Now that’s what I call a winning streak!

Two in a row counts as a streak, right?

I guess the team was tired of my recent whining about how they aren’t hitting and busted out in a big way Sunday against the Astros.

Slow-starting Scott Rolen, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols, who started this season worse than any of his previous six, each had a couple of big hits to plate some runs.

And poor Brad Lidge. Dude thought he got Albert to hit into an inning-ending double play in the ninth, only to have Mark Loretta kick an easy grounder to load the bases for Rolen, who became the latest hitter to flush a few more crumbs of his disintegrating psyche down the crapper by stroking a bases-clearing double.

Lidge’s truly is a sickness that is contagious; this is Loretta’s first year on the team, and he also seems to be fearful of The Great Pujols. Perhaps Loretta was spooked by Albert’s ownership of Easter.

Speaking of daddy issues, Monday saw the Cardinals open a set in Pittsburgh, where the team has enjoyed some success, batting a collective .294/.361/.473 in PNC Park since it opened in 2001. Pujols and Rolen probably had this series circled on the clubhouse calendar, as both have destroyed Pirates pitching in PNC Park.

Pujols especially had to be salivating to get to face Ian Snell again. You might recall that the last time El Hombre and Snell squared off, Pujols took Snell deep three times.

While we didn’t see a repeat of that scenario Monday, Pujols did get two more hits off of Snell, including a double to lead off the fourth inning. Rolen, who’s walked three times in four career plate appearances against Snell, then doubled to score Pujols. Even the barely useful Preston Wilson got in on the fun, cracking a pinch-hit double in the eighth to plate two insurance runs.

Nearly lost in all the glee of jacking the ball the past two days were the performances of starting pitchers Kip Wells and Braden Looper.

In seven innings Sunday, Wells walked only one and struck out seven, all swinging. While that says something about the quality of his stuff so far, LBoros urges caution:

the nice thing about wells is that his stuff is so good he can get away with mistakes; the bad thing is that he makes a lot of mistakes. all game long he was missing molina’s target, at times by a mile — yadi would set up inside, and the pitch would be a foot off the outside edge; he’d be low in his crouch and tapping the ground with his glove, and the pitch would sail in nipple-high.

Looper, meanwhile, also went seven innings, striking out only three but allowing only five baserunners and inducing two key double plays during his outing Monday.

Perhaps more importantly, those 14 innings limited the exposure of the bullpen, which is certain to be tested Tuesday as Randy Keisler will start in place of Chris Carpenter, who’s been placed on the disabled list with elbow issues.

Maine source

In the biggest game of his life, Mets starter John Maine delivered.

After a shaky first inning in which he allowed two hits and hit a batter to load the bases, Maine did to the Cardinals what Chuck D does to corny MCs: He shut ‘em down. Typing this in the bottom of the eighth, you have to figure that he’d be the player of the game. (update 10:16 p.m.: Yup.)

At least the Cardinals made it interesting in the ninth. So Taguchi, you rascal, you.

Other pointed observations:

• Maine’s Cardinals counterpart, Chris Carpenter, had a good outing, at least statistically speaking: Two runs on seven hits in six innings pitched with four strikeouts on only 76 pitches. But watching him pitch, he didn’t look like he was comfortable on the mound. He also didn’t seem to have brought his Uncle Charlie with him. Perhaps it was part of the game plan, but during the first two innings, Carpenter threw what seemed like 95 percent fastballs. After getting Carlos Delgado to fly out in the first inning on his first curveball (his 11th pitch), he threw it only sporadically until the sixth, when it seemed he had gotten the handle on it. By then, it was too late.
• The bottom of the seventh turned out to be the defining inning. After Michael Tucker singled with two outs, it seemed fairly obvious that he was going to attempt a steal. A pitchout was called, but Yadier Molina airmailed the throw. David Eckstein’s diving play to keep Jose Reyes’ single in the infield temporarily saved a run, but inexplicably (at least to me), no one covered when Reyes took off for second. Why would you let another potential insurance runner get into scoring position like that?
• Speaking of Molina airmailing throws, Reyes’ first stolen base attempt provided a bit of levity in the third inning. Molina’s throw was high and got by Belliard, who ended up falling on top of Reyes. Replays showed that Belliard purposely landed on Reyes to keep him from advancing to third. No one in the Fox booth mentioned it, but it was as obvious as it was comical.
• Albert Pujols fell into his old habit of chasing offspeed stuff low and away, striking out on such a pitch in the fifth. He did manage a single on another such a pitch in the eighth. The first couple seasons of his career, offspeed stuff low and away was the lone hole in his swing, one that he eventually learned to close. But when he’s swinging at that stuff now, you know he’s pressing.
• Scott Rolen may be on a game-to-game basis when it comes to starting. After leaving the bases loaded in the first and grounding into a double play to end the sixth, his double in the ninth may have bought him one more start. He looks helpless when swinging at anything above the knees. I’d hate to see him become a really expensive defensive replacement.
• Willie Randolph opting to use Guillermo Mota instead of Pedro Feliciano to face a pinch-hitting Chris Duncan in the seventh seemed to be a TLR-esque calculated risk. After Duncan was the top of the order in Eckstein, Scott Spiezio (who sports a .251/.363/.555 line vs. RHP) and Pujols. Had Duncan gotten on, Mota still would have had more or less favorable matchups, which were rendered moot when Duncan grounded into a double play.

