Carp and Perez

Ollie doesn't look so bad, but he once again insisted on throwing Pujols a strike when he had no reason to. Pujols gave the ball a ride, almost to the empty, unfinished seats in the upper deck in left. Seriously. Stop. Throwing. Pujols. Strikes. Ever.

Anyways, McLouth gets another start tonight, which is encouraging as he's been much better than the Duffster to this point this year. Sanchez is starting, but Tracy has him hitting 7th, which seems like a waste. A Sanchez/Wilson/Bay/Wilson top four sounds pretty respectable to me. Back with more as this one progresses, though I have a feeling Pujols may have just provided Carpenter with all he needs to beat us tonight (at least Thor has picked up a hit so we don't have to worry about being the first team no-hit in 2 years).

UPDATE (8:35)- Cota=not clutch. Strikes out looking with two guys on and two outs. I'm going to be pissed when a healthy Doumit gets put on a rehab assignment because we don't want to cut Cota. As for Perez, well he started off with a ton of strikes which all got hit somewhere, so he promptly walked Molina on four pitches. He started throwing strikes again, more hits, 2-0 Cards. Things are not looking good.

UPDATE (9:41)- After trying to battle back via a Bay homer and a string of hits a couple innings back, Perez gives up another run on a Pujols double in which McLouth almost made a sprinting diving catch (which would've been a certain double play) only to see it go under his glove to make it 5-2 in the 5th. Craig Wilson and Freddy Sanchez run into each other while chasing a pop-up hit by Encarnacion behind the pitcher's mound while Cota and Perez stand dumbly (as in not saying anything to help the situation) by. Just plain pathetic on the account of everyone, Sanchez and Wilson for not calling the ball, and Perez and Cota for not doing anything to help the situation. And now a run is singled in giving the Cards a four run lead, making it a costly error. I'm disgusted.

UPDATE (9:50 PM)- After another RBI single on an 0-2 count, Wehner faults Perez for "not picking his fielders up." Let's do a count this inning, McLouth misses a flyball on a tough, but very makeable play that should've been a DP, Wilson and Sanchez don't call and easy pop-up (which admittedly Ollie could've helped avoid, but honestly, the majority of the blame goes on those two) and drop it, and the last RBI single comes on what is a routine flyout with any normal right fielder (Jeromy Burnitz is, of course, not a normal right fielder but instead a very old one with absolutely no range at all, making into what looked like a single by a wide margin). Right, Perez needs to pick up the fielders, but mainly only to drop them off the Arch. The dude should've had four extra outs that innings. Seriously, this team makes me want to puke.

UPDATE (10:15)- "We Will... Rise Again." Seriously, Billy's right, those commercials need to be shelved ASAP. This team is a joke.

UPDATE (10:21)- Taguchi just caught a Freddy Sanchez at the wall without actually watching the ball. I mean his head was down and his eyes were actually shut. If Jeromy Burnitz tried that shit I'd guarantee it hits him in the head and goes over the fence.