The St. Louis Cardinals jumped out to a 28-16 record through roughly the first quarter of the regular season, and while that is the best record in the National League, the team still has noticeable room for improvement.

The roster started to round into form nicely in early May as the hitters such as centerfielder Jon Jay and third baseman David Freese improved their swings, and the bullpen stabilized to provide reinforcements late in the game for a starting rotation that was by far the most dominant in all of Major League Baseball.

But then right-handed starter Jake Westbrook went on the disabled list May 12 with a sore elbow, and left-handed starter Jaime Garcia’s probably ended Friday when he left the game with left shoulder pain and is likely headed for surgery.

The Cardinals called up left-handed pitcher John Gast to fill Westbrook’s spot, and Gast has done well with wins in each of his first two starts. Gast has a 4.76 earned-run average, but that’s largely because he ran into trouble in the sixth inning after pitching five scoreless innings in each game.

Another lefty, Tyler Lyons, will start Wednesday in San Diego against the Padres in place of Garcia. Lyons had a 4.47 ERA through eight starts with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, but neither Lyons nor Gast should be the Cardinals’ largest worries.

If Gast continues to pitch well, the Cardinals could keep him in the rotation when Westbrook comes back and send Lyons back to the minors, but the bullpen is still more of a concern.

Mitchell Boggs returned to the Cardinals on Monday in San Diego after a nearly three-week long banishment in Memphis to straighten out his pitching since he racked up an ERA above 12.00 in his first 14 appearances of the season.

Boggs gave up a homerun to the first hitter he faced Monday, which was Padres centerfielder Will Veneble, but then settled in to retire the next six hitters in a row.

Before Boggs, Fernando Salas entered Monday’s game in the sixth inning to relieve right-handed rookie starter Shelby Miller, who held a 2-1 lead at the time but left with two runners on base. Salas promptly gave up a single to center by outfielder Chris Denorfia, walked catcher John Baker and hit pinch hitter Jesus Guzman to allow the Padres to take their game-winning 4-2 lead.

The bullpen doesn’t have to be perfect every game. That’s an unrealistic expectation, but the inconsistency is frightening now that the starting rotation is down to three of its original five members.

The relievers’ workload could quickly skyrocket if Gast and Lyons can’t make it past the sixth inning. Right-handed starter Lance Lynn tends to run up a high pitch count fairly regularly, and Miller hasn’t made it past the sixth inning in his two starts after the complete-game shutout he threw May 10 at Busch Stadium against the Colorado Rockies.

That, in turn, puts more pressure on right-handed ace Adam Wainwright to pitch deep into every game he pitches because the bullpen will likely be either overworked or on the verge of being overworked until Westbrook returns and Chris Carpenter completes another surprising comeback.

Wainwright will also have to pitch very well in his starts because the offense has yet to consistently put up large run totals this season. The lineup has produced more than four runs in a game three times in the last 13 games.

However, the Cardinals’ lineup is packed with five hitters who have combined for more than 3,000 RBIs in their careers, so any scoring droughts likely won’t last very long.

Given their start, the 2013 Cardinals have the potential to put together one of the best records in franchise history, but they currently still have a few too many questions on their roster to make that prediction become reality.

The early season tailspin of the Cardinals season was due much in part the inability to close games out late. The struggles extended when the search to find the right arm to fill in to the final frame role. Yet, when Edward Mujica took the ball to close out for the first time on April 18 in Philadelphia, everything changed, because Mujica’s performance didn’t. He converted that save for the club, and hasn’t wasted a chance since, and it’s no coincidence that since he established himself even later in games, and this weekend he saved both of the Cardinal wins, running his season total to a perfect 13 for 13.

“Chief” has taken the same lock down performance he brought to seventh inning a year ago over this season, and has firmly established himself as the club’s most reliable reliever. Since arriving in St. Louis last August, he has put up a 1.19 ERA in 45.1 Cardinal innings, an effort that has also seen him perform unflappably in two different roles in the Cardinal pen. “Adding Mujica was huge for us,” pitcher Mitchell Boggs stated regarding his impact upon arrival last year. “He stabilized our bullpen and gave us another proven arm that could go out there night in and night out. We took off as a bullpen when we got him.”

