The St. Louis Cardinals entered the 2012 season with a potent, yet aging, offense that was prone to injuries. That potential was realized as several key hitters hit the disabled list early in the season. However, the Cardinals pitching staff is still the biggest factor in the team’s success.

When the Cardinals jumped out to a 3.5-game lead in the NL Central through April, their team ERA was 2.66. In the following six weeks, the team has gone 18-24 heading into play Saturday. The team ERA was 4.43.

Plus, since the debacle of a series in New York that included Johan Santana’s no-hitter, the Cardinals have lost just two games when their pitching gave up less than six runs, including Friday’s nail-biter when Tyler Greene nearly tied the game with a Little League-style dash around the bases that ended in hime being thrown out at the plate.

So, what do all these numbers tell us? They say Cardinals fans should be much more concerned about the performance of the pitching staff than the lineup. Despite the myriad of injuries to position players, the Cardinals will still put up enough runs to contend more days than not. The key for a successful rest of the season is whether or not the pitching staff can keep the opposition’s score within reach.

And that’s been the problem.

Even without Chris Carpenter, the Cardinals starting rotation pitched great for the first month or so of the season. The staff even carried ace Adam Wainwright for much of April and the bullpen was solid. Then the wheels fell off. Kyle McClellan got hurt, and Fernando Salas, Mitchell Boggs and Marc Rzepczynski saw their ERA’s balloon to a combined 4.32. Closer Jason Motte also blew three saves.

The pitching has been better of late, however. The Cardinals have given up four runs or less in eight of their last 11 games heading into play Saturday. The team won six of those games.

Basically, the Cardinals will win more often than not when they get good pitching performances. When they don’t, the team enters slumps that threaten to take them out of playoff contention. That’s not surprising. It’s been an old baseball adage forever.

Just look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, who up until this last week were tied for the division lead with the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates are hitting just .225 as a team, dead last in Major League Baseball. But they also have a 3.51 team ERA, fourth best in the league.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals could be in line for more problems after starting pitcher Jaime Garcia went down with shoulder trouble last week.

Hopefully new starter Joe Kelly can put together a few solid starts. His contributions, combined with an ever-improving Wainwright and continued stellar performances from Lance Lynn could be the most important aspect of the 2012 Cardinals team for the balance of the season.

Yes, offense is important, but the pitching staff will be what determines how far the Cardinals go in 2012.

“I love it when a plan comes together” – John “Hannibal” Smith

Two weeks ago I decided to write today’s article about the city of St Louis, their baseball team, and their unbearable fans. I spent countless hours researching, and remembering, all the things I dislike about this pompous trinity and was just beginning to feel prepared as I settled in to watch Friday night’s game. Less than 4 hours later, the best fans in baseball gave me all the ammunition I would have ever needed.

I should have seen it coming. You see I had developed a theory that determines how much you hate the Cardinal Nation, and Friday night’s experience just proved it. The theory basically states that hatred of the Cardinals begins with a person’s decency and is positively correlated with how much exposure you have to their fans. In other words, the more you get to know them, the more you hate them…and Friday night was a window into their souls.

Cardinals fans are, at their core, spoiled little brats. They’re the kid you hated in high school because he drove a brand new BMW, wore Abercrombie and Fitch to school every day, and always had that smirk on his face like he knew something that you didn’t. Everything in life was so easy for him. The hot chicks adored him because of his car, he never got in trouble because of daddy’s money, and he certainly wasn’t working a job in the summer. Remember how that kid acted when he something didn’t go his way? He threw a fit, just like Cardinals fans did Friday night. Remember how he acted when someone had a great accomplishment? He tried to diminish it, just like Cardinals fans did when Johan Santana no-hit them a couple of weeks ago. And if that didn’t work? Well then, he generally went off his rocker, like sending death threats to the family of an umpire because he had the audacity to blow a call.

The thing I always hated the most about that kid was that he actually thought we were all jealous of him, and of course so do Cardinals fans. They self-gloss with the ”best fans in baseball” tag, they talk about their 11 World Series rings any time you dare to question them, and most of all they love to act like they don’t give a damn about the Kansas City Royals because that would be beneath them.