And finally, it seemed like the fans at Shea Stadium came correct, in full effect with all their hoes in check. On virtually every two-strike count, no matter how many outs, no matter the inning, they were on their feet screaming.

That said, there also was a very vocal and very stupid contingent of fans in attendance. The first six batters that came to the plate in the bottom of the first were met with mad boos. I can understand booing Pujols, and Eckstein might be marginally booable, too, but why Juan Encarnacion and Rolen too? Those guys have done jack squat this series. It seemed like a subset of fans felt the need to uphold the stereotype of jerkweed New York sports fans. In one of the few non-game camera shots that didn’t show Jose Reyes in the dugout, I caught a glimpse of one fan’s T-shirt, which read: “Cardinals fans take it in the Pujols.” Gee, I’d never heard that one before… you come up with that on your own, chief?

Whatever. All that matters is that we didn’t close out the NLCS early. Thursday we face Darren Oliver Perez. Let’s go get ‘em, boys.

What you didn’t see

With all the ink spilled recently about Albert Pujols’ NLCS surliness, it made me wonder how he would deal with facing Tom Glavine again. Fortunately, we at The 26th Man were privy to what Fox cameras didn’t show after each at-bat Tuesday:

1ST INNING
Action: Pujols, first-pitch swinging, flies out to center.
Reaction: Ridicules elderly fan’s stick-on Spiezio beard.

4TH INNING
Action: Pujols drills a home run to left.
Reaction: Apologizes to fan, gives Yadier Molina a noogie.

5TH INNING
Action: Pujols intentionally walked.
Reaction: Sends Glavine an apology ball, which reads: “Sorry I spoiled your extra day of rest. Go fuck yourself. –Albert Pujols”

7TH INNING
Action: Pujols grounds out to second.
Reaction: Calls Barry Weinberg over to look at his hamstring, then gives him the stinkface.

9TH INNING
Action: Pujols records second out on Cliff Floyd’s grounder.
Reaction: Tells Adam Wainwright, “Achilles’ heel? More like ‘I kill his heel.’”

Aloha, Mr. Hand

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Wow.

We really are just one win away from the World Series, thanks to yet another stellar outing from Jeff Weaver. He didn’t dominate, but he got the outs when he needed them. I can’t seem to stop gushing about that guy.

Albert Pujols perhaps extinguished one story line by homering off of Tom Glavine, who I’m sure was more than a little chagrined to have had to intentionally walk him before he was relieved, but perhaps ignited another.

In the top of the ninth with Cliff Floyd batting, Floyd bounced one to Pujols, who in his normal hard-headed “Fuck you, Jobu, I do it myself” routine, ran to the bag to make the out himself instead of flipping it to Adam Wainwright, who was over to cover. But on VEB’s Game 5 overflow thread, commenters Hardcore Legend and EBroglio suggested that maybe Pujols took it himself to make Floyd run hard to the bag knowing Floyd had a bad Achilles tendon.

I wouldn’t put it past the muckraking New York beat writers to suggest such a notion; if so, there will be a shitstorm of epic proportions in the fishwraps and on the blogs this morning.

Again, wow. This whole up-3-games-to-2-in-the-NLCS thing is weird and scary to me. I still can’t believe So Taguchi hit a home run the other day. I’m at a loss for words. Interesting ones, anyway.

Chris Young award

(Kyle Ericson/AP)

Saturday’s game wasn’t as close as the score indicated. It could have (and probably should have) been much worse: the Padres left an astounding 27 men on base (14 if you only count those left with two out).