Historically, he was not a final inning arm before coming to St. Louis. His career ERA in the eighth inning is 4.96, while 3.16 in the ninth. Yet, with his success closing out games raising his profile, it makes him a sleeper candidate for a guy having a huge contract year.

Hitting the market with a ninth inning grade is much different than a seventh/eighth inning one. Mujica, who is bringing in just over $3 million for the 2013 season, which was due from his final arbitration year, is setting himself up for a bigger boost due to the presence of one of the most rewarded stats in baseball: saves. And with Jason Motte on the mend and with no easy date to say when he’ll be ready to go, there’s a chance the Cardinals will have to get very competitive to keep him in the stable.

As things stand now, he’s aligning himself to be among the best relievers in the National League this season, and if history shows anything, it’s that a big jump in saves can equal a very solid jump in pay grade. When Brandon League saved 37 games for the Mariners in 2011, he had never bettered six before in a season. He also had never bettered $2.2 million per season either, yet when he neared free agency this past winter, the Dodgers handed him $27.5 million over the next four seasons, much in part due to that breakout year only one season removed. Similar cases can be seen recently with Joel Hanrahan, Grant Balfour and Francisco Cordero. The closer market overall will be very open for “jump biding” this winter, meaning it’s ripe for the over pay, which damages the Cardinals chances at retaining Mujica at a manageable price, even in a setup capacity.

Yet, the need for a return to St. Louis will be highly influenced by the price, as well as the contingencies. Trevor Rosenthal is in the wings, and is being groomed to be the ninth inning arm of the future, regardless of Motte’s status. If the price for Mujica surpasses the $5 million mark annually (which it seems guaranteed to do), is there a chance the Cardinals bow out in favor of parking one of the promising arms within the system in the role for nearly 90% less? With Rosenthal as well as Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez, and potentially Mitchell Boggs, in the wings, the Cardinals hold over until Motte returns at the back of the bullpen is solid. And while Mujica has been without a doubt one of the great coups of John Mozeliak’s tenure, his continued success could continue to draw his time to close at Busch.

The St. Louis Cardinals began their yearly bullpen revolution early this year as three of the team’s projected relievers are already off the active 25-man roster just a month into the season. Buckle up as another group of extremely young pitchers try to guide the team through the late innings.

Expected closer Jason Motte succumbed to an elbow injury in spring training and will now have Tommy John surgery, which will keep him out the rest of the season and possibly part of the 2014 season, so the Cardinals turned to 2012 right-handed setup reliever Mitchell Boggs to take his place.

Well, that didn’t work out so great. Boggs pitched in 14 games, blew two saves, walked 12 hitters in 10.2 innings and had a 12.66 earned-run average.

Meanwhile, left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski came in for nine appearances, gave up 13 hits in eight innings and had a 7.88 ERA.

Now both are pitching for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds while rookies Seth Maness, 24, and Carlos Martinez, 21, get a chance at the big-league level.

So far, so good.

Granted neither pitcher has appeared beyond their one inning of work in Friday’s 6-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, but they also didn’t walk anybody. Martinez gave up a single, but he quickly erased that blemish with a double play on a groundball to the mound.

That sample size can’t get any smaller, but neither pitcher looked overwhelmed in their debuts, and both could become very important parts of the Cardinals bullpen as the season progresses.

Edward Mujica has locked down the closer’s role for the time being. He replaced Boggs for ninth-inning duties April 22 in Washington against the Nationals and has converted each of his seven save opportunities heading into play Saturday.

Rookie Trevor Rosenthal has also started to settle in after a rocky start in which he gave up runs in four of his first eight appearances, but he hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last four outings while striking out six hitters and could take Boggs’ 2012 role as the eighth-inning setup reliever for Mujica’s ninth.

