Maybe this is beating yesterday's dead horse, but I wanted to examine further Mike Quade's inexplicable decision to pitch to Albert Pujols again. Here's what Quade said after the game:
"We talked about being real careful. I won’t talk about being careful anymore," Quade said. "I’m not in the habit of walking people with two outs and nobody on. I understand how good this guy is. So we’ll have to rethink that a little bit."
"Rethink that"? When pretty much the only person who didn't understand that the thing to do was walk Pujols, was Quade himself? (And, I suppose, his coaching staff.) Not only that, but in that situation, you need to walk Lance Berkman, the next hitter, as well. After that, all the Cardinals have left is pitchers. I don't really care how "good-hitting" any of their pitchers are, I'd rather face one of them with a runner in scoring position than face Pujols, who can yank a ball out of the park any time, which is exactly what happened.
Many of Quade's choices this year have bordered on bizarre. This one... well, it was just dumb. As I wrote last night, Albert Pujols is a guy who you can't let beat you. And the Cubs did exactly that by not walking him. Quade's "rethink" comment is also strange. It really does seem as if he's in way over his head. So is the rest of his inexperienced coaching staff.
Cubs lineup:
Fukudome RF, Barney 2B, Castro SS, Pena 1B, Ramirez 3B, DeWitt LF, Colvin CF, Hill C, Zambrano PHowever, Carrie tweets:
#cubs lineup could change if ramirez can't go
Cardinals lineup was not available at posting time. If you find it, post it in the comments.
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This pitching matchup is a rematch of the game on May 10 at Wrigley Field. Both starters gave up four runs in seven innings, though the Cubs got 13 hits off Chris Carpenter. Naturally, they wound up leaving 12 men on base. The Cardinals won the game by scoring a pair off Kerry Wood in the 8th.
Naturally, that is still the only win registered by Carpenter this year. He's pitched reasonably well since then, but has three losses and a no-decision to show for it.
Z has a 3.52 ERA since April 29 and is having a solid season. He's also having one of his better offensive years, hitting .346 with an .885 OPS (29 at-bats).
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Midwest. It'll also be TBS' national Sunday afternoon telecast. Unfortunately, that means you have to listen to Dick Stockton. And, here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.