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dusthimself

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  • 11 months later...

STL April 3rd, 2008...

It's opening day today for the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball. The Red Birds are looking mighty different these days than they did last year. With the departure of St. Louis favorites Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, and David Eckstein, one can only hope that these fresh new faces will be able to fill the big holes left by the departed ones.

David Eckstein was named the World Series MVP of 2006, and has been loved in St. Louis since joining the club. However the club couldn't extend their contract with Eckstein, and he was ultimately replaced by one-time gold glover Cesar Izturis. Replacing Scott Rolen at third base will be Troy Glaus, who was acquired in the trade that sent Rolen to Toronto. Glaus was part of the Angels when Adam Kennedy and the Halos won the World Series. He spent some time with Arizona as well before joining the Blue Jays. Jim Edmonds will be replaced in Center Field, for the most part, by Rick Ankiel. Ankiel was once a promising rookie pitcher for the Cardinals in 2001 before having mental breakdowns in post season play that would alter his career forever. He returned to the Cards in 2007, showing off his amazing power at the plate by hitting a homerun in his first game back.

The Cardinals will take on their enemies from the 2006 NLCS, the New York Mets, in what will be a classic pitching battle no doubt. Two of the best that the NL has to offer will clash - Johan Santana of the Mets vs. Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals.

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April 3rd, 2008 - Cardinals Lose 0-7 to the Mets

Boxscore

Johan Santana shuts down the Cardinals handing the Cardinals their first lost of the season in the home opener. Chris Carpenter gives up 7 earned runs on 11 hits and 5 walks in just 5.1 innings pitched. Manager dusthimself is not happy but is tolerant in Carpenter, knowing full well that Carpenter has Cy Young material, although it was obviously absent tonight.

April 5th, 2008 - Cardinals Win 7-5 Against the Mets

Boxscore

Adam Wainwright picks up first win of the year. Although Pedro Martinez pitched 5 strong innings, in the sixth he gave up 5 runs ending his outting prematurely. Yadier Molina went 3-3 on the night, as Glaus went 2-3 with 2 RBIs. Unpredictable Cesar Izturis hit the first Cardinals homerun of the year, a 3 run blast off Pedro to put the Cardinals ahead 5-4. Isringhausen picked up his first save of 2008.

April 6th, 2008 - Cardinals Lose 5-6 Against the Mets

Boxscore

Pujols hot bat wasn't enough for the Cardinals to win the opening series against the Mets. Albert Pujols went 4-5, though lack of baserunners limited him to one RBI. Chris Duncan, following Pujols in the lineup, managed to knock him in twice. Pujols, Duncan, and Adam Kennedy hit a single homerun each, Kennedy's coming up in the ninth putting the Cardinals within a run of going into extra innings. Kyle Lohse gave up six earned in 7 innings, just off of 7 hits. Russ Springer pitched 2 hitless innings, striking out 4 batters in the process.

note - I'll get more organized and better presented in the near future. just giving this a starting boost right now.

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[align=center]BREAKDOWN OF PREVIOUS SERIES VS. THE METS[/align]

Player of the Series for the Mets:

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Johan Santana

Johan Santana gave up just 3 hits in 7.2 innings of work in the season opening ballgame to give him and his club their first win of the year. Although just striking out a low 5 (for Santana, that's low), he had excellent command of his pitches and only walked 1.

Player of the Series for the Cardinals:

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Adam Wainwright

Although giving up four runs on nine hits in six innings pitched, he managed to strike out seven batters and only walk one. This was just enough to give the Cardinals their first win of the season.

[align=center]Series Breakdown:

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Wins

2-1

Runs

18-12

Hits

32-26[/align]

Outlook at Upcoming Series:

The Cardinals will look to bounce back after a couple of difficult games against the Mets as they stay put in St. Louis and welcome home the Houston Astros. The Cardinals manager will continue to experiment with the batting lineups, and Mark Mulder is expected to return to the mound in the first game of the series.