Chris Young was outstanding for the Padres, getting rally-stifling strikeouts in the first and sixth innings, the latter of Albert Pujols with two runners on, and an inning-ending double play in the fifth. Young wasn’t at his best today, missing high with several pitches. But the Cardinals batters obliged him by swinging through those pitches for strikes. In fact, all but one of his nine strikeouts were of the swinging variety. Other things I think:

Chris Duncan: He might just have played his way into a pinch-hitting role for the duration. Duncan made Manny Ramirez look like a Gold Glover with his defensive performance Saturday: he took bad routes on some flyballs and hesitated/froze on some liners. He’s lucky his mistakes didn’t directly lead to runs.

Albert Pujols: Two strikeouts and then a critical double-play groundout in the eighth. He still gets a pass. He is Albert Pujols.

Scott Rolen: I hate to say it, but maybe it’s time he gets benched. The defense is still there, but he’s an albatross on offense, batting .091 in three NLDS games.

Jeff Suppan: He obviously wasn’t at his best Saturday, but he did pitch his way out of a couple of jams. That last one, however, proved to be his and the team’s undoing.

It’s a miracle

(Tom Gannam/AP)

A miracle that we won, yes, but perhaps even more of a miracle that I still care.

I didn’t get to watch the game from the beginning, but after dinner, picking up the basement, getting the kids bathed, making tomorrow’s lunches, making the night’s snack, reading the bedtime stories, getting the kids to bed, walking the dog and getting myself showered, I was ready to watch some ball… in the bottom of the seventh inning.

I figured I had the perfect plan to break the schneid: Schlafly Oatmeal Stouts in a Cardinals pint glass. All kinds of St. Louis mojo.

The bottom of the seventh had some drama, with Scott Spiezio’s walk and eventual stolen base. And I’ll be damned if Al Hrabosky didn’t call Ronnie Belliard’s strikeout to end the inning. With the count full and Yadier Molina on deck, Hrabosky postulated that Padres pitcher would throw a change or some sort of offspeed pitch. Young could afford to risk a walk with the completely non-dangerous Molina on deck. Sure enough, Young pulled the string and Belliard whiffed.

Not that I wasn’t quietly but intensely cheering (wife and kids all sawing logs at this point) for something good to happen. Once Tha Gangsta of Glove whiffed, I muttered “Damn!” under my breath, then realized that I was actually investing myself in the outcome of the game. I’m sure glad I still care.

But that top of the eighth nearly killed all the positive energy. Seeing a run score on a wild pitch with two hard-fought outs was almost too much, but Tyler Johnson’s heads-up play to tag a sneaking Adrian Gonzalez limited the damage.

On the commercial break, I refilled my pint glass and the team’s mojo at the same time. It was a lucky confluence of events, but eventually Albert Pujols got to the plate, and well, he went Albert Pujols on Cla Meredith’s second pitch. My eyes were fixed intently on the television, but I swear I did not see the ball hit the bat. That’s how hard he hit the ball.

And how about Adam Wainwright? Dude’s Uncle Charlie was on to the fullest, although he admitted in the postgame interviews that he got away with a couple of hammers up in the zone. And to be fair, the plate umpire gave him the high strike more than once. But he got the job done, with an air of confidence that he belonged there in the tightest of tight spots in the ninth.

Finally, that magic number graphic at the official site can be changed.

I’m a bad person

I’m bad (sham on) because it gives me great pleasure to see Albert Pujols stomp on what remained of Brad Lidge’s fragile psyche. And career.

You knew something good was going to happen when Lidge hit Scott Spiezio with his first pitch. It’s as if he saw the Big Righthander settle into the on-deck circle and then evacuated the contents of his intestines. Perhaps we can call this Pujols-induced psychosis “Albertophrenia.”

It reminds me of that episode of “The Simpsons” when Moe stole the recipe of a tasty alcoholic beverage (using Krusty-brand Non-Narkotik Kough Syrup) that Homer invented and renamed it The Flaming Moe:

Homer: [mumbling] Moe… Moe… Moe…
Marge: Bart, are you going to mow the lawn today?
Bart: Okay, but you promised me mo’ money.
Marge: I mo, I mo.
Homer: [mumbling] Moe… Moe… Moe…
Lisa: When Bart’s done, can we mo to the moe-vies? There’s a moe-tinee.
Marge: Of course! All work and mo play makes Moe a moe moe.
Bart: Moe moe moe moe moe?
Marge: Moe moe moe.
Lisa: Moe moe-moe-moe-moe moe.
Bart: Moe-moe-moe moe.
Maggie: [removes her pacifier] Moe.