However, that leaves the sixth and seventh innings in flux. Fernando Salas has been solid thus far. He has a 2.86 ERA in 10 appearances, and Randy Choate has a nice 2.25 ERA, but manager Mike Matheny has primarily used him as a left-handed specialist. The other middle reliever, Joe Kelly, has struggled, giving up 18 hits and 10 runs in 9.1 innings.

So Maness and Martinez will likely be put to work early and often in their rookie seasons. The Cardinals starting rotation has pitched extremely well so far this season, but eventually the team will have to rely on a bridge from the starter to the late-inning relievers as the rotation’s ridiculously good 2.06 ERA regresses to a more normal level.

And that’s where Maness and Martinez will be extremely important. The Cardinals have already seen how much a bad bullpen can constantly stunt a team’s success, and they have made borderline desperate moves by bringing up two rookie pitchers at the beginning of May.

It’s a move that could blow up in the team’s face. Maness and Martinez could eventually become overwhelmed by the stress and pressure that comes with being on a Major League Baseball team at such a young age, but it’s a move the Cardinals had to make.

If nothing else, it bought the Cardinals time while Boggs and Rzepczynski refocused in Memphis and tried to recover their typically good form. Both pitchers are a large reason the Cardinals didn’t put together a great record in April, but they are veteran pitchers and could still be valuable later in the season.

Maness and Martinez will likely also have a few struggles along the way, but if they can capitalize on their first big-league experiences, and Boggs and Rzepczynski come back strong, the Cardinals bullpen could actually become a strength by the end of the season.

At least that’s how it has worked out the past two seasons.

“Better get there quick, Big Boy.”

That quote has circled the blogosphere this week after St. Louis Cardinal General Manager John Mozeliak responded with those words after Josh Gilliam, of the great site Pitchers Hit Eighth, asked about seeing Carlos Martinez in Springfield.  Less than a week later, Martinez is on his way to Milwaukee to join the major league squad as struggling reliever Mitchell Boggs heads to Triple-A to join Memphis.

Boggs was in line to be the Cardinals’ eighth inning man going into the season when closer Jason Motte revealed an injury.  The easiest resolution to that, in manager Mike Matheny‘s mind, was to move everyone in the bullpen up a role and Boggs was thrust into the closer position.  His reaction was less than satisfactory and suddenly the bullpen, once thought to be a strength of the team, was in turmoil.  It seemed everyone was struggling and Boggs was, quite possibly, at the head of it all.

Mozeliak moved quickly in response, sending Marc Rzepczynski to the minor leagues and adding Seth Maness both to the major league and the 40-man roster.  The bullpen needed to be settled and Mozeliak aimed to do so quickly.  Edward Mujica found patience and settled the ninth inning going forward.  Trevor Rosenthal, while still not being perfect, has seemed to find a bit of a foothold.

Boggs, however, continued to struggle.  He would show moments of steadiness followed by loss of command and concentration.  He has shown improvement, but not enough to warrant a continued spot on the roster.  Memphis will provide a place to step away from the focus and the bright lights of major league baseball while Boggs tries to discover his former command and potential.

Martinez, meanwhile, has shown progress throughout a season that started a little late this season.  Due to some visa issues early on, Martinez was very late arriving to a spring training that might have led to his arrival in St. Louis on opening day.  Due to the late start, Martinez found himself in Springfield to start the season.  In three starts, the most recent of which was on April 29, Martinez has increasingly gone further and been more effective.  Over the course of just over 11 innings this season, he has surrendered 11 hits and one walk.  Conversely, he has struck out nine hitters and held opponents to just three runs.  He is not the most impressive of Cardinal minor league hurlers, but he shows enough promise to deserve the promotion.

To make room for Martinez on the 40-man roster, as founder of the United Cardinal Bloggers Daniel Shoptaw speculated, shortstop Rafael Furcal was moved to the 60-day disabled list.

The hard throwing right-hander arrives in St. Louis as a part of the bullpen solution.  His next challenges will surface as he is used more frequently and in higher pressure situations.  How he responds to that challenge will reveal his longevity at this level.

