god bless derrick turnbow; i was worried they were only gonna win by 3 runs and end the blowout-win streak i mentioned at the bottom of this morning's thread. st louis has now won 5 in a row by 5 runs or more --- i'm assuming that's a franchise first unless somebody proves me wrong.
oh yeah --- 11 straight starts lasting 6 or more innings; 9 consecutive quality starts. that streak has propelled the cardinals to 11th in the league in earned-run average --- as recently as 10 days ago they were dead last. it's a tightly bunched field; they're nearly as close to 16th place (20 points) as they are to 10th place (14 points).
unless the dodgers have an explosive night vs the astros, st louis will end today's play ranked 10th in the nl in scoring --- which ain't all that bad, when you consider that 3 weeks ago they ranked 14th.
Update [2007-8-16 18:53:22 by lboros]: just read something interesting over at Baseball Think Factory, some insight purporting to explain the collapse of the brewer pitching staff; see comment #17 in this discussion:
--four out of five starters who regularly tank around the 6th inning
--strain mounts on bulllpen repeatedly having to finish games
--one starter who goes deep in games goes out with injury
--play 18 games in 17 days
--bullpen collapses
--forces manager to try and stretch out starters
--starters collapse completely
I could continue. But I think folks catch my drift. By the way, I have read in several places that Brewer fans shouldn't overreact as this is a "small sample size". I found that puzzling because when an entire STAFF pitches poorly for over a MONTH doesn’t that matter? Isn’t five weeks or so of a baseball season significant?