yipee!!

I didn't make it home until the bottom of the third inning tonight, and still somehow completely exhausted my comfort beer supply. Every single out felt like a miracle.

But, I taught my 11 year old dog a new trick- he can now high-five with both front paws ;)

Bullpen was terrific again. Fun game to watch.

Bullpen was terrific again. Fun game to watch.

to be honest, the bullpen has been terrific all year....with one major exception, 1 run or tied game in the ninth.... outside of that situation(which yes I know that this game qualifies, which is why every cardinal fan was on the edge of their seat) the bullpen has actually been pretty impressive.

I do not know what the stats say, but as a Cardinal fan, a 1 run game in which the bullpen takes over in the fifth or so doesn't bother me, the pen only really scares me when it gets to the highest leverage situations because they seem to blow that frequently....

A 2012 pen of Motte, Salas, Lynn, and Sanchez with McClellan and a couple of disposable lefties rounding things up looks like it could be the best the Cardinals have had in a generation. Strange to be excited about the bullpen for a change.

Sigh, I'm so tired of seeing teams like the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers in the World Series all the time.

crew better get they asses in gear they wanna kick TLR ass. and nyjer best be gettin goin cuz he ain't no tony plush - more like tony crushed

Motte looked really badass tonight. I vaguely think of him as "untrustworthy" but he just blew everyone away.

Motte looked really badass tonight. I vaguely think of him as "untrustworthy" but he just blew everyone away.

Best quote of the day on Motte, from the Red baron, at VEB:

Watching Jason Motte pitch is a little like playing through Bioshock on Easy; you keep waiting for the moment when, "You know what? I'm just gonna walk over there and smack 'em with a wrench," stops being a viable strategy, and that moment just keeps on not arriving.

Really is hard to believe- his motion must be incredibly deceptive, because even 98 mph, straight on, isn't effective against MLB hitters. But he seems to just keep knocking them down, with his ridiculously straight, 98 mph wrench. (Though he did manage to get a called strike on a slurvy thingy tonight, to Weeks).

Gallardo is now 1-8 with a 5.78 earned run average for his career against the Cardinals. Along with the shoddy defense Yovani didn't help matters by constantly working around the plate. He does that for those not aware. Nibble, nibble, nibble. He was among the league leaders in 3-2 counts. Previously folks thought it was because of being with a mediocre team and blah defense. But it didn't change this year and the defense cannot be all to blame. Gallardo has very good stuff. Why he refuses to throw strikes is weird. And expecting a team like St. Louis to chase is dumb.

Corey Hart needs to show up pretty quickly. He killed the Cards during the season.

Tony has hit and run several times this series. Between that and the Cards looking to take the extra base its pretty clear TLR is working to push the Brewer defense.

What has folks confused about Milwaukee is what propelled them to the division in July/August was the pitching. The starters in particular were tremendous. The offense, thanks to Casey hitting 5th and Yuni being Yuni, was pedestrian.

If the starters do not start contributing the series may well not return to Milwaukee. And even then it requires Ron to pass over Marcum for Game 6 and then expect Gallardo and his poor history against St. Louis to turn around. I really wonder if RR has the gumption to tell a key contributor to sit down so a Chris Narveson or Marco Estrada can take the mound.

i for one am glad harveys is tapping from the basement of his barn or whatever and not in the brewers dugout.

phred

Well, I supported Ron's choice of centerfielders last night and that could have worked out better.

Sigh

to be honest, the bullpen has been terrific all year....with one major exception, 1 run or tied game in the ninth.... outside of that situation(which yes I know that this game qualifies, which is why every cardinal fan was on the edge of their seat) the bullpen has actually been pretty impressive.

While prone to spectacular blowups (see the game against the Mets) the bullpen has been great since they got rid of the guys who, you know, sucked. THe Franklins, Batistas, Tallets and Millers.

A 2012 pen of Motte, Salas, Lynn, and Sanchez with McClellan and a couple of disposable lefties rounding things up looks like it could be the best the Cardinals have had in a generation. Strange to be excited about the bullpen for a change.

I'd put Boggs in before McClellan. Also Scrabble is going to be one of the lefties. But I agree, thats a lot of talent, for next to no money.

:-(

Manny Parra did the same thing as Gallardo, always nibbling. On the rare occasion when he could be persuaded to throw strikes, he could be totally dominating. But that was rare indeed. Someone in Brewers training is afraid of the strike zone, and that someone needs to be identified and sent to the Cardinals.

This sucks. Of course, we already conceded tonight's game by trotting out Wolf, so I think management has just given up entirely.

Chris Carpenter is now up to 254 innings in his age-36 season, and it's starting to show.

Polish

Pitching Wolf is not a sign of surrender. Ron just doesn't have that many options.

Bring back Mr. Fussypants on short rest? That didn't work so well last time and one could suggest there have been lingering effects on his performance since that time.

Nah, the starters just seem to have run out of gas. Which is pretty amazing given that nobody can point to excessive use. Ron handled the staff quite well once he got past his Loe fetish.

Chris Carpenter is now up to 254 innings in his age-36 season, and it's starting to show.

Who knew his limit was 249 innings? He was pretty great in the 240s.

And who knows with Lohse tonight. He's been good lately, but his starts are all over the map.

The Brewers manager is getting killed on BrewCrewBall which is unsurprising.

The one counter I do grant is that Kotsay could have played for Hart with Gomez in centerfield.

But Hart has hit the Cards hard this season and NOBODY could have predicted that CC would struggle. Ron was thinking the offensive gain of Kotsay would offset any defensive issues.