 |
 |
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3-2, 5.01 |
3-4, 3.61 |
quick n dirty saturday post from the mountains; lousy connectivity up here. if you're still holding out hope for the 2007 playoffs, that's a tough loss last night --- another opportunity the cardinals couldn't afford to miss. if you're like me, it doesn't sting so much. i've marked that one down as a positive learning experience for a key player --- wainwright matched 0s with one of the best pitchers in the league over the last two years and went full 9 innings for the first time in his big-league career. i'm looking at it in hindsight, but the decision to leave wainwright in seems defensible to me; he'd worked an efficient 8th (only 13 pitches) and per gameday hadn't lost any velocity; from the 6th through the 8th he only faced one man over the minimum. if nothing else, now he knows he can go 9 full innings --- next time he's in that position (hopefully on a better cardinal team, in a more important game), he'll have some experience to draw upon. that alone was probably reason to leave him in there.
Future Redbirds has a Q+A with pj walters up today. walters pitched last night and lost to san antonio. shortstop jose martinez homered in that game and went 4 for 5; he's now up to .283 / .316 / .478 as a 21-year-old shortstop in double A. starting to look like a prospect . . . .