St. Louis Cardinals 8, Arizona Diamondbacks 13: Bullpen Blown Up, Figuratively-Figuratively, Literally-Figuratively

It seems like a waste to talk about the bullpen as news breaks that Bryan Augenstein is DL bound, with Brian Tallet maybe-but-who-knows following him there, but we might as well start with it: Bryan Augenstein doesn't make sense in this bullpen. I still like him as a possible long reliever, but the bullpen move has done nothing for his sub-90 fastball and he doesn't have a breaking ball that seems like a likely strikeout pitch; meanwhile Miguel Batista's presence on the roster means throwing Augenstein, out of position, into some high-leverage situations. Leading, in part, to the score you see above: Cardinals 13, Rams 8. 

Fernando Salas, among others, makes considerably more sense, and that's who I'd hope we'll see when Augenstein hits the disabled list. If Tallet joins him—well, I don't know where the Cardinals would go from there. None of the Memphis lefties is without his own problems; for that matter, none of them is on the 40-man roster.

Tyler Norrick, the home-grown option and a sixth-rounder in 2006, strikes out a batter an inning and walks a batter an inning, which makes him, if nothing else, the most exciting of all possible options. Rich Rundles is a former Montreal Expos prospect who put together an especially boring, solid year at Memphis in 2010. Raul Valdes seemed like an MLB front-runner before Brian Tallet came on board; he's the Cuban defector who bounced around unaffiliated ball for a few years between his 2005 defection with the Cubs and his decent rookie season with the Mets.

If the Cardinals must go lefty for 15 days while Tallet recuperates, he's the most likely option. But there are plenty of potentially interesting relievers on the 40-man roster—Eduardo Sanchez, Adam Reifer, Blake King—as well as the La-Russiest option of all, which is to call up somebody like P.J. Walters in case the Cardinals find themselves without a long reliever for the next 13-8 game. 

As for the game itself... for me we're still at the part of the season where it was heartening to see a deficit and believe, honestly, that the Cardinals might overcome it. Lance Berkman looks great at the plate and like nothing at all in the outfield, which is a plus. And hey—Albert Pujols hit some line drives and brought his batting average up to .200. If you were wondering, it took him until April 21 to bring his average above .200 for good in 2007, though he hit the mark twice, briefly, before then. 

Post-jump community message: Happy birthday to mysterui. I hope we'll take this opportunity to spend 500 comments discussing the merits of "Birthday", by the Beatles.