Say what you will about Ty Wigginton. (Most of you have said plenty.)

But for the second time in three games, Wigginton was directly involved in what ended up the game-winning play as the St. Louis Cardinals again beat the New York Mets by a score of 4-2.

And this time he did nothing but stand there.

Yes, it’s from his days on the Pirates, but somehow it still works …

A wild pitch by Mets reliever Scott Rice while Wigginton was pinch-hitting for Matt Adams, who’d been announced as the pinch-hitter for Seth Maness, allowed Daniel Descalso to race home from third to put the Cardinals up 3-2. Wigginton was then intentionally walked to bring Matt Carpenter to the plate.

Maybe Lance Berkman left a little bit of magic behind in that No. 12 jersey.

Or maybe the Cardinals are just on such a roll right now that everything is going their way.

Whatever works!

And things are definitely working — the Cardinals have won 12 of their last 14 games, are 11-2 this month and have the best record in the majors.

Perhaps that is all because of Ty Wigginton’s mere presence …

(Or not.)

» Continue reading “Wigginton Comes Through Again For The Cardinals – Really!”

Six, as every St. Louis Cardinals fan knows, is a serious number. (How about that nice plug for Mobil’s On the Run?)

The Cards current winning streak has now reached serious status thanks to the team’s first-ever four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with Sunday’s 10-1 win.

Also serious, though it has nothing to do with the number six: the Cardinals 20-11 record. It’s the best in the National League, and is tied with the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers (hello, Lance Berkman!) for tops in the majors. The Cards 2 1/2 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds is currently the biggest lead in any division also, tying them with the Rangers and their lead over the Oakland A’s.

But back to Sunday. You know it’s a successful day when it’s a challenge to even figure out what the “good, better and best” of the game would be.

How’s this for good — and it’s another six as well? A six-run second inning got the Cardinals scoring under way. A one-out walk to Daniel Descalso put him on base, while a Pete Kozma single and Jon Jay hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with two outs. (Jaime Garcia fouled out trying to sacrifice the runners up.) Marco Estrada was a little wild, to say the least — back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Shane Robinson and Matt Holliday gave the Cards their first two runs. Then Allen Craig kicked off his big day with a hit that was just fair down the left field line that cleared the bases. Yadier Molina drove him home with a single before David Freese came up for the second time in the inning — and earned the distinction of making the first and last outs.

Seeing is always better, though, right? Here’s a look at all six runs scoring, along with a nice look at the 1913 throwback uniforms both teams were wearing. And for once it really was a High Sock Sunday for nearly everyone!

» Continue reading “Cardinals Winning Streak Gets Serious With Sweep Of Brewers”

Nothing will make up for the San Francisco Giants beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the final three games of last year’s National League Championship Series.

However, chasing Matt Cain from today’s game with a nine-run fourth inning and beating the Giants 14-3 on the day they received their World Series rings? It definitely helps ease that pain a bit, especially after yesterday’s 6-3 victory.

And, after all the (justified) angst following last Wednesday’s 16-inning loss to the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals ended their road trip 3-3. Isn’t going .500 on the road the way to a successful season?

With a great victory like today’s, seems like the perfect opportunity for the first “Good, Better, Best” of 2013.

Good

• Adam Wainwright bouncing back from Monday night in Arizona with a very good performance. He went seven innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts. (More on a couple of those coming up …) He’s yet to walk a batter this season and lowered his ERA from 4.50 to 3.46.
• Every Cardinals starter except Wainwright had a hit today — and that includes Ty Wigginton, who actually had two and an RBI.
• » Continue reading “9-Run Innings Off Matt Cain Are Always Good”

David Freese, discussing the upcoming 2013 season.

Today’s final day of the Warm-Up was the one I was looking forward to the most, given the (if you’ll forgive the pun) lineup. Believe it or not, even Yadier Molina showed up! Just like the last two days, there was a hunger for this season, an excitement that had some guys tripping over their words. How about some quotes? » Continue reading “Winter Warm-Up Interviews: Day Three”

The St. Louis Cardinals announced the schedule for the team’s 2013 Cardinals Caravan, which will make stops in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee.

The Cardinals will embark on five separate caravans scheduled around the Winter Warm-Up weekend, Jan. 18-21. Three caravans will depart on Friday, Jan. 18, through Saturday, Jan. 19, and two caravan trips are slated for Sunday and Monday, Jan. 20-21.

The Caravans are scheduled to visit 18 total cities throughout Cardinal Nation, including the respective cities of local minor league affiliates Memphis, Tenn.; Springfield, Mo.; and Peoria, Ill.

Several current Cardinals players such as Jon Jay, Marc Rzepczynski, Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Kelly, Pete Kozma and Shelby Miller will take part in the promotional caravans. Numerous other veterans and future stars such as Tony Cruz, Shane Robinson, Adron Chambers and others are also participating. Minor-league future stars involved include 2012 Organizational Player of the Year Oscar Taveras, 2012 Minor League Pitcher of the Year Seth Maness and 2012 first round draft pick Michael Wacha.

