in the second inning with a homer from Yadier Molina. It was his fifth of the season.
In the third inning, Elliot Johnson of the Rays grounded out to Skip Schumaker but John Jaso scored.
In the fifth inning, Johnny Damon of the Rays doubled to Jon Jay and Johnson scored. But, due to a throwing error by Skip, Damon scored.
In the sixth inning, Lance Berkman tagged his 22nd home run of the season, scoring Matt Holliday. This pleased the LB Fan Club!
In the bottom of the sixth, B.J. Upton doubled over the head of a mesmerized Colby Rasmus allowing Matt Joyce to score. Next, John Jaso doubled to score Upton.
Yes, it was a bad bad bad inning!
Things got worse in the eighth when Johnny Damon tripled past Colby Rasmus, allowing Jaso, Sean Rodriguez and Johnson to score.
During the sixth inning, Twitter was abuzz with calls for the trade of Colby. I’ll say it again, the young man gets incredibly distracted sometimes. And he allows some goofy stuff to happen. But, Colby has a lot of potential. Did you see that home run on Friday? My goodness! He’s our goofy, unicorn-loving center-fielder. He doesn’t need to be traded. He just needs to not be so distracted in the outfield. He needs to be consistent out there and at the plate.
So, let’s discuss pitching now! Seven doubles were given up Sunday. That’s right … seven!
Kyle Lohse now has a record of 8-5 after pitching 5 1/3 innings Sunday. He had two strikeouts. He gave up seven hits and had four earned runs. Jason Motte pitched two-thirds an inning, striking out one. He gave up three hits. Raul Valdes pitched an inning and a third. He struck out two, walked two and gave up one run. Brian Tallet pitched two-thirds of an inning. He walked one, gave up two hits and gave up two earned runs.
It shouldn’t surprise you, but during Tallet’s stint on the mound there were Twitter calls for him to receive the fate of Ryan Franklin and Miguel Batista. I pretty much agree. Brian Tallet is not good at throwing the baseball effectively. In fact, he is downright atrocious. That’s right, atrocious.
Joe Strauss agrees! I liked this tweet from Strauss too regarding who the rumor mill says the Cardinals are considered to want. Those are good numbers!
Now it’s time to put aside that series and concentrate on the Reds … if they haven’t already been doing so! Chris Carpenter takes the mound on July 4th against Kickin’ Johnny Cueto and the fourth-place Reds. This will probably be one of the more entertaining games of the year! It starts at 5:15 p.m. Central so you’ll still have time to watch the fireworks where you are!
We hope you have a very safe and happy Fourth of July! Watch some baseball! Have hot dog and a beer!
Miranda Remaklus is lead St. Louis Cardinals contributor to Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @missmiranda
“Entertaining” is not a word that comes to mind for me when anticipating today’s game, unfortunately! Never have I wanted the Cards to win, and CC to dominate, more than today.
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How come we keep seeing that same picture? Is it because there’s only one thing that comes up when you do a search for “Cardinals fan agony”?
Unlike the Cubs, where there’s a whole library. Anyway, I’d rather have my team tied for first place on the morning of the 4th of July. That’s not agony. That’s pretty good.
So let’s see if Carp can be Good Carp and if Cueto can be Bad Cueto. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, even if both teams are wearing trucker hats.
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Oh, and Mike Adams? I’d be suspicious of any pitcher who has his home games in Petco Park. Let me see a guy who pitches well in, say, Arizona, or Boston or Baltimore.
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