Weekend Sports Action

Sunday the Arizona Cardinals won their first game of the regular season, while the St. Louis Cardinals swept the Braves to reach a 5-game winning streak.

Of course, the AzCards won while letting Cam Newton throw for 422 yards, and 2 touchdowns Plus he ran, well dived, another one in. Near as I can tell, the Cardinals opted to use their "Don't cover Steve Smith" defense, and he took advantage. I don't know why they keep using that strategy, but it at least it didn't cost them the game for once. This is kind of what I worried about when they trade Rodgers-Cromartie as part of the deal to get Kolb. Then again, their defense was pretty abysmal last year, excluding that game where it pretty much beat the Saints single-handed*, so I guess it couldn't be much worse. Also, it isn't as though any team in the NFC West has the vertical passing game to really take advantage. Either their QBs are weak (49ers, Seahawks), or their receivers are (Rams). Which takes care of 6 games, at least. I hope.

As for the StLCards, they proceeded to use all that momentum from winning their last 2 against Milwaukee and three against Atlanta, to promptly lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates. What a surprise. They're completely incapable of getting any sort of serious run going. OK, that's being too strong. They had been on a good run prior to that game, and they might win tonight. But it's a little irritating they waited until they were so far out of the playoff hunt that they'd need to recreate the Brewers' 26-6 stretch from July 26-August 26 to make the postseason. Plus, they'd need a complete Atlanta collapse, or it still wouldn't be enough.

The truly irritating thing about this is, their improved play seems to be just the excuse LaRussa needs to not give Tyler Greene a chance to show he belongs in the majors. The Cards can claim they're still in it, so they can't give people chances to audition for next year. Greene's been on the major league roster for a week and a half, he hasn't had one single plate appearance. Zero. None. He's been a pinch-runner, near as I can tell, nothing more. Corey Patterson, who has no business on a major league roster, has 5 plate appearances in that same stretch. He's 0-for-5, and has struck out 3 times. Ryan Theriot, who I would truly hope the Cardinals have a) realized is terrible at shortstop, and therefore, b) are not even remotely considering bringing back next year, has 9 PAs this month. He's 0-for-9, though he did draw a walk.

It's not as though either of those two are getting lots of playing time. But every opportunity they receive is one Tyler Green or Adron Chambers (he has 1 PA since being called up) doesn't. Theriot and Patterson bring nothing useful to the team, and bar the path of players who are probably at least as good as them, if not significantly better. If the younger players aren't, well, it'd be nice to see them play so that could be determined now. But as long as the team can claim to be in contention, well, LaRussa isn't going to set lineups with an eye towards next year.

Unfortunately, at this rate the Cards won't fall out of the running soon enough to do any good.

* Not to be confused with the game where Jay Feely beat the Broncos single-handed.