St Louis Cardinals baseball team

The storylines were the unpredictability, how a Cardinals team that was 10 1/2 games out of the Wild Card with 31 to play made it to the World Series. And do it in a wild, crazy six-game series against the Brewers, in which the St. Louis relievers got more outs (88) than the starters (73), who never got an out in a sixth inning and totaled just 24 1/3 innings in six games.

Add to that the unpredictability of 28-year-old David Freese winning the National League Championship Series MVP in a lineup with Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman. But to his Cardinals teammates, Freese was not something totally unpredictable, one of those Brian Doyle/Rick Dempsey October moments.

“It’s just been a matter of his staying healthy,” said Pujols. “He’s had bad luck, but he has tremendous ability.”

At the beginning of the series, Ryan Theriot predicted this would be the series that brought Freese into the national consciousness.

“He is really strong,” Theriot said. “He’s got tremendous power, and because his power is to center and right-center, he can extend and hit the ball a long way. It carries. Just watch.” Freese is a guy — remember, 28-year-old guy — who, in parts of three Major League seasons had 15 home runs, 10 this season. He’s a guy who, like Nelson Cruz, was batting seventh in a very good lineup. And when Game 6 ended Sunday night, he’d had a series in which he batted .545 with three homers and nine RBIs, giving him the postseason lead with 14 RBIs.

One other player has had .500/3/9 numbers in a postseason series. Lou Gehrig hit .545 with four homers and nine RBIs in the 1928 World Series.

Lou Gehrig.

Freese’s story is compelling. He quit baseball at Lafayette High School in suburban Wildwood, Mo. His coach tried to talk him back into playing by having him work out and talk with his former teammate and friend Ryan Howard.

“The negativity of the game kind of confused me,” Freese says.

But he came back to play in junior college, then at South Alabama. At the age of 23 he was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the ninth round in 2006 and, after hitting .302 with 17 homers and an .889 OPS in A ball in 2007, was shipped to the Cardinals in December 2007 for Jim Edmonds.

“This was great scouting,” says Tony La Russa. “We could see right away in Spring Training [2008], that David had legitimate ability. But he had some bad breaks.”

In 2008, Freese played at Triple-A for the Cardinals and posted good corner numbers: 26 homers, 91 RBIs, .910 OPS. But in 2009, he suffered ankle injuries, limiting him to 17 Major League games. In 2010, he had more physical problems and played only 70 games, hitting four homers. Even this season, he was hit by a pitch, broke his hand and played only 97 games, hitting 10 homers and posting a .791 OPS.

“It was just a matter of playing time, at-bats and experience,” says hitting coach Mark McGwire. “When you have a swing like his, where he naturally can stay back and drive the ball with such power to right-center, you have a chance to be a very good hitter. He does that. It just takes time to learn.”

Freese says he learned his hitting style as a teenager. “I was pretty small, so I was a second baseman,” Freese recalls. “My father would tell me to work on hitting line drives to right field. So that’s what I did. That’s how I developed my swing. I don’t think anyone envisioned I’d get so much bigger and be able to drive the ball.”

He homered off Roy Oswalt in the Division Series against Philadelphia. Then, in Game 1 in Milwaukee, he crushed a bomb to right-center.

“No one thought that was going out, which tells you how strong he is,” says La Russa.

Then in the clincher, he pulled a three-run homer in the first inning off Shaun Marcum that began the revolving bullpen brigade.

Before Sunday’s game, two Cardinals teammates said that, barring the unforeseen, Freese had to be the series MVP. And that was before the home run, double and single and the long night for the Brewers pitchers.

“This was the series where David Freese emerged as a star-level player,” said La Russa. “It may surprise some people who haven’t seen him play a lot, but it’s no surprise to us.”

“No surprise at all,” said Pujols. “He is a special player.”

Edwin Jackson made last month seem like a lifetime ago.

Jackson turned in one of his best starts of the year in the same ballpark where, less than a month earlier, he made one of the worst of his career. He pitched seven strong innings to help the Cardinals to a skin-of-the-teeth 2-1 win over the Brewers at Miller Park on Tuesday.

