The St. Louis Cardinals have won seven of their first ten games to start the 2012 season, downing the Chicago Cubs 10-3 Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

Former Springfield Cardinal Matt Carpenter, who’s been filling in at first base for the injured Lance Berkman, went 4-4 at the plate, with two singles, a triple and his first major league home run. He had five RBI.

St. Louis starting pitcher Jake Westbroook (2-0) was solid, allowing only two runs on four hits in seven innings to get the win. Chicago starter Paul Maholm (0-2) took the loss, giving up six runs on six hits in four innings.

The Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the 2nd when Carlos Beltran was hit by a pitch. Yadier Molina then walked, and Carpenter came through with asingle up the middle, driving in Beltran. Shane Robinson, getting the start in centerfield, grounded into a force out, putting the Cardinals ahead 2-0.

St. Louis added four runs in the 3rd as leftfielder Matt Holliday’s single through the hole at second base plated Rafael Furcal to make it 3-0. Molina brought the crowd to its feet with a three run homer to left field. It was his third long ball of the season and gave the Cards a commanding 6-0 lead.

After the Cubs put up single runs in the 4th and 5th to pull within a 6-2 score, the Cardinals got both of those runs back in the bottom of the 5th on Carpenter’s two run blast to center field that made it 8-2.

Carpenter wasn’t finished. He tripled in two runs in the 7th inning, putting St. Louis way ahead 10-3 before Chicago scored its last run of the game in the 8th on shortstop Starlin Castro’s RBI infield single against Cards reliever Kyle McClellan.

Victor Marte worked a scoreless 9th inning for St. Louis to close out the win.

St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny was all smiles when asked about Carpenter’s day. “I’d say a great day for Matt Carpenter,” Matheny said. “It was nice to see him continue to do what he’s doing. Opportunity presents itself, not always how we want to with Lance being held up for a little while. When that happens, somebody’s going to have to step up, and I’d say Matt did a pretty good job of that today.”

And what happens to Carpenter, who’s hitting .409 to start the season, when Berkman returns? “We’ll see,” Matheny said. “Lance is our first baseman, we know that. Those things seem to work out, where he’s (Carpenter) going to continue to get the opportunities whenever it happens. With Lance and David both not feeling quite right, those are both two sports where Carp can fit in. Carlos (Beltran) takes a ball right off his forearm today, that’s another spot.” 

The Cardinals improve to 7-3 and will have the day off on Monday before opening a three game series against the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. Kyle Lohse (2-0) is scheduled to take the mound for St. Louis against Johnny Cueto (1-0) of the Reds. First pitch is 7:15 p.m.

Game notes: 

Prior to Matt Carpenter’s performance in Sunday’s game, the last Cardinal rookie to record 5 RBI in a game was David Freese, who had six runs driven in on 4/29/10 against Atlanta.

Yadier Molina’s three run home run gave him 400 RBI for his career.

Skip Schumaker was 0-2 with a walk in his rahab start at Memphis (AAA) on Sunday.

The Cardinals are hopeful of having both David Freese and Lance Berkman back by Tuesday’s game against Cincinnati.

On Sunday, the Cardinals and all of Major League Baseball marked the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier. All players for both the Cardinals and Cubs wore uniform #42. It made for some challenging moments for broadcasters and the official scorer trying to keep track of substitutions.

Sunday’s announced attendance of 44,952 marked the third straight sellout at Busch Stadium to start the 2012 season.

Carlos Beltran and David Freese homered again on Tuesday night, and Kyle Lohse provided another stingy performance, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The defending World Series champions are 5-1 for the first time since 2008.

Beltran, counted on to help make up for the loss of Albert Pujols, hit his third homer off Mike Leake (0-1). Freese, the World Series MVP, added a two-run shot off Leake — also his third.

St. Louis came into the game leading the majors with nine homers. It has five in its first two games at Great American Ball Park.

Lohse (2-0) has made impressive starts in Florida’s summery warmth and Cincinnati’s April chill. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 4-1 win in Miami last Wednesday, allowing only one run and two hits.