Much like the rich kid, they’re just over compensating for their obvious shortcomings. I mean, c’mon they live in one of the dirtiest, most crime riddled cities in America. It’s no wonder they flock to the K every year, who wouldn’t want to get out of that abyss for a few days? I think the city of St Louis wanted to be Chicago but could only duplicate the crime and pollution. They like to compare their barbecue toKansas City, but the fact that they consume more sauce per capita than any city in the country tells me they probably aren’t very good at cooking their meat either. Maybe their team is a divine gift after all, to make up for how terrible every other aspect of life is in that cesspool.

Of course, Cardinals fans aren’t just making up for the inadequacies of their city, they have some of their own. For one, they are incredibly hypocritical. Their love and adoration of Mark McGwire as he injected his way to the home run record was sickening in itself. It became more so when it was replaced by indignant cries as Barry Bonds did the same thing, only better. Finally, when McGwire finally came clean, they no longer seemed to have a problem with steroids, as long as you admit it. So using the moral compass of the Cardinals, it seems that cheating is fine, drunk driving is to be revered, but human error from umpires is intolerable. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, these are the same people who cheered on Leonard Little long after his conviction for manslaughter.

Another thing the “best fans in baseball” pride themselves in is their knowledge of the game. That’s why I found it odd watching last night and hearing the roar of the crowd when Matt Holliday hit a can of corn to Jarrod

Dyson in medium-depth center field. Maybe their knowledge doesn’t include depth perception. Surely, though they stood and applauded when Alcides Escobar made one of the best plays the brilliant shortstop has ever made, right? Well, they were standing, but that’s because many of them were on their way out of the stadium…before the final out. I obviously don’t understand what makes a good baseball fan.

Now I mentioned the trinity at the beginning of this article, and I haven’t spent any time at all on the team. Honestly, before last night I didn’t have many feelings about this team. They’ve been ravaged by injury much of the season and at this point it appears to be a pretty mediocre collection of scrappy players and nearly has-beens. Of course, that’s generally good enough to win in the inferior league, but with no Albert Pujols to lead the way it won’t be this year. In fact, another Royals win tonight combined with a Reds and Dodgers victory would put the Royals closer to first place than the Cardinals, I wonder what the “best fans in baseball” would think of that?

NEW YORK, June 12, 2012 – MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, today announced the debut of The 140 Club (MLB.com/the140club), a curated news service for fans to see what the world is saying about baseball and what baseball is saying about the world via the popular social networking service.

This first edition of The 140 Club delivers more than a feed of hashtags or accounts. Supported by the power of Mass Relevance, Twitter’s official social curation and integration partner, MLB.com’s social media team selects the most talked about topics of the day and curates a live stream of the best tweets from around the world on those topics. Recent examples include the no-hitters by Johan Santana and the Seattle Mariners, the Interleague Play series sweeps by the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals, the College World Series and the Bradley-Pacquiao fight.

“Tweets connect us in groundbreaking ways to previously inaccessible points of view,” said Dinn Mann, Executive Vice President, Content, MLB.com. “We are delighted to leverage the reach of Twitter and tools of Mass Relevance to discover and share discussions and observations that rise above the noise. Baseball personalities, fans and celebrities are weighing in at a prolific pace on topics of all kinds, and The 140 Club is a reliable, entertaining place to get inside the ropes and eavesdrop or take part.”

“MLB.com continues to create engaging experiences that connect fans to baseball,” said Sam Decker, CEO of Mass Relevance. “By curating and surfacing the most important social conversations around baseball through the Mass Relevance platform, MLB.com is taking a strong social leadership position across all sports worldwide.”

The 140 Club on MLB.com also offers functionality for fans to search by an individual player’s Twitter account or an official team account. Future enhancements to the news service will include an archive for a retrospective look at the most talked about topics of the previous week.

The hits, or lack of hits, kept coming last week as the St. Louis Cardinals continued a rough stretch that included becoming the victim of the New York Mets first no-hitter in franchise history.

Aside from being no-hit by Mets pitcher Johan Santana Friday night, the Cardinals also sent Skip Schumaker back to the disabled list to join an all-star caliber cast that includes Lance Berkman, Matt Carpenter and Jon Jay on the offensive side, and Chris Carpenter and Kyle McClellan representing the pitching staff.

On the bright side, perhaps the only bright side of the week that saw the Cardinals go 2-6 in their last eight games, Allen Craig rejoined the team Friday. Although he obviously didn’t get a hit in his first game back, the Cardinals sorely need his presence in the lineup.

