Throughout the first 8 games of the 2011 season, the bats of the St.Louis Cardinals had been suprisngly silent. In those first 8 games the Cards only scored 4 runs in a game once, and the bats were becoming way too silent. The effects of the cold start showed as the Redbirds got off to a miserable start, losing games that they really should have won. Games where they had the pitching to win, but just could not come up with the offense to support it.
On Sunday afternoon, the Cards finally got that offense. The Cards scored a season high 6 runs on Sunday as the Cards were able to salvage a game in their 3 game set with the defending world champs and avoid a sweep at AT&T Park. David Freese who had been one of many Cardinal hitters to start the year cold from the plate, had a 3 RBI game Sunday, 1 of those 3 RBI's was Freese's first home run of 2011. A shot off Guillermo Mota in the top of the 8th inning. Skip Schumaker picked up his first RBI of the year as well with a double in the top of the 6th that made the score 4-1. Allen Craig was solid today at the plate as well picking up his first extra base hit of the season. One of the big stories of todays game was the return of Matt Holliday to the Cardinals lineup. In his retun Holliday walked twice and overall went 1-3 on the day.
Another big story today was the performance of Kyle Loshe on the mound. after giving up the Giants only run of the game in the bottom of the first inning, Loshe settled into a really good groove. After Pablo Sandoval's RBI Base hit in the bottom of the first, Loshe went on to retire 20 of the next 21 batters that he would face including at one point retiring 14 in a row. One of the Cardinals big questions going into 2011 was how well would Kyle Loshe be able to perform? Well so far he's done a pretty decent job, giving up only 3 runs combined in his first 2 starts and going 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA. Now granted it's only 2 starts, but if this is how Loshe is going to be pitching all year, then he's going to be a very solid guy for the Cardinals in 2011.
The Cardinals will now countinue their west coast road trip by heading to the desert for a 3 game series with the Airizona Diamondbacks.
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