With temperatures in the 40s on Tuesday night, he was sharp again, allowing Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly and four hits in six innings. Jason Motte retired the side in order in the ninth for his second save in two chances.

The Cardinals rotation has been sensational so far, going 5-1 with a 1.86 ERA.

The Reds handed out another big contract before the game, giving second baseman Brandon Phillips a deal through 2017 worth $72.5 million. It came only five days after Votto got an additional 10 years and $225 million, looking to turn the 2010 NL Central champions into a consistent contender.

Phillips got a cramp in his left hamstring during a 7-1 loss to the Cardinals on Monday night and is expected to miss several days.

For the second game in a row, the Cardinals got to a Reds starter before he could break a sweat. They hit three homers in the first inning off Homer Bailey on Monday night.

Beltran hit Leake’s fifth pitch into the stands in right field. Leake escaped another big Cardinals first inning by getting Yadier Molina to ground into a double play with the bases loaded. Molina also grounded into a double play with two runners aboard in the eighth.

Lance Berkman, who has the most homers by a visiting player at Great American Ball Park, tripled into the right-field corner in the sixth. Freese followed with his third homer, a drive that bounced off the top of the wall in right field and caromed up into the stands.

Berkman left the game in the eighth with tightness in his left calf.

Zack Cozart hit his second triple of the season in the bottom of the inning and scored on Votto’s sacrifice fly, making it 3-1. 

NOTES: LHP Jaime Garcia starts the final game of the series for St. Louis. He’s 6-1 in his career against the Reds with a 3.13 ERA. He has given up more than three runs only once in his seven starts against Cincinnati. … RHP Johnny Cueto makes his second start for Cincinnati. He pitched seven innings in a 4-0 opening win over Miami last Thursday. … SS Rafael Furcal was out of the Cardinals’ starting lineup for the first time, getting some rest. … Reds RH reliever Nick Masset, who started the season on the 15-day DL with a sore shoulder, hasn’t started throwing yet.
 

St. Louis was the center of attention in 1904.
The city was hosting the World’s Fair in Forest Park and was also selected to have the first Summer Olympic Games on American soil. People from all over the world met in St. Louis and not only witnessed what the Fair had to offer, but the city as well — and baseball was part of the summer spectacle. The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t have an exciting season that year, they eventually finished in fifth place with a 75-79 record.
St. Louis visitors were entertained, St. Louis baseball fans probably weren’t happy their baseball team wasn’t doing so well, but there was one particular road trip they took where the fans came out in mass numbers — the Cardinals probably couldn’t count the number of people that showed up to the train station to greet them, yet that’s what happened when the St. Louis Cardinals came to play Hannibal.
It was all thanks to veteran first baseman Jake Beckley. The Hannibal native was near the end of his career when he came to the Cardinals and since the team was going to have some open dates following a series with the Chicago Cubs before a road trip to play the Cincinnati Reds, Beckley was able to bring his team to Hannibal for a Sept. 8, 1904, exhibition game. This wasn’t the first time “Old Eagle Eye” — Beckley’s popular nickname — brought a big league team to town. Beckley brought the Pittsburgh Pirates to Hannibal in 1896 — his seventh year in the pros.
The train pulled into station at noon and when the players exited the cars, They were met with a roar of cheers and applause. Beckley made room arrangements in the Kettering Hotel (demolished in the 1990s to make room for the new flood wall) where the team rested before game time at Athletic Park later that afternoon.
“I may pitch an inning or two to satisfy the crowd, but that will be all” Cardinals player/manager and future Hall of Fame pitcher Kid Nichols told a Courier-Post reporter at the train station. “The team is badly crippled and I have been doing so much of the pitching here of late that I’m in no condition to do any work today. I am well pleased with Hannibal, and I think you have a nice little city here.”
After the players were out of the public eye, fans headed for the ballpark where they would witness a close battle and a dramatic finish.

