Cardinals win eight in a row
The Cardinals got their eighth straight win on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium, crushing the Phillies 5-1 in the process.
Behind Jaime Garcia’s strong start and big hits from their stars in the batting rotation, the Saint Louis Cardinals are now 8-0 since the All-Star break and only one win away from completing a perfect home stand against the two teams that played for the NL pennant last year.
In a night where many Cardinals had a great game, it was Garcia who stole the show and was the star of the evening. Garcia, who is a quality player as he proved Wednesay night, is a guy who has worked extremely hard on developing as a player and being able to go out and compete against a strong lineup such as the aggressive Phillies.
Garcia was not intimidated and hurt the Phillies for seven innings, striking out six against two walks in only 95 pitches.
"Talking to [pitching coach Dave Duncan], they have been pretty aggressive, swinging a lot," Garcia said. "So my mentality for this game was just trying to keep the ball down and try and stay in control of the game and I thought I did a pretty good job early, and I was able to hold it out through a couple of innings."
Before winning three straight from the two-time defending NL champion Phillies, they swept a four-game set from the Dodgers. Now if you listen closely, fans in Saint Louis are starting to believe and cheer for their team as they did during their halcyon days of 2004-2006 when the Cardinals finished atop their division one year, atop the NL another, and finally won the World Series.
Garcia threw all of eight pitches in a 1-2-3 first inning, setting the tone early on and pumping fear and doubt in the hearts of opposing batters. He retired the first 12 Phillies in order before Ryan Howard led off the fifth with a homer that tied the game at one-all.
Just when it seemed that he might be showing signs of slowing down and in trouble, Garcia pitched is way out of a few jams in the fifth, sixth and in the seventh, but escaped every time.
Meanwhile, his team's offence was heating up against Joe Blanton. Jon Jay had the game's first hit, a fourth-inning double, and he scored on Albert Pujols' single. Still, the score stayed tied until the seventh.
Cardinal Matt Holliday cranked a leadoff homer in the bottom of the seventh that gave his team a lead they would not relinquish.
"It was a pitch down and away," Blanton said. "It was a good pitch. He's a good hitter. It's not exactly where I wanted to throw the pitch, but it was a very quality curveball. He's a good hitter. He put a good swing on it."
In the next inning, St Louis was pouring it on and tacked on three more runs in the eighth. After such a dominating performance over the past few days, the Cardinals are shining brighter than any of its National League rivals.
Since the second half started, the Cardinals starting pitchers are an outstanding 5-0 with a 2.03 ERA. What is equally impressive is that they've all gone at least six innings in six of the seven games.
"We've known all along, it's a long season," Jay said. "You're going to have your good times and bad times. It's part of baseball."
Things are going very well for the Cardinals and fans can't help but hope it can be like 2006 all over again, when the Cardinals won the World Series.
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