Onto San Francisco

Hey guys,

Hope you enjoyed the first round of the NFL draft. Fun series in Phoenix. We got to see a little bit of everything. Most importantly, we saw two Cardinal wins.

As far as the brawl goes...I think it was a lot made out of nothing. Edwin Jackson's fastball rode in on Carp and hit him. I don't think he did it on purpose - hitting the pitcher is just a no-no in baseball. I don't think Jackson is that stupid; he knows hitting a pitcher on purpose would get his three-hitter drilled. Apparently the Cardinals didn't think it was on purpose either, because if they did I think you would have seen Justin Upton or Mark Reynolds get a fastball in their earhole. Still, baseball players don't easily forget. Al Leiter tells a story of being shown up by a hitter during a playoff game, apparently Leiter thought he rounded the bases a little too slowly. Well, Leiter vowed that the next time he saw this particular hitter, he was going to make him pay. Some might think this little feud would have been resolved when this hitter got traded to Leiter's team a few years later, but Leiter hadn't forgotten. The first time he faced him after the incident was when he was throwing live BP to him during spring training. What happened? Leiter hit him in the middle of his back with the second pitch. If the Cards think there was any malice behind Carp getting hit, you're going to see some fireworks when the Diamondbacks come to St. Louis.

It was nice to see Colby and Ryan Ludwick finally start to heat up. Everybody has predicted this would be Rasmus's breakout season and we finally started to see that these past few games. I think you'll see a lot more of Felipe Lopez against the Giants. Apparently he's been bothered by a sore elbow. According to La Russa, Flip's sore elbow wasn't from pitching but rather a nagging joint injury that started in Milwaukee, which is an absolute joke. You're not going to be able to convince me that TLR had Lopez pitch knowing he already had a sore elbow, especially considering he had Mather ready to go multiple innings. Hopefully, Flip's elbow won't bother him the rest of the year. As long as we're on the subject, it was an elbow injury that cut Tony La Russa's playing career short. The story goes that after a decent year in pro ball, he signed up to play in a charity softball game. Well he got there late, and ran out to shortstop without warming up or anything. A ball was his to him deep in the hole, he fielded it, fired to first, and felt a haunting pop in his elbow. It was never the same again. He made it back, but wasn't the same player with an injured elbow and his playing career was cut short because of it.

Jaime's going to have his hands full again tonight. Six days after matching Johan Santana punch for punch, Garcia has to face the reigning NL Cy Young award winner. The Giants are toughest team we've faced so far. They're the only team in the National League with a comparable pitching staff to ours, and their offense is much improved from last year helped in part by Ex-Cardinal Mark De Rosa. We've won every series thus far, and if Jaime can steal us a win tonight we're poised to win another.

Enjoy tonight's game if you can stay up for it. I can't tell you how excited I am for 7:15 start times again. The song of the day is an obvious one: "San Francisco" by Scott Mckenzie. Have a great weekend.

Jack