St. Louis Cardinals superstar 1b Albert Pujols homered twice while the club pounded out 18 hits as a team to win 12-8 Thursday, finishing a 3 game sweep of the struggling New York Mets. OF Rick Ankiel hit two doubles and a homer, while 2b Skip Schumaker added 2 rbi doubles of his own for the victors, who have won 7 in a row at home. The loss ,whichdrops New York to 6-9, was their fourth straight and 9 of 13.
Do not let the score fool you, this game was over EARLY. The Cardinals scored runs in 5 innings and led 11-3 in the 6th when starter Kyle Lohse(3-0, 5 innings allowing 1 earned run) was forced to leave with a jammed knee. 5 St. Louis relievers followed and rookie P.J. Walters served up 5 runs on 2 home runs(2 run shot from RF Ryan Church in the 7th & CF Carlos Beltran’s drive in the 8th with 2 on)to make the score look good in the paper. THIS WAS BAD!!!
The common theme to this series for the Mets? Bad , ineffective starting pitching. Livian Hernandez was todays culprit, over 4 1/3rd innings he allowed 9 hits and 7 runs while walking 3 and serving up the 3 Cardinals homers. The 3 Mets starters in this series- Jon Maine, Oliver Perez and Hernandez- posted the following stat line: 16 earned runs over 14 and 2/3 innings(9.82 era). The 3 Amigos retired ONE batter after the 5th inning!
Mets Manager Jerry Manuel is very concerned his starting staff and thinks he will meet with the club’s front office prior to the upcoming 6 game homestand. He is considering adding another arm in the pen but does not want to make a change in the rotation until the next turn. He was not happy post game, ”They’re just going to have to pitch better,” Manuel said. “If it doesn’t get any better, then you have to make some adjustments. It’s that simple.”
Star of the Game: Pujols- Should be titled star of EVERY game. The Cardinals skipper is a fan: ”Perfect player, in my opinion,” manager Tony La Russa said. “We’re lucky to have him, believe me.”
Just Bad: Worst performance of the season BY FAR and only the late inning runs made it look respectable. It is only April but this team might need a serious jolt. The ghosts of 2006,2007 and 2008 do not help.
Game Notes: Manuel not only flip flopped Wright and Beltran(Carlos batted 3rd, David 5th) but he also inserted Gary Sheffield(LF), Alex Cora(2b) and Omir Santos(C) into the lineup… P Nelson Figueroa declined his assignment back to the minors and become an immediate free agent… Beltran had 3 hits while Wright and Cora each collected 2
Next Series:
3 Game weekend set vs the Washington Nationals at Citifield
Friday: 7:10 pm
Saturday: 1:10 pm
Sunday: 1:10 pm
Friday’s starters:
Mets Johan Santana(2-1,0.46) vs Nationals Scott Olsen(0-2,9.00)
