Cardinals Rising

Brewers at Wrigley this week. Cubs are done.

 

No they're not. They're going to twist the knife a little longer.

 

Boo!

 

I don't know how the Cardinals continue to win games, but it's an interesting story.

The Cardinals have gone through a lot this season, with Tony La Russa's DUI in spring training, Josh Hancock's death, Chris Carpenter's season-ending injury, injuries to most of their regular starters, another starting pitcher (Mark Mulder) not being available all season, using relief pitchers as starters (Braden Looper has 10 wins), relying on rookies (Brendan Ryan is hitting .330) and castoffs (Ryan Ludwick is third on the team with 11 HRs and Todd Wellemeyer, Mike Maroth, Joel Pineiro and Randy Keisler have combined for 21 more starts than Carpenter) and two formerly-retired pitchers (Troy Percival has three wins and a 2.49 ERA and OF Rick Ankiel had four HRs in his first few games) and then losing a popular player (Scott Spiezio) to drug rehab.

Bernie Miklasz had some interesting stats on second-year pitcher Adam Wainwright in today's P-D: "After the slow start, this is what Wainwright has done in his past 14 starts: an 8-4 record with a 2.87 ERA, a .244 batting average allowed and only four homers in 94 innings. Since June 13 only Arizona's Brandon Webb (2.04) and San Diego's Jake Peavy (2.47) have lower ERA's than Wainwright among NL starters."

The next 10 games are at Houston (three), then home for series with Cincy (three) and Pittsburgh (four).

The schedule isn't bad in September. They have three games at Arizona, five with the Cubs, three with Philly and one with the Mets — but also five games with Cincy, seven with Pittsburgh, four with Houston and three with Milwaukee.

The Cubs do have a much-easier schedule for September. They only have one series against a team with a winning record (four games vs. the Dodgers next week). The Brewers finish the season with four games at Atlanta, and then three at home against St. Louis and four against the Padres.