» Continue reading “Cardinals Caravan Dates And Lineups Announced”

No doubt Edwin Jackson has fond memories of being at Busch Stadium — you know, he became a World Series champion there and all.

So should we be surprised that his first trip back to St. Louis resulted in him helping out his old team?

The Cardinals’ offense finally had a big night, scoring 12 runs on 11 hits with two home runs. It was the first time they reached double-digits in wins since Sept. 1, when they scored 10 — also off the Nationals. And it all began with Jon Jay singling to start the bottom of the first.

At that point, the Cards actually trailed 1-0 since Adam Wainwright allowed a Bryce Harper double and Adam LaRoche single in the top of the inning. But it didn’t take long to do away with that deficit.

The first out in the bottom of the first didn’t come until No. 7 hitter Daniel Descalso drove in the fourth run with a sacrifice fly. Following Jay’s lead-off hit were a walk to Matt Carpenter, singles by Matt Holliday and Allen Craig, Yadier Molina reaching on and driving in a run on a Ryan Zimmerman error and a bases-loaded walk to Carlos Beltran.

Whew.

» Continue reading “Edwin Jackson Still Likes The Cardinals”

If you’ve been reading Aaron Miles’ Fastball for any length of time, you are aware that Tara and I are Quad Cities River Bandits fans.

We’ve written about them many times — for example Tara did the weekly Bandits Buzz features, like this one on Tyrell Jenkins and many others, while in July I decided to go see them instead of MLB’s Home Run Derby and last year was there with Tara when they swept their way to the Midwest League Championship.

So, the news that the Cardinals did not renew their affiliation with the Bandits disappointed us greatly. In fact, I spent much time yesterday telling all the Cubs fans I know that it’s their team’s fault this is happening — since the rumor/presumption is the Cubs are moving their Midwest League team from Peoria to Kane County, opening up a spot that’s about 90 miles closer to St. Louis than the Quad Cities are. And even though I know that distance is one of the factors that the Cardinals consider in deciding where to locate their affiliates — as Tara wrote about yesterday, that was the very question I asked Cards general manager John Mozeliak on Sunday — I still wanted to point fingers at the Cubs.

But, today my sadness and bitterness is mostly over.

Instead, I’m grateful for the eight years I did have seeing future Cardinals right here in my own backyard. Because what an extraordinary time these past eight years have been. Look at the number of former Bandits I’ve now had the chance to see on the big league roster.

Joe Kelly as a River Bandit, in a photo taken by my then-10-year-old nephew (which might explain why it’s a little crooked).

» Continue reading “Thank You, Cardinals, For The River Bandits Memories”

No more Pedro Alvarez facing them!

See, there is a bright side — however small — to the fact the Cardinals have been shut out since the sixth inning of Monday night’s game, which is 21 straight scoreless innings and counting.

And that obviously means two straight losses, giving the Pirates two consecutive wins and putting them right back in the wild card mix. (Not that they were necessarily out of it anyway.)

So now the record for this 10-game road trip is at 3-3, with perhaps the toughest four games still ahead. Did you expect any of this — hanging onto a playoff spot — would be easy?

Back to Pedro Alvarez. He is batting .397/.462/.828 against the Cardinals this season, compared to .249/.328/.494 overall. He finishes the season series with seven of his 26 homers and 23 of his 70 RBI against St. Louis — 27 percent of his homers and 33 percent of his RBI are in 15 games against the Cards.

Ugh.

» Continue reading “On The Plus Side For The Cardinals …”

What’s the best way for the St. Louis Cardinals to get over a 1-5 post-All-Star-break record?

Have the Chicago Cubs come to town.

The Cardinals completed a sweep today 7-0, shutting out the Cubs on back-to-back days. In fact, the Cards held the Cubs scoreless for 25 innings in the series — their only run in the three games was in the second inning Friday.

Which, obviously, means the pitching today continued to excel. Lance Lynn allowed four hits and three walks in six innings, striking out five. He won his 12th game of the season, which ties him for second in the NL with Gio Gonzalez. (R.A. Dickey is first with 13.)

» Continue reading “And That’s A Cardinals Sweep!”

So, where to begin in describing the St. Louis Cardinals comeback victory over the Miami Marlins?

Since it was a walk-off win, we’ll start at the end — the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Cardinals trailed 4-2. On the mound for the Marlins: Heath Bell, who’s been very helpful to the Cards this season. First up: Carlos Beltran, who seems like a guy you want up when you need base runners. Oops, not this time. He struck out.

Allen Craig, however, did what he does and singled just through the left side of the infield. And Matt Carpenter kept the momentum going by hitting it deep to left, where it bounced into the Marlins bullpen for a ground-rule double.

Next up: David Freese, pinch-hitting for Tyler Greene. Freeser didn’t start the game, due to a contusion on his leg from being hit by a pitch yesterday. As everyone dreamed of big Freeser at-bats of the past (hint: think October), Bell apparently wanted none of that — he walked him on four pitches. So up came yesterday’s hero, Tony Cruz with the bases loaded and one out. And he continued his RBI tear against the Marlins by hitting a sac fly to score Allen Craig. 4-3 Marlins …

» Continue reading “Cardinals Go Into Break A Walk-Off Winner”