so the next time you feel like the gob are conspiring against us, or the umpires, or whomever, think of this game.
somehow, the cardinals won a game in which the difference-making hit was a 3-run double hit by jake westbrook, famous for being a starting pitcher mostly in the american league, where batting is not the forte of pitchers. westbrook allowed a run on a bases-loaded hbp (following a theriot error, naturally). somehow, we got out of numerous bases-loaded situations, included an eighth inning in which sanchez and salas combined to walk the first three batters without recording an out.
there were some cardinals highlights - a 2-run homer by berkman, a solo homer by pujols. but it's hard to escape a sense that we would have lost that game against almost any other opponent and without a healthy dose of luck.
still, an ugly win counts as a win in the standings. speaking of which, we are now 12 games over .500, and 2.5 games ahead of milwaukee.