Boxscore

In the first game of the battle for first place, the Cincinnati Reds didn’t have quite enough to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis moves to 1 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati.

Aaron Harang started and was solid, with the exception of two long fly balls to Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick. In most other parks, they would have been caught at the warning track, but in Great American, they fell into the first row of the seats. The perils of being a flyball pitcher for the Reds. They should do something about that. Oh yeah, Mike Leake goes tomorrow.

Both of those home runs were 2 run shots, and were all the Cardinals could manage. The Reds attempted a comeback, but fell short. They scored 2 on their own 2-run shot from Drew Stubbs in the 7th. Then in the 9th, Jonny Gomes singled and was driven in by by Drew Stubbs. The comeback faltered, though, when Ramon Hernandez swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded into a double play.

At the game, I at-first thought I heard the announcer say Chris Heisey was pinch-hitting, but he was instead only pinch-running for Ryan Hanigan. I think I would’ve preferred Heisey over Hernandez. It would have been a gutsy move instead of throwing old “Mr. Clutch” in there.

The Reds send out the aforementioned groundball pitcher Mike Leake today, while the Cardinals counter with Adam Wainwright at 7:40pm. Should be a good one.

Boxscore

The Houston Astros finished their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals today, beating the first place team and the undefeated Chris Carpenter.

The Astros rode the best start of Bud Norris’ career, as he went 8 innings and allowed 1 run on 6 hits while striking out 8.

The Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter got his first loss of the season thanks to a terrible 3rd. Lance Berkman singled in the Astros first run. He was followed by Carlos Lee, who, with 2 on, popped out to the shortstop. He was frustrated by his failure and slammed his bat into the ground.

Apparently, Chris Carpenter has been paying attention to the sore-loser antics of Albert Pujols, and took exception to Lee. After a few words, the dugouts emptied. Eventually, sad, widdle Carpenter–the guy who’d actually won in the battle against Lee–got over his hurt feelings enough to return to playing a child’s game. Except that he didn’t calm down quite enough as Hunter Pence took him deep to give the Astros a 4-0 lead.

The loss narrows the Cardinals’ lead over the Cincinnati Reds to 1/2 game. The series this weekend could be quite enjoyable. I’m hoping for some fireworks. With this many crybabies on the Cardinals roster, it shouldn’t be too hard to get them riled up.

You know the series of Snickers commercials where guys who are hungry turn into women? There’s the guy playing a pickup football game who turns into Betty White until he has the candy bar, and the guy on a road trip with his friends who bitches like a diva (Aretha Franklin) until he satisfies his pangs.

That’s what came immediately to mind for me when I heard about Albert Pujols’ hissy fit last night over Nick Masset’s fist pump in celebration of inducing an inning-ending double play while Pujols was on base. That’s right, Masset didn’t point and laugh, didn’t stick out his tongue, didn’t even stare the guy down. Pujols apparently just thinks it’s offensive for anyone to be pleased they did well, though apparently it’s fine for him to get his feelings all hurt over it. It’s such wussy bitching that I figure the slugger had to have been hungry after the rain delay.

Which, I think, could make an excellent continuation of the series of Snickers commercials. Here’s how I see it going:

A co-ed beer-league softball team, all wearing matching company t-shirts, is on the field. Albert Pujols steps up the plate and takes an underhand pitch that the ump calls a strike. He screams at the ump and falls on the ground, throwing a tantrum.

Teammate on first base: C’mon, Danny! You’re crying like Albert Pujols out there!
Coach: Here Danny, eat this.
Batter: But that was a BALL!
Coach: Just eat it, you little bitch.
Batter:
Coach: Better?
Batter: (turned back into a normal person) Better.

Batter goes back to the plate and participates in the meaningless game without getting all huffy and self-important about it.

I think it could be a big money-maker. I know it would inspire *me* to buy more Snickers, if only to mail them to Pujols.

That without Mark McGwire, and then Albert Pujols, no one would think he was all that? Dave Duncan is the real managing might on this team. I’d like to see what he could do with the Reds pitching staff.