It’s not surprising that the Cardinals have fallen back to the back amid all of the injuries. Sure, every team has injuries throughout the long season, but no team is going to play first-place caliber baseball with six important players hurt.

However, the Cardinals are still capable of playing competitive baseball, and better baseball than they have of late.

The bullpen has been simply atrocious for much of the last three weeks. The Cardinals had the fourth-worst ERA in May at 4.72, and the bullpen’s ERA was even higher. The disturbing part of the bullpen’s performance is injuries cannot be used as an excuse. Aside from McClellan, the bullpen pitchers have remained healthy, they’ve just pitched terribly.

Now it’s to the point where guys such as Sam Freeman, Maikel Cleto and Brandon Dickson are trying to get important outs for the big league club, when in reality they should still be playing for the AAA Memphis Redbirds.

Even with the injuries to position players, the Cardinals put up four runs or more in every game last week before running into a buzz saw this weekend against the Mets. A team that consistently scores four runs or more should win a lot of ballgames, but the pitching staff has found numerous ways to give up more than four runs.

The struggles of middle relief pitchers have been particularly back-breaking. The Cardinals have shown all season they can fight back during a game even if they fall behind early.

For example, the Atlanta Braves scored three runs in the first inning and two more runs in the third inning Wednesday to take a 5-0 lead. The Cardinals fought back and tied the game at five in the six, but Marc Rzepczynski immediately gave up three runs to take away any momentum the Cardinals had built.

So, what’s the fix? Good question. The offense will be fine. A lineup that includes Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday and David Freese will produce enough runs to remain competitive. However, as we said before the season started, the pitching staff is going to have to be strong for the Cardinals to compete for the division crown.

That happened at the beginning of the season. The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead almost every night, and the pitchers held the opponents in check the rest of the night. The game seemed easy back in April.

That certainly changed in May. Relief pitchers such as Rzepczynski, Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs will have to regain their 2011 and early 2012 form if the Cardinals are going to keep up with the Cincinnati Reds throughout the summer. The Memphis Redbirds pitching staff isn’t equipped to compete in the major leagues, and it is showing right now.

Hopefully the Cardinals beat up on the Houston Astros this coming week, but after that series the team faces a stretch against AL Central powerhouses such as the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.

Hang on tight, folks, the rough ride of the past week could continue for a while.

Old friend of I-70, Wally Fish (of Kings Of Kauffman fame), has a site known as Seedlings To The Stars. They are currently in the process of counting down their top 100 prospects and we thought our readers might like to drop by there for some insight. Below are I-70 players that are currently profiled. Drop by the site and read up on the future of your favorite franchise.

Top 100 Prospects, #92: Trevor Rosenthal – Cardinals
Nathan Stoltz of Seedlings To The Stars says:

Rosenthal had a big year in the Midwest League to establish himself as one of the Cardinals’ top pitching prospects. A local kid from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Rosenthal was a 21st-round pick in the 2009 draft who was mostly a reliever in short-season ball his first two seasons. In 2011, he immediately announced his presence by striking out 11 batters in four innings in his first start. His season took off from there, as he put up dominant numbers.

Read Rosenthal’s full profile by clicking here.

Top 100 Prospects, #90: John Lamb – Royals
Nathan Stoltz of Seedlings To The Stars says:

Lamb is a very polished lefthanded pitcher who is well ahead of the age curve. He reached Double-A in mid-2010 right around his 20th birthday after blowing through High-A with a 90/15 K/BB in 74 2/3 innings, doing so on the back of exquisite command and a good fastball/changeup combination. That earned him Baseball America’s #18 overall prospect ranking last offseason, and he ranked #38 on my list. On that list last year, I said Lamb was “an extremely polished pitcher who could wind up similar to the Mets incarnation of Johan Santana.

Read Lamb’s full profile by clicking here.

Nathan Stoltz also takes a look at Pitch F/X Data on recently promoted pitchers in his incredibly in-depth series “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of”

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: Brandon Dickson
From Seedlings To The Stars:

Entering the 2011 season, I thought Brandon Dickson was a nice dark-horse candidate for the Cardinals’ fifth-starter job, since he had turned in a very solid 2010 in the Triple-A Memphis rotation. He didn’t ultimately win that competition, but the 26-year-old righthander had another fine year with the Redbirds and got into four MLB games with the big-league Cardinals, including one start.

