Last night was bitter sweet for me. Losing hurt much more than the joy that my fantasy team got but I have Troy Tulo and Todd Helton (along with a redbird heavy Ankiel, Glaus, Duncan and Wainwright).

Anyway last night was a great game none the less, I love pitchers duels even if it is Kip .... Wells throwing a near perfect game for the most part. Yadi's homer barely cleared but anytime Yadi starts the season with 1/6 of his Homers from the previous year it can't be bad can it? Albert looked silly in his last AB against Fuentes though.

As for the "closer in waiting" if Franklin continues to turn into a pumpkin as some have predicted than I would guess Springer or K Mac would have to step in to that role. Reyes surely won't. K Mac would only be trust to the extent that Wainwright was though. But now, lets talk about healthy rotation and what it would do for the Pen if Izzy went down. Imagine if we can remove Looper from the rotation (even for Reyes) and use him in the closer role? That might also be an option.

I know it's early but McClellan looks like he has "closer stuff" - hard thrower with a nasty slider to go along with it. He'd be my early vote for fill in closer.

Hopefully Izzy gives us another successful and healthy year and we don't cross this bridge but if we do, maybe Perez will be ready by then.

off the new year and the Birds still lose. What, wasn't it like July or something when he got his first hit last year?

is not that he was extended two years, but that LaRussa and Duncan continue to insist that he should be the #2 option out of the pen. He was tremendously lucky last year and can't possibly be that lucky again this year. Ok, I guess it's possible but unlikely. Of the current inhabitants, Springer would make the best setup man b/c he has the ability to miss bats; Franklin really doesn't. As long as LaRussa and Duncan insist on putting Franklin in the highest leverage situations instead of using Springer, the bullpen's probably going to have problems.

My whole family notice that Izzy's arms and legs looked smaller and his middle looked a little paunchy. Other opinions?

I was at the game last night and wondered why Tony pulled Lohse from the game after 5 innings... I think he was only around 70 or 75 pitches. Why not ride him for another inning or so?

Didn't think he needed to be on a pitch count since he had been throwing to hitters in California.

Bitter cold game last night. And it continued to get colder every inning that Kip Wells threw another egg up on the scoreboard.

ball must have been slipping out of his hand all night because his throws were consistently bad. The bouncer across the diamond to Pujols, the 'floaters' he threw over on grounders, and then the coup de grâce, the less than routine dribbler he threw across Molina's body towards the shiny new backstop we have.

I hope he hits lots and lots of homeruns this year so I can forget about his awful defense. Last night, if Scott Rolen was on this team, we win 1-0. But alas, that matters not.

I had a couple random thoughts. Watched most of the game from bed so didn't comment. (When my three in diapers go to bed, I'm often not far behind).

Wasn't Barton's smile cool? The commentators worried someone would take his fist pump as celebration, but I thought it was so obviously elation I didn't think anyone would be miffed.

I was glad to see Duncan have a good night at the plate. After having a rough spring, it was nice to see. He still made me a bit nervous in the field, though!

I was pretty impressed with McClellan. The ovation he got on finishing the inning made me proud of the fans in the stands.

Boooo Curse of the 2007 Revenge Match!

Albert seemed to be pressing again. 2 pop-ups, a strikeout on a hit and run...ick. I hope Glaus and Ankiel start hot...maybe he'll relax.

the reason?

When asked about pushing up Wainwright's next start, La Russa said, "Why disrupt everybody?"

Um, maybe because everyone else sucks? Wainer probably could have been available to pitch tomorrow, thus allowing us to get him into 1 more start this early season. However, we are really going to stick with Wellemeyer, Thompson and Looper over this 3 game stretch.

Starting the season 0-4 is really harshing my buzz.

I thought Lohse pitched very well. The walks didn't hurt him and he was in control all five innings. A different umpire gives him that outside corner to RH batters and he has 2 or 3 more strikeouts. That is a tough lineup he fafaced

Granted, it's one game. Not a big deal. But I hope it's not an indication of things to come.

Leading off the eighth and the ninth, we're down by one run and both Schumaker (in the eighth) and Ankiel (in the ninth) swing at the first pitch.

I understand both Fuentes and Corpas are good relievers who aren't going to walk a lot of guys, but when you're down by a run late in the game you need people on base. Why the hell are you swinging at the first pitch?

Schumaker had Duncan and Pujols coming up behind him. One swing from either of those two with him on base could give us the lead. Granted, Ankiel had a weaker duo behind him (Glaus and Molina), but it's still no excuse for swinging at the first pitch close and late.

Like I said, one game....not do or die. But I hope somebody in the dugout talked to them after those at bats and at least asked them what they were thinking.