I picture Lidge curled in the fetal position in front of his locker, sobbing hysterically and screaming, “Make the bad man stop!”

If it wasn’t for bad luck…

…Albert Pujols would have no luck at all.

In a diary on Viva El Birdos, commenter Hummingbird takes a look at El Hombre’s batting average on balls in play, or BABIP, which measures a hitters average when they put the ball in play. (For a quick and dirty primer on BABIP go here) A higher-than-average BABIP suggests that a hitter is getting lucky, and vice-versa.

If I am to understand correctly, Albert’s career BABIP is .324. (The average National League BABIP last year was .295). Hummingbird’s research shows that this year, Al’s BABIP stands at .276 after Sunday’s game, suggesting he’s actually been unlucky with the lumber this season. Hard to believe, I know

But the following two sentences blew my mind:

I was wondering what his numbers would be like if his BABIP were more in line with his 2001-2005 average, so I gave him 17 more singles to raise his BABIP to .323. With those 17 extra singles – singles, mind you – added to his numbers, Albert’s line would be a frightening .360/.456/.720, which is top-30 all-time territory. Yikes.

Yikes, indeed. I shudder to think what kind of ball-crushing damage a suddenly lucky (in terms of BABIP) Albert Pujols could do.

“Ian Snell is a good pitcher…

… for me to poop on!”

A wise man once said:

“you can beat the cardinals this year, but you still can’t beat pujols.”

Damn straight, dawg.

Albert Pujols beat the Pirates on Sunday all by his lonesome, hitting three home runs off Pirates starter Ian Snell in his first three at-bats, driving in five runs in the process.

But not to be outdone, the Phillies’ Ryan Howard, a native St. Louisan, also went deep in his first three at-bats. The Associated Press game story taught us that Pujols was one of the two players (Travis Hafner, the object of Rob Neyer’s mancrush, being the other) the last time two players hit three homers in a game (July 20, 2004, if you’re scoring at home).

For the last time that two players each had gone deep in their first three at-bats, you’d have to go all the way back to July 26, 1970, your protagonists this time being Johnny Bench and Orlando Cepeda. Awesome.

But not to be forgotten among the ball-destroying mayhem is young Anthony Reyes, who seemingly picked up where he left off last week in the Pacific Coast League.

The Reyes boy showed exactly why he prefers going fastball-changeup to hitters, whiffing nine Pirates in 6.1 innings. I caught his first four innings before I had to step away, and I don’t think I saw him throw one breaking ball in that time. He was either blowing his cheese past hitters or fooling them with that parachute change. In fact, according to Yahoo’s play-by-play log, all nine strikeouts were of the swinging variety. Kid was straight up missing bats.

He even threw a bone to Dave Duncan by inducing six groundball outs.

Sunday makes four straight dominant outings by Cardinals starters. Dare I say that, after all the ugly efforts earlier this summer, this is pretty nice. Let’s hope Jason Marquis can keep that streak going Monday.

Anatomy of a dinger

The Cardinals blogosphere certainly is atwitter about our man Sno Cones’ recent walk-off heroics.

But Gary Bennett’s grand slam didn’t happen in a vacuum. He had mad help from his teammates as well as his opponents Sunday. Check it:

Albert Pujols led off the ninth with a single. When imposing his will to win, he needn’t be directly involved to make an impact. I think all of us knew he was going to steal, and off he was against Bob Howry (although it looked as if his first couple steps were in mud).

Scott Rolen then bounced one up the middle. Ronny Cedeno fielded it just to the left of second base. Could he have stepped on second to get the gaffle-minded Pujols? Maybe, but he didn’t. Cubs mistake No. 1.

Juan Encarnacion then grounded to third. Aramis Ramirez scooped it up and seemed to freeze for a split-second before he threw to first. That hesitation allowed a hustling Instant Breakfast to beat the throw. Cubs mistake No. 2. And Pujols advanced to third after seeing no one covering the bag. Cubs mistake No. 3.

Ronnie Belliard, the Gangsta of Glove, finessed a walk to load the bases.

Aaron Miles then tapped a grounder to third. Ramirez forced Pujols at home, but Miles, because he’s Aaron Miles, was digging the whole way and beat Michael “Back Alley” Barrett’s throw.

Finally, Bennett unloaded on Cubs mistake No. 4:

(thanks to VEB commenter Hardcore Legend for the screen capture)