Albert Pujols's Hamstring: Sunday's Exit Was "Precautionary", Per Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals' series victory over the Cincinnati Reds Sunday night was only marred by Albert Pujols's late early exit—the slugging first baseman limped down the line following a ground ball in the eighth inning and was removed shortly afterward, replaced by Lance Berkman at first base.

The Cardinals don't play Monday and return to action Tuesday, on the road against the Houston Astros. Barring any further updates, Albert Pujols is likely to be ready for the series in one of his favorite places to hit and drive closers to nervous breakdown. The injury, it turns out, was to his hamstring, and the exit was only precautionary. Pujols is likely day-to-day, which always seems true; he's been durable his entire career, but he can't run to first base without limping or wincing on the way. 

For all that, Pujols played 159 games in 2010 and 160 in 2009; he last missed significant time in 2008, when he played in 148 games, and has only played less than that once, when he had a stint on the DL in 2006. 

Mitchell Boggs Picks Up Third Save As St. Louis Cardinals Non-Closer

Mitchell Boggs, the St. Louis Cardinals' 27-year-old de facto closer, picked up his third save of the season Sunday night against the Cincinnati Reds, striking out two in a scoreless inning marred only by a bases-empty double from Joey Votto. For all Tony La Russa's claimed ambivalence on the topic, that marks three consecutive save situations Mitchell Boggs has been thrown into, and this one, which featured a basically safe three-run lead, might be the most telling at all. 

Boggs's numbers in 2011 are his best to date; he's struck out 15 against just three walks in his 12 1/3 innings this season on his way to a 1.46 ERA, overshadowed only by Eduardo Sanchez's explosive debut. Boggs was uneven in 2010, his first full year as a reliever, but he never had a month like this; only last September did he finally manage to strike out a batter an inning. 

Potential fantasy baseball suitors looking for saves should be advised mainly of Tony La Russa's general orneriness; Boggs certainly has the stuff to be a closer, flashing a fastball that touches 97 and a hard slider that's tough on right-handers. He struggled with his control as a starter and has had his difficulties with left-handers, but he's got more than enough potential to be thought of as a closer for the next few years. 

St. Louis Cardinals Take Two Of Three From Cincinnati Reds

Yadier Molina's three-run home run was all the scoring Jake Westbrook and the new faces in the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen needed to beat the Cincinnati Reds Sunday night, interrupting a scoreless pitchers' duel on the way to a 3-0 Cardinals win. Jake Westbrook pitched six scoreless innings on short rest to win his second game of the season, and Mitchell Boggs picked up his third save, striking out two in a scoreless ninth inning. Edinson Volquez struck out seven for the Reds in the loss; Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto each doubled. 

The Cardinals received a scare when Albert Pujols came up limping down the basepaths late in the game, but the Cardinals said after the game that he was lifted from the rain-soaked but undelayed game for "precautionary reasons." He was 1-4 with a single before leaving, and was replaced at first base by Lance Berkman, who played his first inning of the season there. 

Earlier in the game, Molina, one of the major pieces of last years Cardinals-Reds brawl, threw out Jonny Gomes at second base. 

Scott Rolen Unlikely To Play In St. Louis Cardinals Finale

Former Cardinal Scott Rolen is apparently unlikely to play in the team's season finale versus his Cincinnati Reds Sunday, after receiving a cortisone shot on Thursday in the left shoulder that hastened his exit from St. Louis in 2007. Rolen's bad shoulder caused an offensive decline that seemed to have abated in 2010, when he hit 20 home runs, the most he'd managed since the Cardinals' World Series championship season of 2006. 

Since suffering the shoulder injury Rolen's hit just .279/.351/.457, a serious decline from his 1996 to 2004 marks of .286/.378/.520. The eight-time Gold Glove winner and six time All-Star could end up on the 15-day disabled list, though the Reds haven't yet made a decision. 

In the meantime, his replacement, former Cardinal Miguel Cairo, has made the most of his time at the hot corner, driving in the game-winning runs in the Reds' Saturday victory over the Cardinals. In 67 games against St. Louis Rolen has hit .273/.369/.486, with 12 home runs and 41 RBI in 245 at-bats. 

Ryan Franklin: Forget Closer, Should He Be On The Cardinals' Roster?

Ryan Franklin's latest misadventure out of the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen, in the team's 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds Saturday, has led to renewed calls for his outright release from the team—a sign of just how fast a closer debate can escalate from "Is he a closer?" to "Is he a Major Leaguer?" The anger makes sense, but Saturday's game was difficult to situate as proof he shouldn't pitch in the Majors. 

For one thing, the situation—coming cold into a game with the bases loaded and the score tied is something that is best done if you're the team's best reliever. We've established already that Franklin isn't the team's best reliever, and he failed, somewhat predictably, to stop the Cardinals' bleeding. 

So Franklin was brought in to do something that wasn't his job, and he failed to do it. At some point the Cardinals will be forced by bullpen machinations, both necessary—the hard work the young right-handers had done over the last several games, which made them unavailable Saturday—and unnecessary—the intentional walk and the multiple pitching moves that inning in particular—to bring in their worst reliever to pitch in a high-leverage situation. Oftentimes it looks like this. 

Franklin might be the Cardinals' worst reliever, but at this point it's difficult to say they could find a better worse reliever out of the pieces currently around. 

Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals Bullpen Fail In Cincinnati Reds Win

The St. Louis Cardinals had significantly less luck in Saturday’s rain delayed game against the Cincinnati Reds, falling 5-3 to their division rivals after the bullpen’s disastrous and rain-lengthened eighth inning. Miguel Batista, Trever Miller, Ryan Franklin, and a critical error by David Freese all contributed to the loss. Albert Pujols hit his seventh home run of the season for the Cardinals in the loss, which gave Chris Carpenter yet another no-decision in the season’s first month.

Batista got the first out on a soft grounder and struck Brandon Phillips out for the second, but in the meantime Drew Stubbs had reached on Freese’s throwing error. Joey Votto was intentionally walked to reach Jonny Gomes, who was hit by a pitch that loaded the bases for Trever Miller. Miller walked Jay Bruce to score the first run, and then Ryan Franklin was placed in an unwinnable situation. Franklin allowed a single to Miguel Cairo to put the Reds ahead for good, and without allowing a single earned run the Cardinals’ older half of the bullpen had engendered more than its usual share of fan rancor.

Aroldis Chapman picked up the win, going two-thirds of an inning with a strikeout. Francisco Cordero picked up his third save of the year for the Reds in the win.

St. Louis Cardinals, Chris Carpenter Take On Cincinnati Reds In Game Two

St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter played a particularly large role in last year's Cardinals-Reds brawl, and he's good friends with Jason LaRue, the backup catcher forced into retirement by a concussion he suffered at the hands—well, feet—of Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto, but he has plenty of impersonal reasons to desire a win Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium. Here's one: He still doesn't have a win, a year after going 16-9 in a league-leading 35 starts. 

He's pitched well enough to deserve one three times, including last week's seven-shutout-innings loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, in which he struck out six without allowing a walk, but it just hasn't happened. 

The Reds will respond with Travis Wood, who's been on-and-off in four starts to date. One and three: 13 2/3 innings, two earned runs, and 12 strikeouts against just three walks. Two and four: 8 1/3 innings, seven earned runs, five walks. All starts considered he's 1-2 with an ERA of 5.73, and he'll look to avenge the beating he took at the hands—well, bats—of the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday against the Cardinals. 

St. Louis Cardinals Top Cincinnati Reds 4-2 In Rain-Delayed Series Opener

The St. Louis Cardinals got to the Cincinnati Reds bullpen in the first inning, thanks to some astute managing from Tony La Russa, and made the most of it, scoring four runs in the first five innings to beat the Reds by a score of 4-2. Kyle McClellan came in after the first batter and went six solid innings for the win; Mitchell Boggs came in to get his second save in as many tries since the Cardinals demoted a struggling Ryan Franklin.

Brandon Phillips, engaged in a Twitter war of words with Cardinals fans earlier in the week, went 2-5 with a home run to pace the Reds, who were forced to play without scheduled starter Edinson Volquez after he went through a full warmup prior to a long rain delay.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, sensing that play would be stopped shortly, made an extremely late scratch of his starter, McClellan, going with reliever Miguel Batista at the last minute. Batista only threw six pitches before the rain came down, and when play resumed McClellan was ready. It made all the difference.

Albert Pujols drove in two in the win; Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman doubled for the Cardinals, who improve to 11-9 and continue to lead the National League Central.

Cardinals Vs. Reds In First-Inning Rain Delay, Brandon Phillips Booed

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds’ first game of the season went into a rain delay after just six pitches, which was barely enough time for the Cardinals fans to boo Brandon Phillips and cheer when emergency rain-aided starter Miguel Batista threw one up-and-in to St. Louis’s least-favorite baseball player since, say, J.D. Drew. Batista was named as the starter during warmups when Tony La Russa decided he didn’t want to start Kyle McClellan immediately before the rain started to fall over Busch Stadium.

Reds starter Edinson Volquez is unlikely to be affected by a significant delay, since he hadn’t yet come into the game. Batista looked less than ready for his brief audition, throwing six balls, including two wild pitches, to start the game.

The Cardinals currently have no update as to how long the rain delay will last, but updates are likely to come via the team’s official Twitter and in Viva El Birdos’s perpetually updated Game Thread. At this moment the Reds have a runner on first with Brandon Phillips at the plate.

St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds Resume NL Central Slap-Fight

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds are not natural rivals, but as the Cardinals and Houston Astros proved in 2004 and 2005, that's not the only way to turn a friendly NL Central series into a minor bloodbath. After 2010 saw the Reds surprise baseball with an NL Central title and Jason LaRue with a jumpkick to the face, 2011 promises to be even more heated than the year before—at least if newly tweeting Brandon Phillips has anything to say about it. 

Friday's starters, Edinson Volquez and Kyle McClellan, are both among the more enigmatic starters in the division. Volquez is a flame-throwing right-hander off to a rough start, while McClellan is a former reliever who's been outstanding in his first month in the rotation. Saturday we'll see Travis Wood against Chris Carpenter, and Sunday Sam LeCure will pitch, according to reports, against a short-rested Jake Westbrook. 

Umpires, fans, and players will all be on guard for perceived slights, which should make this the tensest April series we've seen in a while. 

Choose Your Own Adventure #1: St. Louis Cardinals Vs. Cincinnati Reds

Like Mike Leake in a Macy's, adulthood has stolen many of my fondest memories. However, it has not taken my memory of the days when I once ruled the world and was allowed to CHOOSE MY OWN ADVENTURE(!).

Anyway, this is awkward... So, here we are.