GDT 8/4/09-Cardinals (Piñeiro) at Mets (Santana) 6:10 CDT

[fanforever]

St. Louis (58-50) at New York (50-55)

August 4, 2009
7:10 PM ET, 6:10 PM CT, 5:10 PM MT, 4:10 PM PT
Citi Field, New York, NY
TV: FSMW, SNY
RADIO: KTRS 550


J. Piñeiro (9-9, 2.84) J. Santana (12-8, 2.96)






http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/preview?gid=290804121

In a virtual tie atop the NL Central, the St. Louis Cardinals could use some production from slumping Albert Pujols. Facing New York Mets ace Johan Santana, however, may pose a problem.

The reigning NL MVP and the Cardinals open a two-game set against the Mets at Citi Field on Tuesday night.

Pujols is batting .226 (14 for 62) with two homers and five RBIs in 16 games since appearing in his eighth All-Star game July 14. The first baseman hasn’t hit a homer since connecting for two in a 6-1 win over Arizona on July 17 in the first game following the mid-season break.

The slump has dropped Pujols’ batting average 20 points to .314, but his 34 homers and .438 on-base percentage still lead the majors while his 92 RBIs rank second.

“You guys think I’m perfect every time,” Pujols told the team’s official Web site. “I had a great first half, and I’m just struggling right now. I’m human just like everybody else.”

The Series:

August 4, 2009-STL (Piñeiro) @ NYM (Santana) 6:10 PM CDT
August 5, 2009-STL (Lohse) @ NYM (Niese) 11:10 AM CDT

Last Game:

Houston 2, St. Louis 0
WP: B. Norris (1-0) S: J. Valverde (12)
LP: A. Wainwright (12-7)

[heyzeus]

I believe I've crossed over into either the afterlife, or some other plane of existence.

Because I swear I just looked at the day's matchup, and Piniero has a lower ERA than Johan Santana. In August.

[Swingingbunt]

Three things:

1.

“You guys think I’m perfect every time,” Pujols told the team’s official Web site. “I had a great first half, and I’m just struggling right now. I’m human just like everybody else.”

Albert, you are not human...you are a machine. A large, baseball crushing, machine. Even machines need recovery time.

2. It really seems like every time Joel pitches it's against one of the top two pitchers from the other team. Why can't he pitch against Wellemeyer?

3. The Road Ahead

Home games remaining: 27
Road games remaining: 27
Games vs. teams over .500:15
Key series: at Dodgers (Aug. 17-19)
vs. Cubs (Sept. 18-20)
at Rockies (Sept. 25-27)

That is nice. We really need to take care of business in the 39 games we have remaining against teams under .500

[InvincibleCakeEater]

I believe I've crossed over into either the afterlife, or some other plane of existence.

Because I swear I just looked at the day's matchup, and Piniero has a lower ERA than Johan Santana. In August.

And Santana has an ERA below 3.

[Jmodene]

Indeed - ordinarily, if you said that Santana's ERA would be higher than Pineiro's in August, you'd be asking, "What's wrong with Santana?"

[Donnie Ebert]

Redbirds:

2B Skip Schumaker
3B Mark DeRosa
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
C Yadier Molina
CF Colby Rasmus
SS Julio Lugo
P Joel Pineiro

[InvincibleCakeEater]

Redbirds:

2B Skip Schumaker
3B Mark DeRosa
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
C Yadier Molina
CF Colby Rasmus
SS Julio Lugo
P Joel Pineiro

If Skip has to play because Ryan is hurt, ok. But don't bat him [expletive] leadoff!!

[Socnorb11]

Redbirds:

2B Skip Schumaker
3B Mark DeRosa
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
C Yadier Molina
CF Colby Rasmus
SS Julio Lugo
P Joel Pineiro

If Skip has to play because Ryan is hurt, ok. But don't bat him [expletive] leadoff!!

Who else would you bat leadoff, though.

[omaha_red]

Redbirds:

2B Skip Schumaker
3B Mark DeRosa
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
C Yadier Molina
CF Colby Rasmus
SS Julio Lugo
P Joel Pineiro

If Skip has to play because Ryan is hurt, ok. But don't bat him [expletive] leadoff!!

Who else would you bat leadoff, though.

lugo maybe? hasn't skip led off most of the year?

[Socnorb11]

Redbirds:

2B Skip Schumaker
3B Mark DeRosa
1B Albert Pujols
LF Matt Holliday
RF Ryan Ludwick
C Yadier Molina
CF Colby Rasmus
SS Julio Lugo
P Joel Pineiro

If Skip has to play because Ryan is hurt, ok. But don't bat him [expletive] leadoff!!

Who else would you bat leadoff, though.

lugo maybe? hasn't skip led off most of the year?

Skip has led off most of this year. His .353 OBP is better than Lugo's, Rasmus', Derosa's, etc.

I'm not sure who else you would bat leadoff out of that group.