The future has arrived in St. Louis.  How bright it shines is about to become apparent.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

The Cardinals, returning back home after completing their first sweep of the season, experienced another set of firsts this weekend, of the less positive variety. After taking the opening game of the series and reaching a season-high five game winning streak, they dropped the final two games of weekend series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates and in the course also surrendered their lead atop the NL Central.

The team will now move into a second consecutive series with a divisional rival that is coming to town a game behind them, in the Cincinnati Reds. But before the Cardinal rebound effort comes to the forefront, here’s a look back at three points to take from the series that was:

1. Picking their spot: The Pirates showed a flare for the big moment in pulling out the series win, which a suddenly anemic Cardinal offense (three runs over the last 18 innings) could not match. Of the 14 runs scored to win the series, they hit five home runs (four of which were solo shots on Sunday) including three from Russell Martin. For the series, the Pittsburgh catcher hit .461 and drove in five runs, with four extra base hits.

Overall, they managed to hang around long enough to win, and for the second time in a week’s time, won a crucial series over their prime contention in the Central so far this year. And did so with Andrew McCutchen both slumping and out of the lineup on Sunday, and second baseman Neil Walker out of the series completely with a lacerated hand.

2. Late Inning Woes Continue: While the Cardinal bullpen received some encouraging news regarding the potential improving situation regarding Jason Motte, in the mean time it continued to struggle to find outs without damage weaved in-between. In 7.1 series innings, the pen surrendered 10 earned runs, with Mitchell Boggs on the hook for three and Marc Rzepczynski another three in two appearances totaling 2/3rds of an inning. Joe Kelly was credited with the four decisive runs in Saturday’s loss, but a Trevor Rosenthal bases loaded walk to Andrew McCutchen is what pulled Pitt ahead for good. The ninth inning is currently looking good, and potentially looking better, but there’s no sign of an upturn ahead of it in sight as of yet.

3.  Miller’s Maturation: Shelby Miller’s streak of 14 scoreless innings in Busch came to an end on Sunday. He didn’t pitch badly, striking out seven over 5.2 innings and allowing three runs. However, he did give up seven hits, including two home runs. Part of Miller’s success this season has been his ability to work at a quick pace, control the zone, limit walks and win with his fastball with regularity. However, as he sees teams repeatedly, he’ll have to start making the adjustments to overcome them. The Pirates waited him out in many situations to get a fastball they could hit, and they did so with success. These are the scenarios that will call for his off-speed repertoire to develop, so that good fastball hitting teams such as Pittsburgh aren’t able to linger for him pitch to their favor.

The season high seven hits he allowed, coupled with the three walks he surrendered (which is the sum of his previous three starts combined), put him in his toughest spot of the season, and produced his second shortest start. However, he has also pitched in rough situations in his two starts versus Pittsburgh this season as well; the Cardinals have been shut out in both of his starts, limited to just three hits in both contests.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 Friday, but they had to survive another bad performance from reliever Mitchell Boggs while Joe Kelly once again proved he should be used more often.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny didn’t give Boggs a chance to completely blow the 5-1 lead he had when he entered the game to start the eighth inning, but he did load the bases while recording just one out.

Left-handed specialist Randy Choate bailed him out by forcing Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez to hit into an inning-ending double play, but the Cardinals could have avoided the entire situation if they’d used Joe Kelly to start the inning.

In fact, the Cardinals might not have had to suffer through nearly as many lousy bullpen outings if they had used Kelly more in the first three weeks of the season. Matheny has instead used him in situations such as Friday’s ninth inning when the Cardinals had already opened an eight-run lead.

The bullpen has been the Achilles’ heel of the team so far this season. It had a collective 4.84 earned-run average through 22 games and blew four leads for a starting rotation that has a 2.12 ERA and has kept the team in all but one game so far this season.

Part of the problem is the Cardinals lost their regular closer, Jason Motte, to an elbow injury during spring training and had to scramble to fill his spot right before the regular season started.

Boggs was a logical choice to open the season as the Cardinals’ closer after a great 2012 season when he was the eighth-inning setup reliever. He had career-best 2.21 ERA while pitching in 78 games and earning 34 holds.