As is the case with the many of the pitchers I’m looking at in this series, Dickson faced far too few batters for us to get a good read on how effective his individual pitches are in the big leagues. Overall, he faced 34 batters in 8 1/3 innings, allowing just three runs on nine hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. The biggest blemish was two homers allowed, although 15 of the 24 balls in play off him were grounders.

As you might expect from a relatively anonymous minor leaguer who didn’t break through until he was 26, Dickson doesn’t throw overwhelmingly hard. He does, however, boast enough velocity to get by, working at 89-91 in his lone start and 90-93 in relief. He can add sink or cut to the pitch and gets good plane on it from his 6’5″ frame.

Read the rest of the profile, as well as the charts, by clicking here.

If prospects are what you are looking for and you want the most in-depth analysis available, all of us here at I-70 would suggest you drop by Seedlings To The Stars often. I know it is sitting at the top of my bookmarks currently.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Now that the Winter Meetings are completed and Cardinal fans can start to digest the moves that have been made up to this point, a very under-the-radar part of the Winter Meetings that most look past is the Rule 5 draft. It’s simply a draft set up to prevent teams from loading up on young talent. Teams that don’t have top-tier farm are allowed to add some prospects to their Minor League systems.

Players like Josh Hamilton, Dan Uggla, Joakim Soria, Johan Santana, Shane Victorino, and the great Roberto Clemente are some of the most notable Rule 5 draftees, so there’s obviously some importance in the draft. Unfortunately, you can also lose prospects. Which is exactly what happened to the Cardinals.

Brian Broderick, one of my favorite prospects, was picked up by the Washington Nationals. The 6’6” right-hander spent most of the season in Springfield where he posted an impressive 11-2 record with a 2.77 ERA and 1.093 WHIP while only walking 14 batters in over 100 innings of work.

It wasn’t a total loss for St. Louis though. They acquired former Toronto, Minnesota, and Chicago prospect Jean Mijares. While little is known about Mijares, he boasts some very impressive numbers that I noticed were very similar to one of the Cardinals top prospects Eduardo Sanchez. Mijares hasn’t really been a closer (only 11 saves five seasons) and is left-handed as opposed to right, but that is virtually the only difference between him and Sanchez. Both throw exceptionally hard, have a very small frame, have almost identical 2010 stats, and even grew up only miles away from each other.

By no means am I saying Mijares will have the same level of success that Sanchez has had throughout his Minor League career, but the similarity is definitely something to think about.

One thing Mijares needs to improve on if he wants to take a similar path through the Minors is his command (something Sanchez also had problems with). If he can learn how to hit his spots with a little more consistency, Mijares has potential to shoot through the Minors. He may not be a top Major League prospect, but could very well make a deep impact in the Cardinals farm system.

Most sports fans love to second-guess coaches and managers. We love to do it, especially when things go completely wrong for our team. Dare I say it can be therapeutic to help get over a tough loss by burying the manager’s decision making.

“Had we only done this, we would’ve won.”

It doesn’t happen every time the team losses, and when it does happen, it usually comes down to one or two decisions made in crunch time that completely backfire. But there was one big exception to that rule during the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2010 season, because on April 17^th, “crunch time” lasted 11 innings longer than usual.

Forget the walk-off wins, comebacks, and that oh so glorious mid-August sweep of the Cincinnati Reds. For me, the most memorable game of the season was that crazy, dramatic, exhausting 20 inning loss to the New York Mets.

Tony LaRussa is no stranger to criticism and second-guessing. This is a man who has regularly batted the pitcher eighth in the lineup, rests his best players if his team is in position for to sweep a series, platoons middle-infielders and corner-outfielders like a little league team, and benched All-Star Scott Rolen in the 2006 NLCS, and decided that with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 9^th inning in an All-Star game with his team trailing by 1 run to keep Albert Pujols on the bench “just in case it went into extras.” What?!

But on this day… in this game… LaRussa outdid himself.

Let me set the stage for you. It was a Saturday afternoon, and an epic pitchers’ duel was taking place. Mets ace Johan Santana had shutout the Cardinals through 7 innings, and Cardinals rookie Jaime Garcia had held the Mets to just 1 hit. To this point, the Cardinals have all five of their bench players remaining, and all seven of their relief pitchers rested and in the bullpen.

