Well, Redding didnt beat Morris. He just did a servicable job of putting up 0's while Morris did. Morris was rolling yesterday, but the overmanaging of LaRussa strikes again.
NO WONDER!!! Rain delay! They should have closed the roof! Dummies! Oh yeah...their stadium does't have one! Ha! Minute Maid Park is the Best!
In most cases, if Redding pitched the way he did yesterday, he would have gotten the win in 90% of games. Relatively speaking, Redding outpitched Morris. Anytime your #5 guy goes toe to toe with your rival's #1, that is a huge advantage.
In most cases, the Cards wouldve started Pujols and Jim Edmonds and wouldve had Steve Kline (and Isringhausen - later in the season) We were extremely lucky to win yesterday for a variety of reasons. Luckilly LaRussa had his head in his arse and was cautious with Morris. Redding pitched a fine game but when you take out the top 2 hitters in the lineup, that's a big blow to their offense. The ironic thing about the whole thing is Im sure LaRussa wouldve started both players had he known today's game was going to be rained out. Now Oswalt wouldve shut down the Cardinals and been his usual awesome self. It's possible Simontachi couldve stopped the Stros offense though highly doubtful. I would take my chances with that matchup anyday.
Isn't that the truth Raven.... I never kept up with the Angels, but was Edmonds always that solid offensively? I mean, I know the guy was nails defensively...but I don't remember seeing him on Sportscenter because of his bat. Ever since he signed with the Cards, the guy's just flat out killing the ball. Looks like someone made a deal with the devil.....
Didn't Simontachi give us trouble last year? Hmmmm....even Oswalt wasn't crisp in his first either. I strongly dislike the Cards and I wish we beat heavily this season - I just cannot stand them. 2001 NL Central Co-Champions my behind Go 'Stros!!!
John P. Lopez had a good article in today's chronicle about why the Cards really called yesterday's scheduled game. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1855231 Forecast for St. Louis: There's an Astros alert By JOHN P. LOPEZ Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle ST. LOUIS -- There were a couple of painful last at-bat losses, a couple of Cardinals outfielders who came up gimpy, and a chilling date with Roy Oswalt looming. And so barely a week into the season, the Astros had St. Louis looking like a bunch of Scared-y Cards. The Cardinals might call it what they want, but it seems Sunday's Astros-Cardinals game was called on account of reign. The Cards, who likely would have had to play without Astros killer Jim Edmonds and slugger Albert Pujols, didn't want to give up their Central Division reign without a fair fight. And the Astros looked like they were ready to wrest the crown and stake a claim to the title even before Easter Sunday. Officially, cold and mist were offered as the reasons for Sunday's cancellation at Busch Stadium. But anyone who watched this series had to know better, or at least that something else put a chill into the Cardinals. It wasn't appreciably colder in St. Louis on Sunday than it was one day earlier, when the Astros spoiled a Matt Morris gem with a ninth-inning rally. Nor was it much colder than Friday night, when Brad Ausmus capped the game of his life with a 12th-inning game-winning home run. And wet? Heck, when their roof leaks, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have played under wetter conditions than what hovered over St. Louis on Sunday. The weather was blustery, but not impossible. The weather more than likely gave the Cardinals the perfect opportunity to regroup and re-evaluate the status of Edmonds' strained calf muscle, Pujols' strained hamstring and Tony La Russa's strained managerial touch. It's early, of course. But if nothing else on the way to sweeping the first two games of the always-important season series with the Cardinals, the Astros outplayed and outmanaged the division favorites. Except for Ausmus' NL Player of the Week-type performance, the Astros might not have inspired awe on the field, but they did nothing to dispel predictions they'll be in the race throughout. In the dugout, skipper Jimy Williams didn't exactly reinvent the game. But most important, he didn't try to reinvent the game -- like La Russa often has attempted. Several moves backfired on La Russa in these two showdowns with the Astros. Most notably, an attempted steal of third base in the bottom of the 12th in the opener that wound up as a strikeout, throw-out game-ending double play was ill-advised. And in Saturday's second game, yanking Morris after the Astros had hardly touched him all day, and with his best inning the eighth, was questionable. So, too, was it questionable to pitch to Ausmus in the ninth with runners on second and third after Ausmus had been hammering the ball even on outs. Ausmus provided the game-winning hit with first base open, and the Astros wrapped up the opening week of the season with a 4-1 record, half a game