Trouble in St. Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals are definitely in trouble. After getting swept this week by the Kansas City Royals, the Cards head up to unfriendly Fenway Park to Boston for a 3 game set this weekend. With all the injuries that the Cardinals are dealing with (Wellemeyer, Pujols, Molina, Brad Thompson, Carpenter), the lack of depth and lack of starting pitching is beginning to show. Somehow, the Cardinals are tied with Philadelphia for the 2nd best record in the National League, at 42-32, luckily sitting only 3.5 games behind the Cubs, who were swept by Tampa Bay this week as well.

The Cardinals need to grind out a few wins and try to play at least .500 ball for the next two weeks. All season they have been consistently winning 2/3 in nearly every series, until this week's sweep by the lowly Royals. Every team hits a rough patch over a 162 game stretch, but its avoiding the prolonged bad run that separates good teams from bad.

There is a feeling that this team has played over its head so far this year, and might be regressing a bit. Injuries make it difficult to determine if the Cardinals slide is related to injuries or simply baseball's law of averages catching up to a team playing too well. Likely its a bit of both. The Cardinals have surprised me all year, because they seem to get going when the going get tough, as they say. I hope I continue to be surprised.

As I said recently, the Cardinals have a big July 4th series with the Cubs. This will be important, because the two teams won't meet again until a bevy of games in late August and early September. Pujols hopefully will be back by that series. Molina and some of the pitchers should be back this weekend or early next week from the DL. If the Cardinals can just stay within striking distance, the season will be much more entertaining come late August.