Cardinal Sin

Cheesy headline? Maybe. Awful final innings the last two nights? Absolutely.

The Cardinals rode high out of the all star breaking, going 4-0 against the Padres, gaining 2 games on the Cubs to sit 2 back in the NL Central. The Brewers came to town on Monday for a 4 game series, starting 3 back of the Cubs (1 behind the Cards).

The past two nights, the Cardinals let a game slip away that falls into the "devastating losses" category, so hard to be applied to regular season baseball games. The Cardinals led 3-1 with 2 outs in the 8th last night, after one of Kyle Lohse's (pictured) most dominating pitching performances of the year. On Monday night, we were tied at the end of 9 innings 3-3, with plenty of chances to win. We lost both games 4-3 on Bill Hall solo home runs in the top of the 10th and 9th innings, respectively.



The Brewers have a lot of momentum, recently acquiring CC Sabathia, while already being one of the hottest teams in baseball. A big series by the Cardinals would have stamped on that flame a bit, putting them in their rightful place. Now, the Brewers look extremely confident, ready to surge past the Cardinals. It must be nice to be 2-0 in the this series against the Cards, with Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia throwing the final two games tonight and Thursday.

Cards need to win both, and absolutely must win 1 of these 2. Luckily the Cubs are sliding as well, losing 5 out of their last 6. The Cubs will definitely have a tougher second half, since they will be on the road more often than the first half, and experiencing some injuries (Kerry Wood). With the dynamics of this division being a 3 team race, you hope that your team wins, while the other 2 teams beat each other evenly. Right now the Brewers are surging at the Cardinals expense, while the Cubs are losing at the same time. Tonight, the Cards need to slow down the Brew Crew, as well as their current radio broadcaster, Harry Doyle . . .errrr, I mean Bob Uecker.

"Ohhhh Shit . . . if that's not Shaquelle O'Neal in left, that baby's outta here."

"Wild Thing, you make my Butt Sting."

"I'm the only winner on the team, the rest of them are losers - either by choice, or by birth."