The Cardinals pulled within 9 1/2 games of the Brewers in the National League Central with 27 games left in the regular season. The two clubs will meet five more times. It was the Cards’ second win in seven games at Miller Park in 2011.

Twenty-seven days earlier, the last time the rivals met in Milwaukee, Jackson was on the losing end of a 10-5 thumping. He stayed in to allow 14 hits and all 10 runs over seven innings, taking one for the team on a day when the bullpen was tapped.

This time around, Jackson stayed in because he was dealing. He permitted six hits over seven efficient innings, needing 91 pitches to get 21 outs. Jackson struck out three, and didn’t issue a walk for the first time since he’s been with the Cardinals.

“That just shows you what he’s capable of doing,” manager Tony La Russa said. “To come into this situation and keep everything together, his concentration. … He never had [a significant lead] to play with. It was really impressive.”

Jackson located both his fastball and his slider with impressive accuracy, allowing his stuff to shine. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in five of his eight starts as a Cardinal. He also picked up his fifth base hit with St. Louis to boot, an RBI single that gave the Redbirds the lead.

“Outstanding,” said Brewers manager Ron Roenicke. “That’s as good as I’ve seen him throw. He really pitched today. He threw a lot more breaking balls, had a nice cutter, had a nice slider and spotted his fastball well.”

The one time Jackson did get in serious trouble, he made a stunning save to get out of it.

The Brewers opened the sixth inning with consecutive doubles by Corey Hart and Nyjer Morgan, bringing up the heart of their order. But Ryan Braun grounded out, Prince Fielder struck out and Casey McGehee flied out to left field to end the threat.

The strikeout of Fielder, an extremely dangerous left-hander, may have been the game’s turning point.

“Definitely that’s a guy, he’s a threat to go deep any time, any count, any pitch,” Jackson said. “You just have to come out and try to execute pitches and keep the ball down until you get in a count where you maybe can go for a punchout. I did it, and I was fortunate enough to do that. That was definitely a big inning.”

The St. Louis bullpen took it home from there, with four pitchers combining to get the final six outs. Fernando Salas dodged trouble for his 23rd save of the year. He also benefited from a critical defensive play on a bunt attempt.

Walks by Marc Rzepczynski and Salas put two men on with no outs for Yuniesky Betancourt, who attempted a sacrifice. Albert Pujols charged, fielded the ball and made a throw to third base to get the lead runner. The Cards actually had a chance at a double play, but Ryan Theriot couldn’t quite secure Daniel Descalso’s throw in time.

However, the next batter, Mark Kotsay, grounded into a twin killing to end the game.

The Cards’ offense didn’t exactly light it up, but the visitors did take sufficient advantage of a couple of Milwaukee lapses. Two errors put the first two batters of the fifth inning on base for St. Louis. After Yadier Molina singled to load the bases, Jackson singled in the first Cards run, and a Jon Jay sacrifice fly made it 2-0.

The Cardinals made a pair of moves on Thursday, one long expected and one necessitated at the last minute.

As it had planned to do all week, the club reinstated catcher Gerald Laird from the 15-day disabled list prior to Thursday’s game. To make room, Mark Hamilton was optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Additionally, the Cards optioned pitcher Brandon Dickson to Memphis and purchased the contract of pitcher P.J. Walters. To make room for Walters on the 40-man roster, pitcher Bryan Augenstein was designated for assignment.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the sequence was Hamilton being sent out. Instead of keeping the left-swinging first baseman, the Cardinals kept Tony Cruz on the roster as a third catcher. Cruz can also play first base and third base, and already has done so while in the big leagues.

“We’ve got a variety of ways to use Cruz,” manager Tony La Russa said. “Plus he’s done well. He’s done a good job since he was here.”

Walters was needed because of Wednesday night’s 13-inning game in which the Cardinals used six relievers to pitch 8 2/3 innings. He was slated to start for Memphis at Round Rock on Thursday, but instead was notified late Wednesday night to come to St. Louis.

