St. Louis hitters draw blank vs. Los Angeles
Albert Pujols is ‘The Machine’. When he is up and running properly, so are the St. Louis Cardinals. But when he is not, things tend to malfunction.
Tuesday was one of those days. The Cardinals did well in the pitching and fielding categories, but Albert Pujols, amongst many other Cardinals, flunked at the plate. He, like much the lineup again, was struckout, with the oddity of three times.
And with The Machine stopped, so did the offensive production line all around. St. Louis failed to score a single run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers through 9 innings. Pujols hay have been the headliner of the Cardinals’ excess of zeros on their side of the scoreboard, but he had some good company with him too.
Both Ryan Ludwick and Skip Schumaker each struckout twice. Yadier Molina went 0 for 3, as did Brendan Ryan. And though not surprising, the #9 hole went 0 for 3, but one of those outs came via pinch-hitter David Freese, who struckout in his only plate appearance.
The one Cardinals who did have a nice day though was Randy Winn. The new veteran employee most recently with the Yankees, Winn went 2 for 4 with a double in the 1st. Unfortunately, it was the Cardinals’ only extra base hit of the night.
St. Louis lost by a final score of 0-1. Veteran lefty Trevor Miller surrendered what ultimately became the winning run in the bottom of the 8th, and in result, was handed the loss. But in reality, the real loser of the game, at least in essence, was starter Chris Carpenter.
Despite a bright outing, Carpenter received a no-decision. He pitched 7 scoreless innings while striking out 5 and issuing only one walk, but had nothing to show for it in the end.
Pujols officially ended the day 0 for 4. Along with his three strikeouts, he made a pop out to end the 4th inning, leaving runners on 1st and 2nd. St. Louis’ only other chance to score came in teh 7th, but that inning ended in a double play.
Hopefully, the Cardinals will have better luck on Wednesday, when they play the Dodgers in the final game of the three-game set. Los Angeles is currently up 2-0 in the series, and if St. Louis pull out a win Wednesday night, the Cardinals will be swept.
In effort to prevent such from happening, the Cardinals will send Adam Wainwright to the hill to take care of the ever-important pitching duties. Starting against him will be Clayton Kershaw, LA’s young lefty. Game time is set for 9:10 CT.
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