out of the NL Central lead. It was just one week. The Cardinals no doubt will try to answer the Astros' strong statement in St. Louis with one of their own this weekend at Minute Maid Park. Edmonds and Pujols should be better, and La Russa has juggled his rotation in order to use his best pitchers in Houston. But the first week of the season showed just how strong this Astros team can be while offering only hints of potential trouble spots. Williams and general manager Gerry Hunsicker have to be watching closely the middle of the infield and opponents testing Craig Biggio's arm in center. They also must be crossing fingers over the Nos. 3 and 4 starters, Jeriome Robertson and Brian Moehler. There were no catastrophes on any of those fronts the first week, just warning lights flickering. If anything, the big bats and Ausmus' cool and clutch ways showed any shortcomings defensively or on the hill can be overcome. Still, for all his offense, Jeff Kent has not been smooth defensively at second, nor has Julio Lugo at short -- and Lugo has yet to start swinging the bat, either. Biggio, while adapting nicely defensively and swinging a good stick, will have his arm tested often on singles up the middle and drives to the gap. No. 5 starter Tim Redding showed the most promise in the bottom part of the rotation. Robertson pitched like a rookie finding his way. Moehler was decent to begin with in his start, but he blew up in the fifth inning. Still, things could have gone worse for the Astros in the first showdown with their big division rival -- they could have been the Cardinals.
So, the Cards called this one in sick and used weather as an excuse? How can that happen? Is that the rule...home team can call the game if they want because it looks like it could rain heavily? What a joke, man!
Home team makes the decision until the lineup cards are turned into the ump. It was LaRussa's call to make, and he made it. Official MLB Rules : 4.01 Unless the home club shall have given previous notice that the game has been postponed or will be delayed in starting, the umpire, or umpires, shall enter the playing field five minutes before the hour set for the game to begin and proceed directly to home base where they shall be met by the managers of the opposing teams. In sequence_ (a) First, the home manager shall give his batting order to the umpire in chief, in duplicate. (b) Next, the visiting manager shall give his batting order to the umpire in chief, in duplicate. (c) The umpire in chief shall make certain that the original and copies of the respective batting orders are identical, and then tender a copy of each batting order to the opposing manager. The copy retained by the umpire shall be the official batting order. The tender of the batting order by the umpire shall establish the batting orders. Thereafter, no substitutions shall be made by either manager, except as provided in the rules. (d) As soon as the home team's batting order is handed to the umpire in chief the umpires are in charge of the playing field and from that moment they shall have sole authority to determine when a game shall be called, suspended or resumed on account of weather or the condition of the playing field. Obvious errors in the batting order, which are noticed by the umpire in chief before he calls "Play" for the start of the game, should be called to the attention of the manager or captain of the team in error, so the correction can be made before the game starts. For example, if a manager has inadvertently listed only eight men in the batting order, or has listed two players with the same last name but without an identifying initial and the errors are noticed by the umpire before he calls "play," he shall cause such error or errors to be corrected before he calls "play" to start the game. Teams should not be "trapped" later by some mistake that obviously was inadvertent and which can be corrected before the game starts.
That's piss poor on the Cards part. Injuries are a part of the game. So...what...next time they are going to be all healthy and Roy Oswalt may not be the pitcher due up and we may be the ones with injuries. Translation...an almost sure win could turn into a loss because of p***y postponements like this. That rule sucks donkey d*cks. And, how could we ever do something like this considering we have a retractable roof? "Uh...our roof won't retract cause it's broke and there are clouds in the sky so we're calling the game". The truth is the Cards got their asses whipped by the Astros and instead of being swept under the carpet they weaseled their weaseling arses out of the game. They should rename them the St. Louis Weasels. I won't be forgetting this any time soon. Larussa just made my sh*t list for life.
Sorry dylan but Oswalt owns the Red Birds, and that was a win no matter how you look at it. Also, Redding is a hell of a lot better pitcher then most people think... he has the best stuff on the staff, he just needs to get the control down. I'd take a Redding over a Simontachi anyday.