The Cardinals got a baseball rat with their first-round Draft pick on Monday, a kid who loves to play ball. They got a young man who, according to his college coach, “plays above his tools.”

Mostly, though, they got a hitter. Kolten Wong, the No. 22 overall selection in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, was widely regarded as one of the two or three most advanced hitters in the Draft pool. He just finished his junior season at the University of Hawaii, and he’s the first non-pitcher ever to be taken in the first round out of the school.

Wong raked in the elite Cape Cod League last summer, thriving even with wood bats. When college baseball switched this year to a new bat compound that depressed offense, he kept on hitting. Despite playing in a serious pitchers’ park and facing a schedule that included powerhouses like Texas, Cal State-Fullerton and Wichita State, he kept on hitting.

The left-handed-hitting second baseman batted .378 with a .492 on-base percentage, a .560 slugging percentage, seven homers, 53 RBIs and 48 runs in 57 games. He also stole 23 bases in 30 attempts en route to his third straight selection as a first-team all-Western Athletic Conference player. Wong turns 20 in October, making him quite young for a college draftee.

He loves to hit, he’s good at hitting and he’s been thinking about hitting since he was a kid. Wong’s father, Kaha, played two seasons of professional ball in the Class A California League.

“Since day one, me and my dad have worked on my hitting,” Wong said on Monday. “Balance, hand path, bat plane, everything. We’ve worked on everything to be perfect. From day one, my dad’s always had a batting cage in the back. We’ve always hit. That’s been a big thing for me, just all the work with my dad. Learning my swing and understanding how to swing the bat my way. Knowing that if I ever get in a slump, I know how to fix it. That was really huge for me in my baseball career.”

The selection of Wong continues a recent trend for the Cardinals. He is the third college infielder selected by the club in the first round in the past four years. That’s not an accident. For an organization fairly deep in pitching, the infield remains an area of need.

“Kolten Wong is one of the best hitters that we saw all year, and he plays a position that we really feel is important for our organization,” said scouting director Jeff Luhnow.

Wong follows Zack Cox (2010) and Brett Wallace (2008) as college infielders drafted high by the Cardinals. Luhnow hopes he can follow a similar development path to the one Cox is on. The club believes there is a good chance Wong will sign before the Aug. 15 deadline, allowing him to get out and play short-season ball.

From there, he could go to the Arizona Fall League and potentially begin next season at high Class A Palm Beach. Cox was recently promoted from Palm Beach to Double-A Springfield.

“We don’t see their progression really too differently,” Luhnow said. “And he’s young. He’s a young junior with some upside remaining.”

Live coverage of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft resumes at 11 a.m. CT Tuesday on MLB.com, where fans will receive exclusive coverage of Day 2 and 3, featuring a live pick-by-pick stream, expert commentary and Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of every Draft-eligible player.

The Cardinals first saw Wong a year ago when they scouted Greg Garcia, who was Wong’s double-play partner at Hawaii last year. Garcia, who St. Louis drafted in the seventh round in 2010, is now playing at Palm Beach after starting this season at low Class A Quad Cities.

The combination is a source of great pride not only for the Hawaii baseball program, but for the state. Wong is a native Hawaiian, a product of a state that loves its hometown heroes.

“We’re a small state and we’re a close-knit community,” said Mike Trapasso, the Hawaii coach. “I’ve only been out here 10 years, but you see right away the pride in the Hawaiian players and our local players. It’s a great story for a young man from Hilo, from the ‘Big Island,’ to first of all come to the University of Hawaii and excel, and then to become a first-round pick. It really is — it’s a great story. … It really is a big source of pride here.”

Trapasso is a Cardinals fan, making it extra sweet for him to see his two protgs wearing the “birds on the bat.” He’s fond of Wong as a young man, but warns not to underestimate him as a player. The easy conclusion is to see an undersized (Wong is 5-foot-9) player and assume he’s simply a ‘gritty,’ hard-working type. Trapasso insists Wong is much more than that.

“He has a rare combination of outstanding ability that goes along with outstanding makeup,” Trapasso said.

