Down by one run, pull the World Series MVP for a pitch runner. :spock:

Just got raped on a called strike 3 way outside. But the self-inflicting choking is far far worse. Poor execution, even worse managing. Matheny must have found Tony's liquor stash.

This is what happens when you leave 1,895 runners on base. I am used to it at this point. This team is not clutch at all.

And the Great and Mighty Holliday strikes out to end the game.

But this game was lost in the bottom of the 7th inning. Epic, monstrous choke job. As bad as I've ever seen.

Can't really blame Holliday
The ump expanded the zone about 3 inches on both sides of the plate

Yeah, he was horrible all game long, but screwed Washington as well.

And that right there was your ballgame.

Bullpen was excellent again. That ball that was hit off Zep was a mile ourside to a pull hitter.

We won't choke like that very often. If our bullpen holds up, we got a chance.

I was too busy at work to follow the game and forgot to record it, but apparently the Cardinals were as perturbed by their crappy performance yesterday as I was and laid a 12-4 asswhipping on Washington.

God damn it would feel nice to be up 2-0 right now.....

We lost the first game in both the NLDS and the NLCS last year. No worries. It's baseball. I'll take bases loaded and no outs with Craig, Molina and Freese coming up. They just didnt get it done the first game.

Pulled Garcia after the 2nd inning. He had only allowed one run and we had the lead but Garcia had ran a lot of counts full and they were hitting him well. Left Boggs in to face the left hander this time in the 8th. Brought the rookie out of Lees Summit in to pitch the 9th. He hit 100 consistently and struck out Werth, Harper and Larouche to close it out.

According to Jen langosch, Garcia getting MRI on shoulder tonight.

Thats not good. He's probably done for the year. He could have took a future game at Bush and if on gave us 7 good innings. It will hurt our depth. But, I have more confidence in Rosenthal and Kelley, Lynn to pick up the slack.

Lol, yea Jay is the anti Rasmus.

Yeah - my bad, Tony.

Though in the defense of many (myself included) - the gripe was never that we traded Rasmus, but that we got so little in return for him. That gripe remains legitimate, IMO. Dotel was a salary dump that we could've had for free. Jackson we know was a salary dump, afterall the Blue Jays got him for a nominal prospect in return for taking on Teahen's salary in order to facilitate the 3-way deal.

Had we traded Rasmus for someone like Alex Cobb (rumored return), nobody would've been that upset. Instead we traded him for a couple of salary dumps and a lefty reliever. That's a pretty awful return for a guy who 8 months prior had the highest OPS among center fielders in the national league and wasn't that far removed from not being able to drink legally.

But yeah, Jay is a bauce.

Probably done - period.

Shoulders don't just heal, I always thought it was an odd idea to just have him 'rest' through a labrum issue. If it's aggravated, it's because rest isn't going to fix it. If rest isn't going to solve the problem, then it's going to require surgery. Surgery for fringe lefthanders is usually pretty damn close to the end game.

Maybe he comes back, but the track record for shoulder surgeries is spotty at best. It's probably a wise idea to consider anything we get from him next season as a happy accident.

oh well. We have a lot of young pitching in the pipeline.

That's my thought.

Attrition is part of the game. Move 'em up, move 'em out. If Garcia's done, well it sucks to lose the only real LHSP in the system, but shit happens. I guess we'll have to make due with Rosenthal's wipeout slider and 100 mph fastball instead.

Damn.

My cable company is really pissing me off. I taped the game because I had an appointment at 4. When I watched it I had the first inning, then it froze in the 2nd inning. It was 0-0 and when it came back up it was 7-4. The young kid looked good in the 9th. Could be a future closer or set up man. Has a nice easy delivery.

mine froze in the 2nd inning too but I caught it by the top of the 3rd.

Who in the hell would have given a used diaper for Rasmus knowing what they were getting into is beyond me and he has proven that to be true.

The trade is so lopsided right now its ridiculous. The getting rid of him so you give up on him finally benefit is almost immeasurable. Dump your problem child and move on. Now look what you got. Jon Jay is a better Cardinal already than Rasmus ever was.

Plug Lynn into his spot in the 4-man playoff rotation and Joe Kelly moves into the long relief role. The only depth you lose is you won't have two long relievers but you can shore that up with three or four short relievers if needed. Carp coming back helps a ton, especially given we lost Westbrook. So a playoff 4-man of Lohse, Waino, Carp and Lynn (pitching like he has been) is not too bad.

I was so f-ing pissed at Beltran in the top of the 2nd for his run the ball back to the infield bullshit that I threw a 5 minute temper tantrum. It must have worked because all of a sudden the Cards figured out how to hit again. The lineup top to bottom was just filthy. Only guy to really do nothing was Frazod's hero Matt Holliday, although he did walk a couple times.

Heh. I just noticed that. The 0-4 sort of stood out among all those big numbers. :D

I'd like to see Rosenthal as a starter.

You can definitely see a little Verlander in him. I am not sure how many innings he can go throwing triple digits, but at the worst the guy can be an elite stopper. The Cardinals have at least 4 guys that can hit upper 90's (Motte, Boggs, Rosenthal and Kelly).