But he was a completely different pitcher as the closer. He has allowed 12 runs with eight walks and two blown saves in 11 appearances through the team’s first 22 games. Meanwhile, Kelly has pitched in seven games and allowed four runs with no walks. However, he hasn’t pitched in many high-leverage situations.

Now, that’s not to say Kelly should be the Cardinals closer. Edward Mujica stepped into that role nicely by earning two saves each on recent road series in Philadelphia and Washington.

That move has settled the bullpen, for now, but Kelly must have a larger role in the late innings if the Cardinals are going to consistently keep teams from completing late-inning comebacks.

Matheny recently referred to Kelly as “a Ferrari” that is a nice luxury to have in the bullpen, but that resource is nearly useless if it only sits in the garage.

Instead, Boggs and rookie reliever Trevor Rosenthal have come out of the bullpen seemingly every single day. Rosenthal has pitched in 12 games already, the most of any pitcher on the team despite also being the youngest.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young pitcher and his arm so early into his first full big-league season. Yes, Rosenthal throws really hard and can be an effective weapon out of the bullpen, but flamethrowers don’t always last that long.

For example, the Detroit Tigers had a bullpen that included 100 mph-plus throwers Joel Zumaya Fernando Rodney, but both suffered injuries within two years.

The Cardinals have excellent pitching depth in the minor leagues, but Rosenthal is a prized possession and should be treated as such. Kelly also throws really hard and has enormous potential, but he pitched in the starting rotation much of 2012 and is more accustomed to the demands of a Major League Baseball season.

However, Matheny continues to bring in Rosenthal nearly every night, and Boggs pitches in game after game as the team waits for him to fix his motion while Kelly sits out in the bullpen.

And that type of bullpen management could continue to cost the Cardinals ballgames before Mujica ever reaches the mound until Kelly receives a larger role in the late innings.

The St. Louis Cardinals were dealt a blow as they broke spring training camp in 2013. Their closer, Jason Motte, was injured. The early weeks of the season unveiled that the injury was not getting better and, pending a re-evaluation, Motte may require season ending surgery.

Compounding the issue, Mitchell Boggs proved to be ineffective after inheriting the role and showcased an inability to nail down the all-important 27th out. The bullpen in St. Louis has proven to be loaded with outstanding arms leading up to the 9th inning but decidedly bare of arms capable of truly closing games.

There are options, some of which have been explored, some of which have been rumored, and some of which are a bit outside the box.

Edward Mujica - The obvious option, primarily because of his recent success in the role for the team. Mujica successfully closed down all three games in the recent series against the Washington Nationals and seems to be settling into the role quite well. His success in that role could calm the bullpen inefficiencies and keep the Cardinals from reaching for answers in other locations.

Read about the other options available to the Cardinals over at Yahoo.

The Cardinals leave the second leg of their 10-game road trip from Philadelphia in a series that wasn’t a complete loss, but also was an example of problems of both the past and current showing their head. Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn authored fantastic efforts in two wins, yet in the games in-between two winnable games were booted. On Friday, Jaime Garcia looked like the version of him that has been most criticized; the one that was killed on the road. However, Sunday night’s loss was the most detrimental, with another late inning failure that lost a winnable game and continued to keep the club floating around .500.

Yet at the same time, they did manage to split another series on this tough East Coast road swing, and remain close to the picture atop the National League Central. How long they can remain there however, considering the amount of issues that are being to peak late in games, is anybody’s guess. As they begin a return to Washington DC, here are three things to look back at from the series that was.

1. Bogged Down: The resounding moment from the weekend was yet another implosion from Mitchell Boggs on Sunday night. Entering a tie game in the eighth inning, Boggs was blitzed to the tone of four runs on four hits, including the game breaking RBI single from Ben Revere, and the following nail in the coffin, three-run homer from Eric Kratz (who entered the at-bat hitting .190 on the year). This raised Boggs ERA on the year to 12.46, and became his fourth late-inning collapse in three weeks.