“While he’s not tall, he’s not small either. He’s 190 pounds and he’s strong. … He really does play above his tools. But they’re above-average tools.”

As the Cardinals walked off with another victory Tuesday — 3-2 in 11 innings over the Padres — a dusting of red pixie dust would’ve been apt for the National League Central leaders given the number of unassuming heroes.

The rookie infielder who was the last guy to make the team? Yes, Daniel Descalso smacked another clutch hit.

The reliever who plugged a hole in the starting rotation? Yep, Kyle McClellan was on the job and retired 16 of his final 17 Padres hitters at PETCO Park, then saw St. Louis improve to 8-1 in his starts.

And the catcher, Tony Cruz, who was making his Major League debut? He merely knocked out three hits, including a double, and caught a quintet of pitchers who allowed only two hits, none after the fourth inning.

The Cardinals’ clubhouse was almost subdued after a victory that locked up the 12th series victory in the last 14, one tie included, but small smiles creased the faces of general manager John Mozeliak and manager Tony La Russa.

“You can’t be upset with anything,” La Russa said. “Guys are really working.”

The Cardinals (30-20) rose to 10 games above .500 for the first time this year with their eighth victory in nine games, and did it with Matt Holliday and his .349 batting average on the bench for the second straight night.

Keep the game close until Descalso bats should be part of the dugout chatter. For the second straight game, the 5-foot-10 left-handed hitter with the paltry batting average drilled a late single to break a tie. The one-hop smash off the glove of second baseman Orlando Hudson — his third hit of the night — scored Allen Craig with two outs in the 11th.

For Descalso, who has run with the third-base job job since replacing the injured David Freese, it was his 10th RBI this year to put the Cardinals ahead or even.

“Call him D-Money,” La Russa said, coining a nickname for the UC Davis alumnus.

The single off the Padres’ Ernesto Frieri (1-2) raised Descalso’s batting average to .239. The No. 8 hitter has 17 RBIs in 44 games.

“Have you ever seen a .230s hitter do more damage than him?” said reliever Miguel Batista, who had two scoreless innings and improved to 3-1.

Said La Russa: “He’s got a nice stroke and he puts the ball in play all over the field. He’s hit different pitches. It’s impressive.”

McClellan, for his part, is succeeding so often that his conversion from relief to starting is becoming less of a story, but he said his outing Tuesday “was the best I felt in terms of having all four pitches. I was pretty much able to throw any pitch in any count.”

La Russa trusted McClellan to call his own game and take heat off Cruz, whose start refreshed catcher Yadier Molina. McClellan said he shook off maybe 10 calls from the rookie, whose defensive skills influenced his promotion Monday to replace injured reserved Gerald Laird. “I thought he did a really good job,” McClellan said.

A .232 hitter in Triple-A this season, Cruz stung the Padres for three hits, the first a line-drive single in the second. His opposite-field double into the right-field corner led to a tying run in the seventh, scored by Descalso on Ryan Theriot’s groundout.

“I was just trying to make contact and it worked out,” Cruz said.

The Cardinals went ahead, 1-0, in the first inning on Lance Berkman’s infield single to Padres first baseman Brad Hawpe, whose underhand toss got past pitcher Aaron Harang and allowed Jon Jay to score. No error was charged on the play.

Returning the favor later in the first, Cardinals shortstop Theriot bounced his two-out throw to put Ryan Ludwick on first. Hawpe followed the error, which was Theriot’s 10th, with a home run over the 396-foot sign in center field.

Until Hawpe belted his 0-1 changeup for his third home run, McClellan hadn’t suffered an unearned run this season, which couldn’t be said of seven other Cardinals.

McClellan also was accustomed to better run support than the two runs he received Tuesday. His average of 6.1 runs ranked sixth in the NL.

At any rate, McLellan was still McClellan, 2011 vintage. He worked fast, attacked with his trusty sinker and discouraged Padres hitters from spectating.

“He pitched excellent,” La Russa said. “And you’ve got to give him extra credit because he’s pitching to a rookie catcher and a lot was on him to pitch his own game.”

