Well, today it's Looper v. Bannister as the Cards try to take the series from the Royals.  As I've noted several times, the Cards have been very good in terms of winning series in which they've lost the first game.  It's flukish, but it's something.

Also, here is where I'm going to say something derogatory about Braden Looper.  4 weeks ago to the day, I was pretty hard on Looper , going on and on about how horribly he was pitching. Now, for the entire month of June, he's 3-1 w/ a 2.67 ERA and a .638 OPS against. He's still not striking anyone out (15 in 33 IP) but the big difference is that he's only walked 4 batters this month. (knock, knock, knock on wood). I'm counting on the fact that my harsh, yet honest, words about him (as much as the reduction in his BB rate) did the trick.

So here goes -- Braden's not very good. His K/9 is too low and he's overpaid. Oh yeah, and he's been helped out by the Cards scoring 31 runs in his 5 starts this month. What else? He's hit 3 batters in his 5 June starts! Intolerable. And his OPS at the plate in June is a measly .819 (Damn! Can he play 2nd base? ... but I digress.) He's terrible. Now let's go get some runs and another quality start from Looper.

looper	bannister
9-5, 4.22	7-6, 4.47