Heading into the top of the 8^th, LaRussa decides he’s seen enough from his young pitcher, and brings in Kyle McClellan to try and keep the Mets at bay. Garcia’s pitch count was up to 97, and he was due to lead off the bottom of the 8^th. It’s an understandable move, probably the right one. LaRussa goes ahead and makes it a double switch, putting Brendan Ryan into the nine-hole, McClellan into the 6-spot in the order, and David Freese comes out of the game. The Cardinals are left with 4 bench players, 6 relievers.

The score remained tied 0-0 heading into the bottom of the 9^th. McClellan was due up second in the inning, so naturally LaRussa sends in a pinch-hitter, Nick Stavinoha. He singles up the middle, but that’s immediately wiped out by Felipe Lopez’s inning ending double play. With Stavinoha still 8 spots away from hitting next, LaRussa decides to plug Mitchell Boggs into the game in his place: 6^th in the order. The Cardinals are now down to 3 bench players and 5 relievers as we head into extra innings.

The bottom of the 10^th inning is what really set the stage for all the second-guessing to begin. The Mets bring in left-hander Pedro Feliciano with Colby Rasmus due up first. LaRussa counters with a right-handed batter, Joe Mather. Mather grounds out, but eventually Matt Holliday comes up the bases loaded and 2 outs. He fouls out to the first baseman, sending the game into the 11^th inning. With the pitcher’s spot due up 2^nd in the bottom of the 11^th, LaRussa makes a big gamble, taking Holliday out of the game. After the top half of the 11^th, LaRussa would plug in new reliever Trevor Miller into the cleanup spot, and inserting Allen Craig into the 6^th spot where Boggs was scheduled to bat. So if you’re keeping track, that’s now 1 remaining bench player (rookie catcher Bryan Anderson), and 4 relievers.

In the top of the 12^th, Trevor Miller retires lefty Jose Reyes and is immediately pulled from the game. Say it will me: 1 bench player, 3 relievers, and still no runs for either side. Now Jason Motte is in the game…and consequently in the cleanup spot.

Fast-forward to the bottom of the 12^th, and the Cardinals have 2 on and 2 out with Albert Pujols at the plate. The Mets decide to walk Pujols, and everyone in the stadium is expecting Bryan Anderson to come walking out of the dugout. But it was not to be. LaRussa sent reliever Jason Motte up to the dish, and to his credit, he did foul off a couple pitches, but was eventually overmatched and struck out swinging.

LaRussa keeps Motte in the game to face three more hitters, but yanks him in favor of Dennys Reyes when John Maine reached with no one on and 2 out in the 13^th. One bench player, and now just two relievers remaining.

In the 14^th, LaRussa inexplicably lifts Reyes with no one on and two outs. Blake Hawksworth comes into the game and it looks like things are going to completely unravel. The first two batters he faces reach base, but he manages to get Jason Bay to bounce into a fielder’s choice to end the threat. One bench player, 1 relief pitcher.

The Cardinals looked like they had the game won in the bottom half of the inning: runners at second and third, no one out, and the top of the order coming to bat. But after Skip Schumaker and Ryan Ludwick both struck out, it was decision time again for Tony LaRussa. Albert Pujols watched on as the Mets intentionally walked him for the third straight time, and LaRussa had Blake Hawksworth on deck. With one reliever left in the bullpen, it seemed like it was definitely time to go for the win with Bryan Anderson. In 6 minor league seasons, he hit .294 with 236 RBIs. But Tony decides to let Hawksworth hit for himself…and like Motte, he fails to deliver under the improbable circumstances.