More clutch than the team’s offense, which outhit the Padres 12-2, was the team defense, which got stellar plays from corner outfielders Allen Craig and Lance Berkman and a nice snag from Descalso. And it was Craig’s leadoff walk and fourth stolen base that set up Descalso in the 11th.

Turnabout may be fair play, but it was no fun for the Cardinals on Saturday.

One day after Jaime Garcia flirted with history, Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo did the same. Gallardo took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and held on for a 4-0 victory over Kyle Lohse and the Cardinals. Lohse turned in a fine start of his own, but it wasn’t enough on a day when Gallardo was superb.

Daniel Descalso broke up Gallardo’s no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the eighth inning, a clean roller up the middle on the right-hander’s 107th pitch of the afternoon. The Cardinals couldn’t convert it into any runs, though — just as they couldn’t with walks in each of the preceding three innings.

“He mixed it up well,” Descalso said. “He used both sides of the plate. He had his ‘A’ stuff, and he got the best of us.”

The previously struggling Gallardo looked for all the world like the pitcher who had been an All-Star the year before. His stuff remained strong throughout his outing, and although his command occasionally wavered a bit, the Cardinals rarely put him in jeopardy.

One day earlier, Garcia took a bid for a perfect game into the eighth, so history was definitely on just about everyone’s mind at Busch Stadium.

“If a pitcher sits there and tells you he isn’t thinking about it, I think it’s not true,” Gallardo said. “I was definitely thinking about it. Of course, it would have been great to achieve that, but most important is just getting a win.”

The greatest threats against him came early. In the first inning, Colby Rasmus hit a fly ball all the way to the wall in center field, but Carlos Gomez made an outstanding play to prevent an extra-base hit.

In the fifth, Tyler Greene hit a hard slicing liner to right with two men on, but Mark Kotsay made the play. With Greene’s speed and the location of the ball, it likely would have been a triple and a one-run lead for the Cardinals. Instead they were kept off the scoreboard.

“I hit it good — put it in the corner over there,” said Greene. “I watched it on video and saw how close, how nice of a play he made. It’s just the way it goes. It’s a ball that, if it gets down, I’m definitely thinking three bases there. All the way in that corner. I think definitely those two runs score and it’s a whole new ballgame.”

Descalso’s single was squandered in the eighth. in the Cards’ last threat of any kind. Greene couldn’t get a sacrifice down, Jon Jay grounded into a forceout and Nick Punto flied out to end the inning. The decision to bunt with a 3-0 count was unconventional, but La Russa stood by his choice in a one-run game.

Lohse, meanwhile, was quite effective, certainly good enough to win on most days, but he couldn’t match Gallardo. He lasted eight innings, allowing a run on six hits and walking two. His pitches were up quite a bit more than he would have liked, as reflected by more flyball outs than groundouts, but his defense made it work just fine.

He worked around a leadoff double in the second, but he couldn’t dodge damage in the third. Prince Fielder drew a two-out walk, and Casey McGehee doubled to right field, sending Fielder home for the game’s first run.

“It was supposed to be a sinker down and in,” Lohse said. “I think it just got a little too much of the plate. I think I was ahead in the count. I’ve got to miss off if I miss, and I missed over the plate. The walk to Prince hurt, obviously. I wasn’t trying to pitch him too carefully. I just missed. Tough lineup, even though they’re not hitting.”

Milwaukee tacked on three against the Cardinals bullpen in the ninth.

The Cardinals had scored at least one run against the opposing starting pitcher in each of their previous 17 games, and had not allowed a starter to go more than 7 1/3 innings in that same span. St. Louis is the highest-scoring team in the Major Leagues and had not been shut out this year before Saturday.

“Gallardo mixed his pitches up,” Greene said. “He gives you a fair share of fastballs and a fair share of offspeed pitches. I think he kind of reads you a lot. If he feels you on one of his pitches, he’ll change it up. I think he does that really well. He hit his spots. He kept the ball down.”