If there’s one thing to take away from the sudden assault that ended Sunday night’s ballgame is that it cleared up the dilemma of who is going to close games down, because Boggs has to be out of the picture now. Whether it’s a mechanical issue or something more, it can’t be worked out in high pressure situations, and Mike Matheny has to recognize that. Boggs broke down and began throwing by the time Kratz hit his home run, and looked lost in the woods. The frustration of his effort has derailed him to the point where it’s clear that he can’t pitch the last inning, but what type of game situation will be safe to utilize him in at all? How this situation is handled in the upcoming games will show a lot about if there is potentially another long-term issue in the pen regarding utilizing Boggs in any capacity.

2. Crisis Averted: On Sunday night, Matt Adams stepped to the plate having already reached base twice on the night, and sporting a .565 average and with the bases loaded ahead of him. Although it has become nearly a habit for him to destroy the ball in any given situation, this time he struck out looking on a Chad Durbin cutter, which if he’d connected on in his usual fashion, would have taken the push for more at-bats to him to a code red explosion level. He’s hit in every situation thus far, and went 2 for 3 on Sunday with his third double of the year. While he continues to be a dangerous presence off the bench, and a once per series starter, the torches that his growing group of supporters for an everyday position are waving may have gotten thrown into Mike Matheny’s office if he’d come through in that moment. Considering the amount of controversy on the who’s, when’s and where’s that are already in play, that would have been the last thing needed right now for him.

3. Beltran’s Back: While the offense as a whole continues to struggle to get on the same page at the same time, perhaps Carlos Beltran had his turning point versus a team that he has been particularly brutal on over his career. Beltran launched three home runs in the first three games of the series, raising his career totally vs. the Phils to 30, his most against any team in his career. For the weekend, he hit .437 (7 for 16), and has hit .375 over the past week.

The Cardinals won their third consecutive series over the weekend, and second consecutive against a division foe, by taking down the Milwaukee Brewers. In a series that was consistently spectacular early, yet ended in a manner that’s becoming quickly familiar in a not so positive way, the Cardinals finished their first home stand with a 4-2 record, and in sole possession of first place in the NL Central. While it was (nearly) a completely smooth ride, here are three things to pull away from the series, as the club heads out to tough 10 game road stretch.

1 .Big Inning Birds: The Cardinals are living, and dying, by the big inning thus far. When it works in their favor, it’s been potent. On Saturday, the Cardinals exploded for seven runs in an inning to put down Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo. This marked the fourth time in a week that the team topped at least four runs in an inning to put itself ahead for good. This has been by and large the way that the offense has worked, as it has hit a MLB-best .400 with runners in scoring position. However, the lineup has struggled to produce otherwise, has the team’s average falls to .208 with no runners on, 13^th best in the National League.

What does this say? Considering they are winners of their previous three series and atop the National League Central, at face value, not much. However, digging deeper it is clear that this trend cannot keep up. The team has to start producing more steadily. This can be achieved by getting Jon Jay going better at the top of the lineup (.245 average) and Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran (both at .222) getting more sporadic hits, over just clutch production.

On the flip side, the bullpen is becoming prone to the big inning as well. Mitchell Boggs blew his first save of the season on Sunday, while watching his ERA rise to 9.95. He split his save chances in the series, and didn’t make easy work of the one that went over. Torches are beginning to spread for his head amongst the town people. Overall on the season, the bullpen is sporting an NL-worst 6.09 ERA, along with three losses and supporting a .278 batting average against. While it is early, it’s never too soon to figure out how to stop a leak before it sinks the boat.

2. They went streaking: Until Ryan Braun’s two-run, eighth inning homer, the Cardinals held the Brewers scoreless for the first 25.1 innings of the series, and it was due to a remarkable three start effort from Shelby Miller, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia. If Jake Westbrook’s shutout of the Reds on Wednesday is factored in, Cardinal starters are currently on a 32-inning shutout streak.

The back-to-back efforts of Miller and Wainwright were the two of the most masterful starts of the season, overall. Miller tossed seven shutout innings of one-hit baseball, retiring 17 consecutive at one point and running his record up to 2-0. Wainwright followed the next afternoon by throwing as dominant of a shutout as possible, striking out 12, surrendering only four hits and finishing what he started to seal the series win for the Cardinals. Garcia had a more laboring effort, surrendering seven hits over as many innings, but still kept the Brewers off the board as well.

