marquis oswalt
6-4, 5.12 5-3, 3.36
rumor has it that the rockies, phillies, and rangers have sent scouts to watch mulder's last two starts. if that's true, they couldn't have liked what they saw yesterday. mark looked sickly -- no life on any of his pitches. the curve that has been so sharp most of this year reverted to its limp and useless 2005 form, leaving mulder with no viable off-speed alternative to his assortment of fastballs and cutters -- which, to make matters worse, he was unable to pinpoint yesterday. he labored through 120 pitches in his last outing, his highest pitch count in two years and 14 pitches higher than his 2d-pitchiest outing of 2006; that probably is less pertinent than the gastro distress that hit mulder earlier in the week, but you never know. in any case, i'm the last guy who is going to offer excuses for an outing like that; it leaves the cards with a 4.29 era for the month (11th in the league) and just two quality starts in their last 10 games.
a fine time for carpenter to be disabled, but it's the right thing to do; no choice, really. anth'y reyes will make his first-ever start in st louis tomorrow and only his 2d appearance before the home folk; he tossed an inning of relief in last year's reg-season finale.
the latest explanation for jim edmonds' painful gut: swollen lymph nodes. he'll be examined again. meanwhile, jimmy's metamorphosis into a contact hitter continues; he has just 2 extra-base hits in the month of may and is slugging .329, his worst month in that regard since he joined the cardinals. in his last five months of reg'r-season baseball, going back to july 2005, edmonds has posted only 1 month of .500+ slugging.
repent ye sinners; the end may be near. . . . .