St. Louis fell to 19-15 on the season, and is 1 1/2 games ahead of the Reds in the National League Central. Milwaukee ended a seven-game losing streak.

Friday night at Dodger Stadium, the Cardinals accomplished something that hadn’t been done by a St. Louis team in over 80 years.

Collecting 19 hits in an 11-2 route of the Dodgers, the Cardinals have now had 14 or more hits in their last five games, something that was last done by a St. Louis team from Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 1930.

The Cardinals’ power surge came from Lance Berkman, who hit solo home runs in the second and fourth innings, and Albert Pujols, who hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and a solo shot in the seventh.

“It is indicative of the type of offense that we are capable of having,” Berkman said. “It is historic. It is nice and we will try and extend it as long as we can, but we realize we have a lot of games to play.”

Spanning the past five games, Berkman has six home runs in his last 19 at-bats. Friday marked the 27th multi-homer game of his career.

“Having a power surge early has [led to] good years for me,” Berkman. “It is a nice start and I’ll try and build on it.”

Averaging 9.5 runs over their past six games, the Cardinals had nine players with at least one hit on Friday. Yadier Molina had four singles and Colby Rasmus had three doubles. And the 3-4-5 hitters were dominant once again, going a combined 6-for-14 with six RBIs.

“We have good hitters who take tough at-bats,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “I like our offense.”

La Russa said seeing a moon shot by Pujols to left field in the fifth and then a line-drive home run to center in the seventh shows what a great hitter Pujols is.

“He has been doing that for 10 years. He is a great hitter,” La Russa said. “He gets pitched so tough and is still successful. That is part of his greatness, but he now has a lot of help.”

The Cardinals scored runs without the long ball as well, getting hits from David Freese and Molina after Berkman’s home run in the second, and then a little help from Dodgers starter Jon Garland, who balked, plating Freese from third base.

Ryan Theriot followed with a single to right field, scoring Skip Schumaker before Theriot was tagged out at second base trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Scoring another four runs in the ninth inning, the Cardinals got an RBI double from Matt Holliday, a bases-loaded walk that brought him home and a two-run single from Tyler Greene.

All the runs were more than enough for starter Kyle Lohse, who got his second win of the season while also tallying his 1,000th career strikeout. The righty went 7 1/3 innings, surrendering six hits, walking one and striking out six.

“It is nice,” Lohse said of his 1,000 strikeouts. “You have to be around a while to do that, so that is pretty cool. It is a good feeling to be out there long enough to be able to do it.”

The only trouble Lohse got into came in the fourth inning, when the Dodgers strung together three hits, including an RBI single by Matt Kemp. Lohse then, with runners on first and third, threw a wild pitch, scoring Andre Either from third.

“He made a lot of good pitches and was on the black all of the time,” La Russa said. “He had a few innings where he was tested, but he came back and made great pitches. He just didn’t give the Dodgers anything to hit.”

While Lohse said he didn’t have his best changeup, he said he still felt in control.

“I made pitches when I had to,” said Lohse. “Once we put some runs on the board, the big thing is to not let them back in the game and I was able to do that.”

Over more than 10 seasons, the Cardinals have seen it innumerable times. There’s almost no offensive funk so deep that Albert Pujols can’t get the Redbirds righted. Even when the three-time National League Most Valuable Player isn’t feeling his best at the plate, he’s capable of delivering a key swing or two to turn a game.

Pujols did it again on Tuesday night, reaching base twice and driving in two runs, to help St. Louis to a much-needed 3-2 win over the Pirates at Busch Stadium. The Cards’ run total was right in line with their previous four games, but the way they got there was quite a bit more encouraging — starting with Pujols’ production.

The winning run came too late to provide Kyle McClellan with a victory, but the first-time starter nonetheless came out of the game with plenty of good feeling as well. McClellan turned in six excellent innings in his inaugural big league start, making the decision to slot him in for the injured Adam Wainwright look very good for the time being.

