Game 126: Pirates 4 Cardinals 1

What I wrote prior to the game: Snell's last start was pretty bad and I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that he needs the winter to find whatever it was that worked for him last year and isn't working this year.

What Ian Snell did today: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

For one night at least, Snell was fantastically dominant again as he kept the Cardinals flailing all night by putting his fastball where he wanted it and ramping it up to 96 at times, according to the TV gun. Braden Looper held the Pirates in check for most of the game until the Pirates scored some ugly runs in the ninth on some bad baseball by the Cardinals, but Snell was definitely the story in this one tonight. I'll take any sign that I can get that Snell's dominant stretch between the second half of 2006 and the first half of 2007 wasn't an illusion.