Hawksworth manages to shut the Mets out for 2 more innings, bringing us to the bottom of the 16^th. After Schumaker flied out, Ludwick and Pujols stroke back to back singles…setting the stage for the cleanup spot…again. But with one out this time instead of two, it will at least give the pitcher an opportunity to sacrifice the runners to second and third, right? Wrong. LaRussa decides that now is the time to let Bryan Anderson come off the bench and hit. Not in the 12^th with the bases loaded and 2 outs, not in the 14^th with the bases loaded and 2 outs, but right here in this situation. Stunning. LaRussa admitted after the game that he was saving Anderson in case of an injury/fatigue situation, which is fair, but 1) neither of those options come into play if he delivers a game winning hit, and 2) if that was the case, then why not send Adam Wainwright up to pinch hit and fool the Mets into a situation where maybe he shows bunt, draws back, and slaps the ball through an open hole in the infield. Wainwright is a good hitting pitcher after all, and Hawksworth was coming out of the game regardless with 3 innings under his belt. As it turns out, Bryan Anderson hits into a bizarre inning-ending double play, where the second baseman flips a groundball to the shortstop for a fielder’s choice…who then guns down Ludwick trying to take home all the way from second and catch the infielders napping.

Into the game comes closer Ryan Franklin in the top of the 17^th, and with that, the Cardinals have no one left on the bench… and no relievers in the bullpen. The scoreboard also showed 0-0. Franklin shutout the Mets in the 17^th, but that was all he could give the team coming off a save the night before (remember, this began as a day game, so he had less than 20 hours to rest). The Cardinals went down in order in the bottom half of the inning, and that’s when things got really interesting.

With no other options other than to try and use a starter in relief in week three of the new season, LaRussa sends Felipe Lopez to the mound. In turn, the defense shifts around, and starting pitch Kyle Lohse enters the game to play in left field (also making him the 3^rd pitcher of the game to bat cleanup behind Albert Pujols). Honestly, with as crazy as everything was going and as frustrated as I was watching this game… seeing Lopez on the mound was actually pretty entertaining. I was, after all, just one game out of 162, and most of the Cardinals’ players got a chuckle out of it. Lopez got Henry Blanco to pop out to short… the smiles got bigger. The Mets next batter actually reached on an infield single…but a wild throw to first actually allowed Albert Pujols to throw out the runner as he tried to take second. The crowd went wild…I went wild. It was a great moment in an epic game. The Cardinals were 1 out away from sending a position player to the mound in a tie ballgame and getting away with it. And get away with it, they did. After walking the next batter, Lopez got a fly-out to end the inning.

The Cardinals went down in order again in the bottom half of the inning, setting the stage for Joe Mather to try his hand at pitching. Mather walked Jose Reyes to lead off the inning. Surprisingly, the Mets elected to sacrifice him to second, giving the Cardinals backup outfielder a free out in his first trip to the mound as a big leaguer. After another walk and a hit batter, Jeff Francoeur comes up. He launches a hanging, 55 mile-an-hour pitch into deep left field, missing a homerun by inches…but getting home the game’s first run by way of a sacrifice fly (Kyle Lohse makes the catch). 1-0 Mets, top of the 19^th. After Mather’s third free-pass of the inning, he retired Raul Valdez to end the threat.

The bottom of the 19^th came with yet another chance to second guess Tony LaRussa. Ryan Ludwick leads off the frame with a walk. At this point, the game is more than 5 hours old, the bench and bullpen are depleted, and the Cardinals will send a position player to the mound for a third straight inning if they fail to win the game right here. In other words: they need to go for the win. But LaRussa allows Ludwick to try and steal second base. That’s right, stealing with Albert Pujols at the plate when you need two runs, not just one. Ludwick, not known for his speed, is thrown out. Albert drives the next pitch off the center field wall for a double. Of course he does. Now instead of 2 on with no outs, the Cardinals are left with a runner on second and 1 out. Kyle Lohse, you might recall, is batting cleanup. He grounds out to short… Pujols takes third. Molina comes up as the Cardinals’ final hope. He gets a pitch in on his fists…puts and inside-out swing on the pitch… and wills it just over the outstretched glove of Mets second baseman Luis Castillo. The crowd erupts. Tie game…again. This time, it’s 1-1. Allen Craig strikes out and we head to the twentieth inning.

And that’s when the fun came to an end for the Cardinals.

Joe Mather was able to hold the Mets to just one more run, but that was enough to get the unforgettable 2-1 victory for the Mets.

So take your pick on the second guessing. Was it the liberal use of relievers and pinch hitters in the late innings and early extra innings that gets you? Maybe sending Ryan Ludwick to steal second base in the 19^th inning with Albert Pujols at the plate? How about making a double-switch involving cleanup hitter Matt Holliday, opening the door for three pitchers and a rookie catcher to provide “protection” for Albert Pujols.

How about all of the above.