Down to the wire
The Cardinals scored first with a run in the top of the first. The Redbirds added to their lead with another run in the third.
It looked as if this was going to be a routine exhibition game with a big league team going up against nine amateurs, but Hannibal came back in the bottom of the fourth when the second baseman Monahan and outfielders Jessup and Gallagher scored after reaching on base hits. The big inning put Hannibal up over St. Louis 3-2, but the Cardinals kept going strong.
According to the Courier-Post article, “it was apparent that something had to be done or the visitors would be beaten.”
After a scoreless fifth thanks to dominant pitching from St. Louis’ Nichols and Jack Dunleavy and Hannibal’s Myers (who pitched a complete game), the Cardinals came back to tie Hannibal 3-3 when they scored a run in the sixth.
Hannibal’s eight total hits on the day weren’t enough to send more runners home following their big fourth inning takeover. Myers struck out four Cardinal batters while Nichols only managed to whiff one and Dunleavy retired two. In the seventh, however, the Hannibal hurler couldn’t stop his fellow Hannibalian from stealing the show.
“It was in the air that the Cardinals would win in the seventh inning and they appeared to save that determination themselves,” the Courier-Post reported.
After St. Louis’ Charlie Swindells and John Farrell reached on base hits, Beckley came to the plate. He was a big man standing higher than six feet and weighed at just about 200 pounds.
“He made a feint as if he intended to bunt the ball and all the base runners to make a double steal,” the Courier-Post reported, “but instead he lifted the sphere over the right field fence and with that ever present smile that accompanies his feats, he trotted around the bases.”
Beckley’s blast put St. Louis ahead, and with the scoreless innings that followed, the homer that gave the Cardinals a 6-3 lead ended up being the game’s final score.
The Cardinals left the next morning for their road series where they took two of three games from the Reds.

JUPITER, Fla. (AP) Mark Buehrle always wants to feel good when he’s pitching. The Miami newcomer says he felt ”too good” on Friday in a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Buehrle was tagged for five runs in 2 1-3 innings, allowing six hits and walking two. He threw 70 pitches against what could be the Cardinals‘ opening day lineup.

”That’s where I wanted to get,” Buehrle said of his pitch count, ”but not in 2 1-3 innings.”

”The ball was moving too much. I was falling behind in the count. Pretty much everything you’re not supposed to do, I did,” the left-hander said.

Buehrle signed a four-year, $58 million contract in December to add depth to the Marlins‘ rotation. He has a 9.95 ERA in two big league exhibitions.

”That’s a typical Buehrle spring training,” said Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, who knows Buehrle from their years together with the Chicago White Sox from 2004-11.

”I’m not worried about him. He knows what he’s doing. I’ve seen him for so many years. As long as he is on the mound healthy (when the season starts), because you’re going to see some ugly games when he’s pitching in spring training. And it wasn’t that ugly. 5-0? That was pretty good.”

Buehrle allowed eight earned runs in five starts last spring with the White Sox before going on to post a 13-9 record with a 3.59 ERA.

Buehrle also batted Friday for the first time since June 29. He struck out looking with the bases loaded on a 3-2 pitch to end the second.

”It was a little awkward. But it was good to see some live pitching,” said Buehrle, who is 5-for-47 (.106) in his career as a hitter.

”We’ve seen a machine out here and it’s throwing at 60 miles an hour. It’s a little different than facing live pitching coming in there at 90.”

Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook tossed four shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out four.

Matt Holliday hit his first home run of the spring and is batting .500 in exhibition play.

St. Louis first baseman Lance Berkman returned to action for the first time since Sunday and doubled. He’d been out with a sore left knee.

NOTES: Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton said an MRI exam revealed swelling on his left knee. He said he wasn’t sure what caused the problem. Stanton hopes to return to action next week. He hasn’t played since March 11 when he left the game after being hit on the left wrist with a pitch. … Cardinals bullpen coach Dyer Miller has left the team to be with family after his brother was killed in an accident. Cal Eldred will be fill in as bullpen coach. … Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter has thrown off a mound for the first time in nearly two weeks. He had been limited in workouts since March 3 because of a stiff neck. ”It was a little better than I had hoped,” he said. ”I felt good. I felt strong. I’m just happy.” Carpenter threw 30 fastballs at about 75 percent of his usual strength after reporting no neck trouble following consecutive days of throwing on flat ground. If he feels well Saturday, he could try to throw off the mound again Sunday or Monday, and pitch batting practice. The Cardinals think they might have a better idea next week of when Carpenter would be ready for exhibition games.

