Cards 4 Bucs 2- The return of the "sieve" defense

Three errors on the night and two misplays that weren't technically errors but still were plays that should have been made by Jack Wilson in the key bottom of the 6th and the Pirates lose. You can't give a team like the Cardinals more outs, or games like tonight slip away. Maybe the first play, when Jack Wilson gave a Johnny Pesky like pause to let Larry Walker score from first on Pujols's two out, two strike double, was someone else's fault for not alerting him to the runners, but both that and Reggie Sanders infield single to the hole were makeable plays. Do you expect to score two runs and beat the Cardinals? No, but when Dave Williams pitched as well as he did tonight, you have to take advantage of it. Then of course there was the choice of pitching little-used Vogelsong in the bottom of the 8th with only a one run lead. I'm all for getting Vogelsong some more time on the mound, but having pitched once since May 6th, tonight was not the night for it. Everyone said we could use this series to measure our improvement since April against the Cardinals. The improvement is obvious, but so is the difference in the two teams. And again, this is only two days, but it's two days in a row our defense may have cost us the game.

20 Games in 20 Days: 2-2