Major League Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals maintain Cincinnati chase- Padres lose lead to Giants
Major League Baseball cannot get better than this. For what it’s worth, the spectators are getting a good look on the action. The American league has been showcasing some dominant teams in their respective divisions. However, in the National League, one
can easily see how most teams are fairly competitive against each other. Yesterday saw the West Division leaders, San Diego Padres compete against the St. Louis Cardinals of the Central Division. Both sides were looking for crucial wins. The side from the
west has been on the pursuit towards Division title glory since the beginning of this season. Unfortunately, due to weak performances in the recent days, life has been tough for the roster players. The Central region ball club, on the other hand have their
own goals. The squad has been looking to close the gap between their team and the Cincinnati Reds. Suffice to say, the match up was important for teams in a way.
The Padres have been losing much support, as of late, from the critic and the fan base society. Not that there has been an issue prevailing in regards to the management realm of the club. The agenda has mainly been with the roster and star players. None
if some can bring the game to their opponents these days and much of the evidence is apparent in their recent playing form. They went through a rough patch in the middle that saw the ball club lose 10 games in a row. Much to their misery, West Division wild
card berth chasers, San Francisco Giants made sure they’d give the leaders a tough time. After yesterday’s results, San Diego has fallen to the 2nd spot on the table. Much of the reason concerns the season’s 9th shut out display that
saw the hitters mum on the strike zone plate.
The problem alone did not lie with the hitters but it was also the decision to bring in Tim Stauffer for pitching that cost the team a heavy loss. The ball thrower conceded 6 hits and 4 runs in his 5 innings of play. For a starting pitcher who’s only begun
the game in 3 outings, he had done quite less to seat himself in a position like this. The team is at its lowest form in the season and one thing that was needed, yesterday, was cover.
That’s something what the Cardinals had in their arsenal. Their three series losses to the Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs, this month have seen them trail the Cincinnati Reds by a margin of 8 wins. That has been a tough mountain to
climb for the ball club. Much to the displeasure of the fans, Albert Pujol’s recent accomplishment of 400 career home runs seems to have gone to waste as the side looks to lose their bid for the title, this season. However, the chase is still on and the hopefuls
in the stands still believe there is a chance. Yesterday saw Jake Westbrook take the mound for the pitching duty. The hitters were glad to see him mum the opponents, as the experienced ball thrower allowed just 6 hits in his 8 innings of play. The Padres were
shut out and Westbrook was the main reason why that happened.
The Cardinals scored through the 6th inning and the runs started coming in gradually. Matt Holliday produced an RBI (Runs Batted In) single to the centre to get Jon Jay through for the first brace in the first inning and that’s when the pressure
mounted on the visiting San Diego side to respond. Both sides didn’t do anything till the 6th inning, when the Cardinals gained confidence and produced the necessary runs to oust their opponents out of the competition. Pujols was responsible and
his double to the right centre got Skip Schumaker through for the second run for the night.
The final two runs came from some good baseball diamond sprinting. Yadier Molina got Pujols and Jay through for 2 additional runs in the same innings. That marked the last scoring initiative by the team and while the Cardinals were cruising to victory, the
Padres were facing the brunt of Westbrook’s elusive sinkers in their turn.
The game ended in a horror show for the Padres, as they lost the game and division top spot to the Giants. For the Cardinals, they attained a little boost in their morale for the remaining games.
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