I just read that Garcia had been experiencing pain in the shoulder for a week or two and didn't tell anyone. Shoulder issue or not, I could really see him being done as a Cardinal. The dumbass went into basically a must-win game knowing he wasn't 100% and didn't tell a soul. From the article I read, some of his teammates are pissed, and rightfully so. Luckily Matheny pulled the plug at the right time and Lynn did what he needed to do.

MRI shows strain & inflammation, no damage. Season probably over anyway, but at least it doesn't appear to be too serious.

yeah, the more we win , the better the loss by the Braves looks? :p

Whats the city saying about the fan meltdown today?

That is some seriously selfish actions by Garcia. I bet his teammates are pissed. Being selfish in the playoffs always goes over well with your fellow teammates.

The problem is that the strain/inflammation was exactly what he had to begin the season.

It suggests he either has a weakened shoulder that will be subject to aggravation going forward or that he has bad mechanics.

Something to notice about Garcia is the incredible amount of strain he puts on his shoulder - he really loads the hell out of that thing:

http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/...a_2008_003.jpg

And he's not a broadly built guy, his arm is going to be even less likely to be able to handle the strain of that kind of extreme shoulder/hip turn as he starts to come forward.

In short, I still don't think Jaime is long for this earth.

Looks like next game is on MLB. That leaves me out.

From STL today:
Beltran is one of the best postseason hitters in MLB history. In only 25 games he’s launched 13 homers, driven in 22 runs and scored 34 runs. He has a career postseason batting average of .362, with a .478 OBP and an .819 SLG. That’s ridiculous. Are you kidding, 13 homers in 94 postseason at-bats? Crazy.

Who leads in OPS with at least 100 AB's in the postseason?
#1 Beltran
#2 Babe Ruth
#3 Gehrig

I don't think anyone has ever died from bad pitching mechanics.

tightrope 1st inning for carp, time to beat up on Edwin.

calling all members of the Pete Kozma Fan Club!

I need a tv here at work! Carp with a 4-0 lead is a nice start.

Here! (raises hand)

Carp looking good. 91-94, mixing in breaking balls.

Nats are ****ing reeruned for shutting down Strasburg.

No joke.

"

This really sucks trying to watch the game with ESPN gamecast.

Bases loaded no runs for them this time. :thumb:

Much like last year, this team's giving me an ulcer.

Holliday with a 2-run single in the top of the 8th. Now 8-0 Cards. :thumb:

Oh, c'mon, Salas?

That's how you do it, Werth!

Seriously, how the **** is he on the post-season roster? Even with an 8 run lead I don't trust that useless prick.

That was best inning I've ever seen him pitch.

Has he ever thrown a 1-2-3 inning before? Maybe we should all by lotto tickets. :D

yeah, no doubt!

Ballgame. 8-0 curbstomping in critical game 3. I like our chances for advancing. Hopefully it'll be against the Reds and we'll get to do to them what we did to the Brewers last year.

This. X a million.

The Cardinals have certainly taken some of the sting out of the Chief debacle.

I was happy for Kozma hitting that bomb after making the error in game 1. He is definitely a weapon in the 8 slot, and Descalso has been hitting the shit out of the ball at times.

That game was just a surgical dismantling. For once, after the 2nd inning I didn't really have any fears. Carp gave up hits but always worked out of jams. That's what happens when you don't walk people.

And Bryce Harper, ouch. 1 for whatever. That definitely takes some sting out of that lineup.

They've adjusted how they pitch to Harper and so far he hasn't adjusted his approach in response I guess? ESPN Stats and Info wrote about their adjustment last night.

Thanks Nats for being ****ing morons.

Hey, its not like they are laying down for us. Yeah, it was stupid to sit Strausberg. You never know when you will get back to the post season. Really stupid.

But, we are hitting well. Some rookies are stepping it up as they do every year on the winners in the post season. We are getting unexpected help from pitching rookies.

Another expectant run in the playoffs. All is well in Cardinal nation.

Yes, I like the Reds minus Cueto in the NLCS.

Or the Giants minus Melky and a super gimpy Hunter Spence. Both have their own issues.

Either team will be tough

Yeah, Cards will finish them off and he'll blow out his arm in the spring. Fanbase should be PISSED right about now.

They've got a really good chance to win number 12 this year.

Slackers.

1-1 Bottom 6th.

Nats are swinging wet noodles up there.

This just doesn't have the feel of a game we're gonna win.

It's looking like if they don't put that **** Salas in they won't lose to me.

We still have Scrabble.

That strike zone is BS

Beltran and Molina have just missed homers this innings. Ya never know

Even if they get us, I'll take waino in a winner take all game. We are 5-0 the last couple of years in either win or go home games.

This team did have the best record in baseball this year.

Wow...Desmond

This strike zone is hurting the game. People are swinging at crap to protect the plate.

As long as it's consistent....

Sob

This team can't get the **** out of its own way.

Shouldn't have even gotten to a Game 4, and now we're looking at a Game 5 where anything can happen, and burning our best pitcher for the NLCS should they win.

Werth should have struck out twice in that at bat if the ump would have called it like he had all game.

But it was our offense that cost us the game. If you cant score 3 runs in a game you dont deserve to win.

We are 5-0 in those games the last two years. This is Washington's first one ever. We have Waino on the mound. I bet Vegas has as favored as it should even though its at the Nationals.

It HAS to end this way. No way MLB lets cards get out of DC without nats notching 1 win. At least Joyce won't be behind the plate tomorrow.