The retired St. Louis Cardinals manager shared career jokes, stories and highlights Wednesday at Jesse Auditorium.

By

Nate Atkins

Published March 16, 2012

It has been nearly five months since Tony La Russa retired after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to one of the most memorable World Series victories in recent memory.

But when he addressed the MU community Wednesday night at Jesse Hall, La Russa talked as if he never left the Cardinals at all.

Referring to the 2011 Major League Baseball champions as “we” and “our team,” La Russa told anecdotes of his career managing the Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics to a red-dominated crowd in Jesse Auditorium. The event, hosted by the Missouri Students Association, ran under the theme, “How to manage winning baseball teams,” La Russa said.

“A lot of those happened here in St. Louis,” La Russa said. “We have a great example that we should take advantage of and that was the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals.”

La Russa was able to glean insight into his managerial career, which stands as one of the most successful in MLB history. La Russa is a four-time league manager of the year and ranks third all-time in MLB victories with 2,728 wins in his 33 years at the pro level. He has also led three teams to World Series championships, two of which came with the Cardinals.

With a wealth of St. Louis natives and Cardinals fans in the audience, La Russa described the most recent World Series title, when his team grabbed a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season and proceeded to come back from a 3-2 series deficit to defeat the Texas Rangers in a best-of-seven series for the championship.

“The only way we had gotten there was we had the guts that you needed,” La Russa said of the postseason run. “Plus, we had more talent than people thought.”

La Russa paced the speech with stories and jokes from throughout his career while translating the lessons he taught in baseball into teachable points for a collegiate audience. He talked of his managerial key of “personalization,” or of reaching out to players as individuals to create team chemistry.

“We try to get the players to believe that they want this, whatever it is, and then you try to get them to understand how important it is to want it,” La Russa said.

One story La Russa told that received laughter from the crowd was of Cardinals All-Star ace Chris Carpenter. Carpenter had been getting hit consistently in an outing, and La Russa had gone to the mound to take him out.

“I went over to talk to him, and I’d seen enough,” La Russa said. “I said, ‘Carp, give me the ball.’ ‘What are you talking about, man?’ he says. ‘I’m not tired.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but our outfielders are.’”

The two-hour event included a lengthy question-and-answer session. La Russa tackled questions about the recent departures of star slugger Albert Pujols and outfielder Colby Rasmus, topics La Russa earlier joked that he would save until question time.

The event offered a good opportunity to discover the method behind La Russa’s questionable managerial calls, sophomore Casey Reichart said.

“Personally, as a Cardinals fan, I really liked it, and for more than just the fact that I am a fan,” Reichart said. “We got to hear about the game of baseball and kind of how he’s done along the way to be a successful manager.”

MSA Speakers Committee chairwoman Amanda Gastler was unable to be reached for comment.

I’m always struck by a faintly queasy, caught-in-the-middle feeling when news breaks regarding an injury to a key player on a rival team. I certainly enjoy the advantage that the misfortune affords to my favorite team, but I find it hard to actually take joy in the fact that a player is hurting. I’m even torn about whether to root for the guy to effect a speedy recovery or to extend his rehab for a full season. Setting aside mixed feelings for the moment, though, there is not denying that the St. Louis Cardinals ace, Chris Carpenter, is a key piece in their hopes to return to the post-season in 2012. In many respects, the World Series championship that the Cards grabbed in 2011 can be attributed to Carpenter, who won four playoff games and lost none. There is also no denying that Carpenter’s bulging disc, which was revealed on March 12, could be a major boon to my Cincinnati Reds, who will seek to reclaim the National League Central division crown this season.

