suppan duke
9-6, 4.85 7-10, 5.35
you can see mulder's start tonight on milb.tv; link through the memphis redbirds' web site. cost you 4 bucks. those of you who're attending the game, post a diary afterward; let us know what you see.
as if you needed another reminder of how important mulder is to the cards' hopes, consider this one: the only nl team that's clearly better than st louis, the new york mets, have a lineup that skews badly left. as a team they're slugging 40 points higher vs right-handed pitchers than v lefties; southpaws neutralize carlos delgado (whose career slugging avg is 150 points higher vs right-handers) and leave the mets with only 2 real power threats, david wright and the switch-hitting carlos beltran. it's worth noting that mulder stymied the mets back in may in his best game of 2006; his last good game, really. the cards' odds of advancing past the mets would seem to improve with a healthy and effective left-handed starter.
in that same vein, i note that randy wolf continues his comeback at philadelphia; pitched again day before yesterday and had his best outing to date, yielding 2 earned in 5.1 innings. as noted a little while ago, he might be somebody the cardinals can grab in a post-waiver deal. and the way flores and johnson have been struggling, the cardinals must still be weighing options re a post-waiver trade for a LOOGY; the pirates' damaso marte has thrown 4 innings vs the mets this year: no runs, 2 hits, no walks. . . .
final thought re st louis left-handers, from kevin goldstein's scouting notebook at baseball prospectus: