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15-7, 3.85 |
12-10, 4.70 |
pj walters pitched well but got taken deep twice by nick hundley as the springfield cardinals lost 3-2 in game 3 of the texas league playoffs. the cardinals trail 2 games to 1 in the series and need to win the last 2 games to claim the championship. game 4 is tonight; adam daniels pitches.
regarding our own birds, i'll repeat what i said last time wainwright lost a game like this:
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. . .
given all the criticism jocketty has taken for trading away danny haren, he needs to start getting praised for picking up wainwright. the deal that brought adam over in december 2003 was not popular at the time; walt gave up a couple of good, established hitters (jd drew and eli marrero) for a young pitcher who'd failed under leo mazzone (marquis), a double A prospect (wainwright), and a LOOGY (ray king). a lot of cardinal fans thought walter had lost his mind. but in addition to bringing three good arms into the organization, that deal cleared a couple big salaries off the books, freeing up the payroll space to sign jeff suppan and reggie sanders a few days later. so the trade was essentially drew and marrero for marquis, wainwright, king, suppan, and sanders --- a masterstroke. the two pennants and world title that ensued would never have happened without that deal. and wainwright was the key to it; if schuerholz hadn't included adam in the package, walt wouldn't have made the trade.
hgh-disclosure fallout: since the news broke ankiel is 2 for 28 with 0 walks and 9 strikeouts.