Aug. 18, 2007 - K.B.'s Daily St. Louis Cardinals report

Yesterday, the Cardinals the first game of the four game series against the rival Cubs. The game was important because the Cardinals were 2.5 games behind in the Central division. The starting pitchers, Braden Looper for the Cardinals and Rich Hill for the Cubs, each were able to keep the other team from scoring heading into the 6th inning. The Cardinals had David Eckstein leading the inning off be he go out. Ryan Ludwick was next but he got out also. It was Albert Pujols’ turn and on the 7th pitch of the at-bat, he sent a ball over the left-center wall, his 26th of the year. In the bottem of the 6th, with a runner on base, Jacque Jones hit a ball to almost the exact same spot Pujols did to give the Cubs a 2-1. The Cardinals pitching held out for the rest off the game without leting up a runner, but, to the dismay of the Cardinals, the cubs pitching did also. The Cubs win 2-1. The Cardinals are now 3 games behind in the central division.

Cardinals pitching was once again good. Starter Braden Looper pitched 6 innings on a very honorable 4 hits and 2 runs. Randy Flores and Russ Springer each came in to pitch an inning and did it hitless. Looper looses his 10th game on the season and is now 10-10.

The Cardinals hitting was, for the first time in almost a week, not all that great. They only had a total of 4 hits, and 2 of those were by Albert Pujols. Pujols of course had that homerun. Leadoff man, David Eckstein, and #9 batter, Brendan Ryan was the only other Cardinal players to have a hit.

Today the Cardinals will try to take revenge on the rival Cubs at 2:55 CT. Anthony Reyes (2-11 5.48 ERA) will start for the Cardinals and Sean Marshall (5-6 4.25 ERA) for the Cubbies. 

K.B. is a reporter and founder of the IABW

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