Pujols had entered the game in a bit of a slump, with a 2-for-16 mark on the year that included no hits in four at-bats with men in scoring position. He was solid all night on Tuesday, though, drawing a first-inning walk before driving in his second and third runs of the year. It was Pujols’ seventh-inning RBI single that completed the Cardinals’ hard-fought comeback.

“I’ve been here before,” he said. “I’m mentally strong and I know that it’s a long season. You just can’t give up. You need to keep pushing and keep making the adjustments that I know how to make.”

A first-inning homer by Lyle Overbay put the Cards in a hole, but one run at a time, they worked their way back. Allen Craig’s fourth-inning RBI single got the Redbirds on the board, and Pujols hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth that tied the score.

Ryan Theriot started the winning rally with a one-out walk, and Colby Rasmus’ bloop single moved Theriot to second. Pujols poked a single into left field that scored Theriot and gave the Cards their first lead of the night.

“It feels good, definitely,” Pujols said. “I helped the team today to win. At the end, that’s what you play for. If we would have lost the game, yeah, I drive in two runs, but you know what, we lost the game.”

The rally made a winner of reliever Miguel Batista, who pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings. But the pitching story for the Cards was McClellan’s first Major League start. McClellan did everything his team could have asked for and then some over six strong innings.

McClellan had a little trouble with his location early, and paid the price to the tune of two first-inning runs. But he settled in and gave the Cards a quality start, continuing the form that marked his brilliant spring.

“It felt like it took me a little bit to kind of get calmed down a little bit,” he said. “It wasn’t really emotions. I just felt strong out there and it took me about three innings before I felt like I kind of got control of everything. I was just up a little bit. I was overthrowing my cutter and wasn’t locating as well as I wanted to, like I felt I did later on.”

A leadoff double put McClellan in trouble in the first, but he nearly escaped by striking out the next two batters. However, he left a curveball up to Overbay, and the hitter made him pay. The Pittsburgh first baseman drilled a two-run homer 421 feet to right-center, putting the Bucs on top.

After that, though, McClellan was nails. He was barely threatened from the second through the fifth, and when he did get in trouble, he dodged it. Two singles brought up the dangerous Pedro Alvarez with runners on the corners, but McClellan got Alvarez to ground into a double play. That was his last batter, as he was removed for Batista in the seventh.

“You have to give credit to the other pitcher,” Overbay said. “He did real well. He kept the ball down. When he got in trouble he made the big pitch.”

The Cardinals improved to 2-3 on the season, remaining 2 1/2 games behind the undefeated Reds in the NL Central.

The Cardinals have set their rotation for the next week-plus, giving a likely look at how the club’s starting five will shake out for the beginning of the regular season as well. St. Louis will adjust the order of its pitchers slightly following Tuesday’s off-day, the Redbirds’ only open date of the Grapefruit League season.

Kyle McClellan and Chris Carpenter remain on turn for Sunday and Monday, respectively, but after that, McClellan will not pitch for a week. Jake Westbrook will start Wednesday at home against the Mets on five days’ rest. He’ll be followed by Jaime Garcia and Kyle Lohse, each also pitching on the extra day of rest. Carpenter will go on his normal four days’ rest on Saturday, March 26, putting him on turn to pitch Opening Day on March 31, and McClellan’s next start will be March 27.

Thus, it’s likely that Westbrook would pitch on March 28 and then in the team’s second game on April 2. Garcia would either pitch in the final Grapefruit League game on March 29 or in the team’s exhibition against its Double-A Springfield affiliate, followed by the third game of the regular season on April 3. Lohse and McClellan would pitch along with Carpenter in the regular season’s second series, at home against Pittsburgh.

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It is important to understand the risks of diamond sportsbook betting before you place a wager. It is also important to realize that different sports and different wagers have varied risks and payout potential. Diamond sportsbook has developed a guide that can help bettors get a firm grasp on each specific betting situation. They cover the basics such as point spreads and odds, and they go further to help you recognize the benefits of a dime line on baseball games.
When you become a member, you are eligible for special offers and rewards packages. You can accrue points and use them towards prizes and merchandises just like you can do in the casinos. Once you open an account, you can make secure deposits quickly so you can get started.