Biggest Win of the Year

St. Louis beat Milwaukee 5-3 last night in what has to have been the game of the year for the Cards so far. Beginning the week 3 1/2 games out of the NL Wild Card spot, I figured that the Cards need to make up a game each week in order to be in good position to pull off a playoff berth. Tuesday night, however, the team may have hit a low point in the season. The results were bad enough, dropping them to 4 1/2 back in the Wild Card and 9 1/2 in the division, but it felt like they let up and completely failed to "play a hard nine" as is Tony La Russa's mantra after Todd Wellemeyer gave up his 4th and 5th runs of the night. 7 runs later, the Cards were on the end of a horrendous blowout.

Moving ahead to last night, the Cardinals still had not scored against the Brewers in the series going into the 6th inning, and were carrying an unprecidented 7-game losing streak to the Brew Crew. Ryan Ludwick, the anonymous baseball hero, hit a solo HR to finally the Cards on the board in the 6th, but it still felt like doom and gloom as there was still a 3-1 score heading into the 7th inning stretch. The Cards managed to load the bases with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, and after chasing starter Manny Parra, Carlos Villanueva struck out Joe Mather to end the inning. Cue the fist-pumping, the taunting, and the awakening of the Pujols...

Whoops. That's not a good idea, sir.

The Cards led off their half of the 8th with three consecutive doubles, and it felt like the team had just entered Stretch Run Mode. After it was all said and done, and after "Young Pitcher" Chris Perez had struck out the side in the 9th, the Cards were back to where they started on Sunday. Hopefully they can still gain the game I feel they need to make up this week to keep themselves well in contention. The Mets and Phillies are breathing down their necks now, so it's going to be a tough go no matter what ends up happening.

Next up is the hated Astros this weekend in the steamy athletic club known as Minute Maid Park. Hopefully they'll do something equally moronic to make Pujols mad, too.