Carpenter had to leave Cardinals practice last week with a stiff neck, and there was little reason for concern at that point. Even though Carpenter will soon be 37 years old and threw 237 innings in 2011 before the post-season run, his recent track record suggested that he was prepared to be a workhorse, and an effective one, again this season. He has pitched 190 or more innings in each of the last three years and run up a 44-22 record during that span. Carpenter is a major reason that the Cardinals fight for a top spot every season.

Now, it appears that the Cards are ready and willing to move reliever Lance Lynn into the rotation in Carpenter’s absence. The fact that they are so eager to jump to that option makes me think that they have doubts about a speedy return for Carpenter and, obviously, that Lynn can carry the load of a starter. And who knows? Maybe Lynn will be a world-beater. Maybe he will make Cardinals fans forget about Carpenter, at least for a while.

As for me, I’m trying to balance visions of a summer without the Reds having to face Chris Carpenter with the hope that he can recover and resume his career quickly. It’s an ugly, age-old battle between the Reds fan in me, and the baseball purist.

Adam Hughes was raised, and still lives, in rural Indiana. He has been a Cincinnati Reds fan since the early 1980s, when gods like Dan Driessen and Cesar Cedeno roamed the ethereally green Riverfront turf. He thinks that Dusty Baker is the anti-Davey.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright isn’t trying to make too big of a deal about his upcoming spring training start.

Sure, it’s his first time pitching in a game since he was sidelined in 2010 and missed the entire 2011 season because of elbow surgery.

But after a year of rehab and waiting to get back on the mound, Wainwright knows Friday’s start against Minnesota won’t be just another day either.

“I’m normally not a butterfly guy. I expect some butterflies,” he said Sunday after throwing his final batting practice session in preparation for the appearance. “There have been several real key moments in my career that I had some butterflies. This year when I pitch at Busch Stadium for the first time, there’ll probably be some butterflies. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Wainwright threw around 30 pitches Sunday and said he approached it with the kind of intensity he usually reserves for game days during the regular season.

Wainwright will likely throw a bullpen session before Friday but said he said he was maximizing the time against hitters on Sunday.

“I wanted it to be as close to a simulated game as possible,” he said. “I knew I walked (Tyler Greene), so I went out and stretched the rest of that inning. Just to simulate what I would do in an inning. I did my normal warmups between innings and tried to think what I would normally think.

“There were a couple of pitches I wouldn’t have done during a game. But mostly I was trying to be me out there. This is my last hurdle and my last go of it.”

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny watched the session and said that it’s no secret that the coaching staff has been very deliberate with Wainwright.

“He’s been the one guy we’ve been clear about from the beginning that we’ve got to stay on the program with him,” Matheny said. “He’s been on track and to stay on track is really important.”

Other developments

Union says leak of Braun test isolated: The players’ association believes the leak of NL MVP Ryan Braun’s drug test was an isolated occurrence.

Speaking Sunday at the Milwaukee Brewers’ training camp, union head Michael Weiner says “the leak was specific to this case” and “does not threaten the confidentiality of the program.” Weiner says “the idea that there is confidentiality to the appeals process is critical. If we felt there was a real threat to that here, we’d have a big problem.”

Briefly: Oft-injured reliever Joel Zumaya has told the Minnesota Twins he’ll have reconstructive surgery on his right elbow. Twins general manager Terry Ryan confirmed that noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews will perform the Tommy John ligament replacement procedure on Zumaya’s throwing arm later this month. … Stephen Strasburg struck out three in his spring training debut, but gave up two runs while pitching into the third inning of the Washington Nationals’ 10-2 loss to the Houston Astros. … Alex Rodriguez homered on the first pitch he saw from Roy Halladay and later added an RBI double and single in the Yankees 7-4 win over Philadelphia.

Ryan Braun struck out in his only two at-bats in Milwaukee’s tie with a San Francisco split squad in the reigning NL MVP’s first game since getting caught up in a drug case during the offseason. … Oakland’s Brandon Allen belted a grand slam and drove in seven runs in a 12-10 win over the Chicago Cubs. … Cleveland’s Ubaldo Jimenez allowed five runs — one earned — in one inning in his spring debut and Cincinnati beat the Indians, 8-6.