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[align=center]Friday, April 8th, 2008

1-2stl.gifhou.gif 2-1

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Mark Mulder (First Start) vs. Shawn Chacon (First Start)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [2][7][0]

HOU: [3][4][0]

WP: Geoff Geary (1-0) (1.2IP, 1H, 1K, 0.00)

LP: Mark Mulder (0-1) (8IP, 4Hs, 3ER, 3HR, 1BB, 6Ks, 3.38)

SV: Jose Valverde (1) (1IP, 1K, 0.00)

Scoring Plays

Bottom of the First:

-Hunter Pence hits a solo homerun.

Top of the Third:

-Adam Kennedy singles, Skip Schumaker scores from third.

Top of the Fifth:

-Adam Kennedy singles, Skip Schumaker scores from second.

Bottom of the Seventh:

-Carlos Lee hits a solo homerun.

Bottom of the Eighth:

-M. Bourn hits a solo homerun.

Game Notes

-Mark Mulder pitches an 8 inning complete game.

-Kennedy and Schumaker produced six of the Cardinals seven hits (both had three a piece)

-Skip Schumaker was a homerun shy of hitting for the cycle.

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[align=center]Saturday, April 9th, 2008

1-3 stl.gifhou.gif 3-1

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Braden Looper (First Start) vs. Fernando Nieve (First Start)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [1][4][0]

HOU: [2][5][1]

WP: Geoff Geary (2-0) (1.2IP, 1H, 1BB, 3Ks, 0.00)

LP: Jason Isringhausen (L, 0-1) (BS, 1) (.2IP, 1H, 1ER, 2BB, 5.40)

SV: Jose Valverde (2) (1IP, 1K, 0.00)

Scoring Plays

Top of the Sixth:

-A. Pujols singles, Schumaker scores from third, Kennedy advances to second.

Bottom of the Eighth:

-M. Tejada sacrifices, scoring M. Bourn

-C. Lee singles, scoring H. Pence

Game Notes:

-Braden Looper only allowed 1 run on 4 hits in 7.1 innings pitched.

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  • 2 weeks later...

[align=center]April 10th, 2008

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Chris Carpenter (0-1, 11.12) vs. Roy Oswalt (1-0, 0.00)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [1][3][0]

HOU: [2][9][0]

W: Roy Oswalt (2-0) L: Chris Carpenter (0-2)

[align=center]basebalheavenmainfi8.png

Meet With the Manager[/align]

Press: You begin the season at 1-5, do you feel this as a bad sign of things to come?

DustHimself: Do I feel like it's a bad sign of things to come? Oh no, no... It's only the first six games of the season, we still have 156 games to go. I've talked to the players about this, they understand that they're going to need to hit more than just 4 to 6 hits a game. They understand that our pitching staff is doing a great job and giving us the opportunities to win but the bats need to get hot for that to happen.

Press: What will you need to do in order to get the bats hot?

DustHimself: A lot of yelling, screaming, kicking... I'll threaten Troy Glaus with a knife. Try and be as childish as I possibly can. And if that doesn't work, I'll just have you guys interview you in my office and I'll complain, blame the GM, and curse like a sailer... Essentially, I'll pull an Ozzie Guillen.

Press: Where do you see your team finishing this year?

DustHimself: Well, we're aiming for 3rd, maybe 2nd place in the NL Central... We like to aim high, but not for perfection.

Press: Seriously?

DustHimself: No. First place. Anything less is unexceptable.

Press: Well, thank you for your time.

(If you guys want to ask me questions about my dynasty, feel free to and I'll address it in my next Q/A).

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[align=center]April 11th, 2008

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Adam Wainwright (1-0, 6.00) vs. Tom Gorzelanny (0-0, 7.11)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [1][4][2]

PIT: [4][4][0]

W: Tom Gorzelanny (1-0) L: Adam Wainwright (1-1)

[align=center]April 12th, 2008

1-6 stl.gifpit.gif 3-4

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Kyle Lohse (0-1, 7.71) vs. Zach Duke (0-1, 4.50)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [6][12][0]

PIT: [5][9][1]

W: Jason Isringhausen (1-1) L: John Grabow (1-1) S: Russ Springer (1)