3. The long and winding road: Friday brought an appreciation of the life (and musical acumen) of Stan Musial, but it also brought back Kyle Lohse, who opposed the club for the first time since his much discussed foray through free agency. In what was sure to be a mixed emotional start, Lohse took the mound against the Cardinals less than a month after finding a new home within the division he has spent the majority of his career.

On his first at-bat, he received roughly a 30 second standing ovation from Cardinal fans, appreciative of both his work for the club from 2008 to 2011 (55 wins, 3.90 ERA) and his difficult road to finding a new home. He fared well against his former teammates, throwing seven innings, surrending only six hits and two runs. He completed the cycle of closing out his moving on process, by visiting with his former teammates and manager before Saturday’s game in the Cardinals clubhouse.

The Cardinals opened their home season with the usual rolling out of the red carpet with Clydesdales, Hall of Famers and currently conquering heroes, as well as a touching look back at the impact of Stan Musial. However, it also featured a tough match up against their chief division rivals in the Cincinnati Reds.

After a late inning implosion cost them game one by an ugly 14-3 tilt, they came out flat in for the first half of game two as well. However, after breaking up just over 5 perfect innings Bronson Arroyo framed on Tuesday, the club owned the Reds to the tone of a 15-1 split over the final 13.2 innings of the series, and took two of three to win the series. They head into this weekend winners of their previous two series against two playoff teams from a year ago, and tied for first place in the National League Central. But before setting sites on the upcoming series with the Milwaukee Brewers in town, here’s three points to walk away from the just finished 3-game set with the Reds.

1. Adams forces his point: Matt Adams solidified the fact that he has an everyday caliber bat during the series. He had a ridiculous 2013 performance escalated with a pinch-hit home run that blew open Tuesday’s game and a 416-foot shot on Wednesday afternoon. For the season, in 14 at-bats he has nine hits (a .643 average) with two home runs, two doubles, four runs scored and seven runs batted in.

The big question coming into 2012 was how to get at-bats for Allen Craig with the presence of Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran looming on the club. Fast forward a year, and Adams has created the same dilemma this season, with Craig playing the role of Berkman. While the future is what it is, the now finds the Cardinals with a plus bat that will keep the heat on to find more chances for his undeniable skill set to play.

2. Mitchell Boggs will be okay: On the heels of his blown save in Arizona and follow up implosion during the ninth inning of Monday’s opener, the already hot question about if he is suited for the ninth inning continued. When compounded with the confirmation of the torn elbow ligament for Jason Motte, and the debate on Boggs role on the club hit a fever pitch. Taking full advantage of Mike Matheny’s decision to put him back on the bump just a day after his disastrous outing, Boggs put plenty of confidence in his ability to deliver once again. In setting down the Reds in order to close out Wednesday’s win, and in impressive fashion (12 pitches, eight strikes, one strikeout), he put arm’s length between himself and the growing sentiment for Trevor Rosenthal and his 100-mph excitement (to over exaggeration creating) fastball, to take over the role he hasn’t even had much of a chance to prove himself unworthy for yet.

3. Warrior Westbrook: The best arm in the young season has been Jake Westbrook. With his complete game shutout on Wednesday, he ran his 2013 total to 15.2 innings, and he is yet to surrender an earned run. Yet what’s more than the result however is the method that he’s gone about it. While he has struggled with walks some (11 in total, one more than total hits he’s surrendered), he’s taken on a solid innings load when it has been needed. In the two games prior to his starts, the bullpen has pitched a total of 14.1 innings, using a total of seven different relievers.

The strength of what Westbrook brings to the middle of the rotation is a workhorse that can lower the sometimes heavy load the bullpen carries behind Lance Lynn and Jaime Garcia’s starts, and potentially a day before Shelby Miller’s as well, who will have his innings monitored closely. If Westbrook can keep up his effective innings-eating efforts, the ripple effect through the rest of the pitching staff is full of positive scenarios.