Boxscore

A day after royally blowing a save to the Reds, the Brewers (11-8) gave Eric Gagne the night off and instead turned to Derick Turnbow (0-1) to face the Cardinals (13-7) with a tied game in the top of the ninth.

Turnbow did slightly better than Gagne the day before, only Turnbow doesn’t have the four-days-in-a-row of pitching excuse. Brian Barton lead off the inning with a double and score an out later on Skip Schumaker’s hit.

Ryan Franklin (1-1) picks up the vulture win after having blown the save, and Jason Isringhausen (S 7) got the actual save.

The two face again Tuesday at 1:05pm EDT. Kyle Lohse faces Manny Parra.CA

Boxscore

I saw that the Cardinals (12-5) scored 11 runs and thought, how on earth do they keep playing so awesomely? And then I saw that they were playing the Giants (6-11), which goes a long way in explaining that 11-spot.

Still, the Cardinals continue to surprise. Todd Wellemeyer (2-0), of all people, had a great start, limiting the Giants to 1 run over 7 innings. Matt Cain (0-2) got the loss, due in no small part to the homeruns he allowed to Chris Duncan and Albert Pujols.

The middle game of the series is this afternoon at 1:10pm EDT with Tim Lincecum versus Joel Pineiro.

Boxscore

The last game of the series between the Cardinals (11-5) and the Brewers (9-6) was what I’d hoped the whole series to be like. Ah well, one game out of three isn’t bad, right?

The star of the game for the Brewers was Prince Fielder, whose lack of power so far this year was beginning to cause concern over his vegetarian diet. Apparently, Fielder wanted to make his first homerun meaningful, which he did when he blasted off on Brad Thompson (1-1) in the top of the 10th to give the Brewers the lead.

The Cardinals star of the game was either Kyle Lohse, who continues to be amazingly awesome, or Kyle McClellan, the young reliever who got out of the mess in the 8th that Randy Flores had created.

Brian Shouse (1-0) picked up the win and Eric Gagne (S 4) came in to hold the Cardinals scoreless and prevent the sweep in the bottom of the 10th.

I look forward to more games like this over the year, but it won’t happen this weekend as both teams move on to new opponents. The Brewers travel to Cincinnati where Ben Sheets will take on Bronson Arroyo at 7:10pm EDT. The Cardinals stay home and host the Giants at 7:15pm CDT. Matt Cain starts against Todd Wellemeyer.

We’re back from our spring break trip to the city of Houston. Can you believe it’s only been more than two weeks since our last podcast? This season already has the old familiar feeling.

This week on the podcast, we talk about how all the teams are doing so far. You definitely won’t want to miss our newest feature, the Inaccurate Reenactment, where Jonny does a horrible Dusty Baker impression, and I do an even worse Bronson Arroyo one. I like to think that we’re expressing an inner character rather than thinking that we’re just horrible voice actors.

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Boxscore

So this first battle for first place in the NL Central this year was pretty much dead on arrival, and not in the way I expected.

While the Cubs are busy trying to sweep the Reds, the Brewers (8-6) thought it would be a great time lie down for the Cardinals (11-4).

Adam Wainwright (2-1) continues to impress. Oscar Villanueva (1-2) doesn’t. Jason Isringhausen (S 6) got his sixth save, in thrilling fashion! Of course, the thrill was all self-created as he allowed two runs in the 9th to make an easy save look closer. But like so many other ninth-inning specialists, that is typical.

The Cardinals bring the brooms to Busch today at 12:15pm CDT, as Manny Parra goes against Kyle Lohse.