[align=center]April 13th, 2008

2-6 stl.gifpit.gif 3-5

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Mark Mulder (0-1, 3.38) vs. Paul Maholm (0-1, 1.50)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

STL: [3][3][3]

PIT: [4][9][0]

W: Marino Salas (1-0) L: Todd Wellemeyer (0-1) S: Matt Capps (2)

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[align=center]April 15th, 2008

5-4 mil.gifstl.gif 2-7

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Manny Parra (1-0, 1.69) vs. Braden Looper (0-0, 1.23)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

MIL: [6][11][0]

STL: [1][9][0]

W: Manny Parra (2-0) L: Braden Looper (0-1)

[align=center]April 16th, 2008

6-4 mil.gifstl.gif 2-8

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Ben Sheets (1-1, 2.94) vs. Chris Carpenter (0-2, 7.36)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

MIL: [7][13][3]

STL: [1][7][0]

W: Ben Sheets (2-1) L: Chris Carpenter (0-3)

[align=center]April 17th, 2008

7-4 mil.gifstl.gif 2-9

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Yovani Gollardo (1-1, 2.31) vs. Adam Wainwright (1-1, 3.46)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

MIL: [1][2][0]

STL: [2][8][2]

W: Todd Wellemeyer (1-1) L: Yovani Gallardo (1-2)

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[align=center]April 18th, 2008

6-6 pit.gifstl.gif 3-9

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Zach Duke (0-1, 5.73) vs. Kyle Lohse (0-1, 5.79)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

PIT: [1][4][0]

STL: [5][13][0]

W: Kyle Lohse (1-1) L: Damaso Marte (0-1)

[align=center]April 19th, 2008

6-7 pit.gifstl.gif 4-9

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Paul Maholm (0-1, 2.77) vs. Mark Mulder (0-1, 3.68)[/align]

Click Here for Official Boxscore

PIT: [4][9][0]

STL: [8][12][0]

W: Mark Mulder (1-1) L: Paul Maholm (0-2) S: Todd Wellemeyer (1)

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Cardinals Start to Come Alive...

-Is has been a... less than good start for the Cardinals this year, so far at 5-9 now that two full weeks of baseball has been played. But even with the 5-9 record, Cardinals manager and head coach, DustHimself is not the least bit worried.

"I told them before the last game in Milwaukee... Either you want to be here or you don't. If it's obvious you don't want to be here, I have no problem sending you down to Memphis, Springfield, or even Palm Beach. I have no problem trading you to another team. If I have to release you, I will do so. Nobody spoke up. They let their bats and their arms do the talking."

Three straight wins for the Cardinals since the speech, improving their 2-9 record to 5-9, avoiding that 10th loss.

"I think that's technically a streak... Hmm, yes," says IF Aaron Miles, who I really don't like but he tends to be a good hitter...

Rick Ankiel hit his St. Louis leading 5th homerun, 7th RBI, in the victory against the Brewers. He hit the 5 homeruns in 4 straight games, ending with the last loss against the Brewers.

In the 3rd win of the season, the Cardinals were trailing 0-1 in the ninth, after a brilliant performance by Adam Wainwright, who gave up only one hit, one earned run, and struck out 7 in 8 innings of work. However, Wellemeyer would get the win after Albert Pujols started a comeback rally in the bottom of the ninth. Jason LaRue would knock in two runners with two outs for the victory.

The walk off hit might have been just what the Cardinals needed. They welcomed the Pirates into St. Louis, and began a two day hitting clinic. With Kyle Lohse pitching a complete game, 1 run outting, the Cardinals took game one. Pujols went 4-4, and everyone managed to get on base on way or another. Kyle Lohse even went 2-4 to help out his team.

The next day; Ludwick, Glaus, Ankiel, and Miles would all get two hits a piece. Once again, every batter (short of Wellemeyer) managed to get on base one way or another. Mulder even helped the offense with an RBI base hit of his own. Mulder managed a solid outting, pitching six innings of work and giving up only 3 runs. Todd Wellemeyer managed to get the save after pitching the remaining 3 innings for Mulder.

The Cardinals will be facing the San Francisco Giants in the upcoming series. Hopefully the ball will keep rolling in their favor.

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