Motte should be on a SHORT leash to start the season.

Awesome win tonight! Trailing by 1 in the top of the 9th, down to the last strike, Stavinoha hits a two run pinch hit homer to take the lead. Franklin with the save.

Hope they keep up their winning ways when I go to the game tomorrow. :rockon:

I watched some of the earlier parts of the game with the MLB Extra innings free preview and started watching something else when Lohse started getting knocked around a bit. Looks like I should have stuck with it.

Nice work Stavinoha. He was apparently hitting well this spring and it would be nice if he continues to be some power off the bench.

Also damn nice to see Holliday is continuing to tare shit up like he did for STL last season. I am still not the biggest fan of that contract but still very happy he didn't manage to leave both MLB teams I am a fan of.

Nice. You are going to see something I haven't in a while. A #5 SP for STL that is neither some converted reliever or in his 30's.

I hope we get the win tomorrow. But you've gotta think the Brewers will be really pissed off about tonight. I hope this kid is up to the task.

Milwaukee was 3rd in the league against LHP last season.

Ryan Braun F'n mauls them.

He can be good and still get beat up tomorrow. I'm not going to judge him too harshly based on tomorrows start.

Well, I'd say we really stole one tonight. Only two starters (Holliday and Skip) got hits, everybody else was 0 forever until Stavinoha got up there. Lohse looked like crap, too.

Albert's been quite for the past couple of days. He's due to have a good game.

Have fun at the game. Hopefully in the future you can say I watched Garcia's first game pitching live and everyone would go...coool :clap:

Yeah, I still hold a grudge from the playoffs not because of the dropped ball but that image of him eating sunflower seeds and his body language of (it looked like to me anyway) ohhh well, who cares...Then I see Brendon Ryan on the bench sitting there with his head in his hands like he is crushed by the loss.

But, maybe thats just Holliday's style. Those two home runs were pretty big hits this year and he was non-chalant about them also?

Frazod should enjoying himself. 7-0 Cards in the 6th with bombs from Yadi and Rasmus.

Holy crap, looks like our inesperienced bench ain't an issue yet. RH in the bullpen haven't been an issue yet. Freese and Rasmus look to be ready to go to the next level. Garcia looks like a great pick up. Life is good for Cardinal fans these days.

Nice enough first start by Garcia. His pitch count got up there a bit early but looks like he got the job done. Considering that he got hurt last year he is a pleasant surprise if he can at least be close to average.

Like you, I like what I am seeing from the young fill-ins so far. I also like that the team has broken camp with mostly cheap bench guys instead of bringing in overpriced and mediocre vets to fill those same roles. Ideally that should give a bit more flexibility if vets need to be acquired later.

Boggs in the pen is somewhat interesting. From what I saw last season his stuff is solid but his delivery is a bit suspect. In the pen he can dial it up for a few more MPH so maybe the change will work well for him.

Overall I am a hell of a lot more optimistic about this team than I was at the same time last year.

Taking Duncan, Ankiel and Thurston out of the line up and replacing them with Rasmus, Holliday and Freese is a big step forwad.
First win for a Cardinals left handed starter since Mulder in June 2006
He was hitting 96-97 on the Fox radar gun. He has much better stuff than Motte. He could be a real difference maker in the bullpen.

All great comments. I didn't mind Ankiel much before he injury last year but after that I had pretty much had enough with his flashes of greatness and guess hitting. Duncan was another that was a decent contributor even with his rough play in LF before his injury but after his back went out he was damn near useless. Thurston was the most useless of the lot but Glaus missing pretty much the entire year was another big disappointment.

I wasn't able to catch the game today because of the fox blackout for the extra innings preview which usually annoys me every year. Boggs hitting 96-97 is pretty impressive. Again it is extremely early in the year but Boggs may have the stuff to close if needed.

You don't have a Fox station in your area? It was on regular TV today. ESPN tommorrow night.