Cardinals- Offensive Juggernaut?

Cardinals/Marlins- Series Review

June 9th: Florida Win, 4-3
June 10th: Cardinals Win, 13-4
June 11th: Cardinals Win, 6-5

Whoa, two straight wins and two straight solid offensive performances? Am I reading the right box scores? We win the series 2 games to 1, while hitting a collective .328 with a team era of 4.33

In game one, we managed to squander a solid start by Carpenter (3 earned in 6 innings), as Motte continued his struggles that haunted us in the Colorado series by giving up a walk-off homer to Jeremy Hermida. At this point, things are looking more gloomy than ever before, as I can only expect the offensive woes to continue.

Game two, however, was a much needed surprise and pick-me-up for Cardinals fans. We saw a reasonable start from Wainwright, who continues to not be quite "right." Nonetheless, he scattered 11 hits over 7 innings while giving up 4 earned runs. However, this is not the real news from this game, as the bats come alive during this game, as all 8 position starters record a hit.


Several very strong performances in this game, as Ryan and Rasmus continue to swing hot bats. The most promising line of this box score is, without a doubt, Rick Ankiel's performance. He turns in his second solid offensive performance in as many games, giving hope that his bat has decided to wake up from it's coma.
Side Note: Pujols steals his team leading 8th base of the season in this game.

Game three features another poor start by Wellemeyer (no way!?), but our bats come through enough to earn us another win. Cody Ross, centerfielder, made a costly error in the 8th that eventually allowed for Rasmus to hit a pinch hit, go ahead RBI single.


Pitching was reasonably good all series, minus a poor start by Wellemeyer and Motte's mishap in game one. The pitching gave us a chance to win in each game, at least. Defensively we were solid, committing no errors in the series.

A very promising performance in the series by Ankiel:
.615 BA, 6 runs, 1 HR, 4 RBI's

Hopefully this is something he can build on, because we really need his bat at this point. If he and Rasmus can remain consistent at the plate, as Ludwick and Duncan struggle, it would be a huge asset to the lineup. But in reality, its a little unrealistic for a free swinger like Ankiel and a rookie like Rasmus to be consistent. We can hope...

The series win puts the Cardinals at 33-28 overall, only .5 games back from Milwaukee, and 1 game up on Cincinnati. Tomorrow, June 12th, begins a three game series at Cleveland.