"Stifles"? I certainly wouldn't use that term. Ben didn't have much besides his fastball for most of the six innings and the Cards missed some pitches. That and Ankiel kept coming up in key spots and making outs. Rick is having a tough August.

Knowing that Tony will be stewing all night about this type of loss my guess is that someone on the Crew takes one in the ribs within the first three innings. It has to be galling for TLR to lose to a Yost managed team. A few years back Tony used to say nice things about Ned but ever since Milwaukee became competent, meaning a THREAT, all that nice chit-chat has STOPPED.

The Crew has won the season series (galling), kicked St. Louis in their own park (more galling) and lead the Cards in the playoff chase (MOST galling). Tony is a tough guy and wants his team to play tough.

So who will it be? Kendall will enjoy it too much so he's out. Hall likely won't play. I'm guessing Braun or Hart....................

... and Fielder has too much padding.

I was at this game. This game sucked.

The Cardinals sure have been losing a lot lately. They're tied with the Mets now for 2nd place in the wild card thingamajig, now that the Phillies have taken a half-game lead on the Mets.

AP:

Losing pitcher Todd Wellemeyer believes Wednesday’s game is a must for the Cardinals, saying “We don’t want to be 5 1/2 out going into September.”

Manager Tony La Russa had a more measured response.

“They’re in better shape they we are, but I’ve also said that this series in August isn’t going to determine who plays in October,” La Russa said. “But we need the series more than they do.”
...
Despite the wild card implications, the announced attendance of 41,121 was about 3,000 shy of capacity. This after the Cardinals had offered half-price tickets to stlcardinals.com subscribers and free tickets to season ticket-holders with $1 face value in an attempt to paper the house.

The Cards were utterly humiliated. Even Pujols made a dumb play at 1st tonight. This might be the sign of a team nearing what seems to most, an anticipated end.

Oh, the Cards are just making their Pythagorean stats look artificially bad, so LaRussa can look like a great manager for outperforming their expected W-L. He's got the Brewers just where he wants them!

I was shocked at that Pujols blunder. I'm guessing he thought he had no play on Hart at 1st, it looked like it would be close. Otherwise a thorough whooping and a Houdini act by Sheets to boot.

Burwell column in the STL Post-Dispatch

They ignored every calamity and made this wildly surprising season a lasting tribute to the strength of positive thinking.

So even on a night when the Cardinals' playoff chances took a brutal punch to the solar plexus with a brutally flat 12-0 drubbing at the hands of the NL wild card-leading Milwaukee Brewers, why should anyone be surprised that the leader of the overachieving Redbirds saw the disaster not quite like the rest of us?

"Flat? You think we were flat?" said a slightly belligerent manager Tony La Russa moments after the debacle. "Did you watch the first part of that game and you thought we were flat? ... We had good at-bats. ... I don't see any flatness there at all. ... No, that wasn't a flat game. ... That's actually insulting. ... No, we weren't flat. We just got outplayed."

Yet for all the manager's denials, his normally hard-working bunch of misfits, overachievers and All-Stars played their worst and most uninspired game of the season and they did it at the worst possible time. So despite La Russa's denials, the Cardinals have to know they are rapidly running out of time.

I'm guessing Braun or Hart....................

The way Braun has played against the Cardinals this year, from a strategic standpoint it's probably a good move to hit him every time he comes to the plate.

Is the Cardinals attendance down in any significant way this year? They're one of the teams I might expect to take a hit from heightened travel costs, along with most of the other mid-western teams.

Is the Cardinals attendance down in any significant way this year? They're one of the teams I might expect to take a hit from heightened travel costs, along with most of the other mid-western teams.

According to BB-Ref, they're averaging 42,339 fans per game this year, as opposed to 43,854 in 2007 and 42,324 in 2006.

Braun is hitting .491 versus the Cards with 7 home runs.

Braun it is.

Is the Cardinals attendance down in any significant way this year? They're one of the teams I might expect to take a hit from heightened travel costs, along with most of the other mid-western teams.

Really? Why just the Mid-West? The midwest has the nations lowest poverty rate and incomes have risen in the Midwest (and the South) according to the latest economic/census reports out this week. Incomes in the East declined, the West was flat.

Sure, increased prices for food and energy have cut into disposable income for everyone, certainly making it more difficult to spend money on entertainment, but I believe the Midwest, in general, tends to have slightly higher disposable incomes than other parts of the US.

Attendance for baseball is up, once again, over last year. I believe on pace for yet another record. Many analysts think long trips/vacations are being cut out, in favor of more local events/entertainment. Mabye..