Good A Time As Anyway To Discuss Cardinals

Arizona had two games in a span of 5 days against the best two teams in the NFC West. Great chance to send a message that they should be taken seriously. With their 34-22 defeat at the hands of Seattle on Thursday, they lost both. Which sends a message, too.

Arizona actually won time of possession, and broke even in the turnover battle - 2 more INTs for Carson Palmer! - but were outgained by 110 yards. They rushed for a grand total of 30 yards, and Palmer needed 45 passes for 258 yards, which was only 204 after you subtract all the yards he lost from being sacked 7 times. Which might explain why he was throwing so many short passes. So pin it primarily on the offensive line, thought the defensive failed to stop the run for the second consecutive game, as the Seahawks ran for 135 at 4.2 yards per carry. The one thing Arizona's defense had been doing consistently well, they stopped doing. Swell.

On the baseball side, St. Louis manged to finish off the Dodgers in 6 games. Which means another trip to the World Series, whoo! And with Boston defeating Detroit, it's a rematch of 2004. Which leaves me conflicted. On the one hand, I'd love for the Cards to avenge that series. They were the best Cardinals team I'd ever seen, and they got swept. And since it was the Red Sox, I had to hear about from the media for the next nine damn months. When Houston lost to the ChiSox the next year, the media moved on from that in like 5 seconds. So getting some payback, that'd be nice.

On the other hand, if they'd been facing Detroit, and they lost, at least it would be to a team that hadn't won the Series in about 30 years, and had kept coming close the last 8 years or so. The Cardinals already got one over Detroit recently, and I don't have any real animosity towards them (not that I have much to any current Red Sox players in particular, more their franchise in general). Plus, I'd like the Cardinals' odds better against Detroit. Yeah, their starting pitching is pretty serious business, but so was the Dodgers', and the Cards managed to scrape by. Miguel Cabrera wasn't himself, and neither was Prince Fielder, which I'd say handicaps the Tigers' offense fairly substantially.

As it stands, though, Boston has a hellacious back of the bullpen, and their lineup is solid top to bottom. The Cardinals do seem to be getting Allen Craig back, so they have someone to DH, which just leaves that offensive hole at SS, and the almost total lack of productive bench players. Plus, Matheny seems intent on not using Shelby Miller, and sticking with Lynn and Kelly. Which might not be so bad if he didn't give them so much rope to hang the rest of the team with. This isn't a Dodgers lineup with no Kemp and hobbled Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier, or a Pirates team that was mediocre offensively at best. If either of those two start to struggle, they need to be yanked before the Red Sox plant a five spot on them in one inning, and I'm not sure Matheny is willing to do that. I wonder if it's his catcher's mentality, that he (or Yadi) can just talk the pitcher through it, even when that isn't that case? Or if he's too worried about hurting their feelings/confidence. Though that wouldn't explain tossing Shelby basically in the garbage. I mean, they say he could go about another 14 innings, then freaking do it. He's a better pitcher, and he surely can't have fatigue issues after you haven't used him in like 3 weeks!

Sorry, I just have a lot more confidence in Miller than either of the other two, and it frustrates me they aren't even using him.