The St. Louis Cardinals notched their Major League Baseball-leading 14^th road victory Wednesday with a 5-4 win over the Chicago Cubs and continued a trend that could pay off later in the season.

The Cardinals are 14-7 away from Busch Stadium and have won more games on the road than eight teams have won at all this season. That’s partially because the Cardinals have also played the most road games in baseball, but it is also the type of record that could set the Cardinals up for a great summer stretch.

The team is just 7-5 at home this season, but they have also played just one team in those 12 games that is under .500 for the season, and that’s the Milwaukee Brewers, who are 15-16.

Coming up, the Kansas City Royals will be the only team above .500 the Cardinals will face at home in May before the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks visit during the first week of June.

So expectations have to be increasingly high for a team that has jumped to the best record in the National League while playing 21 of 33 games on the road and many of them being against quality opponents.

Their 21-12 record is also surprising, given the bullpen struggles throughout April, but the bullpen has improved significantly of late and hasn’t blown a lead since Joe Kelly imploded by giving up four runs April 27 to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning of a 5-3 loss.

Since then, the team has won seven of its next 10 games and pulled out to a three-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates heading into play Thursday.

Not many people expected the Cardinals to be this good, especially this early in the season. If anything, the Reds were supposed to run away with the division, but they are 19-16, including a 6-10 record on the road.

In fact, the Cardinals are one of just seven teams to have a winning road record so far this season, but it is a large determining factor in success because all but two of those teams, the Diamondbacks and Cleveland Indians, are first or second in their division.

Now, however, the Cardinals will have to maintain their pace in upcoming games at Busch Stadium against the Colorado Rockies, New York Mets and the Brewers because this is a wonderful opportunity to bank wins while the team has a generally healthy roster, a starting rotation that is putting up historic numbers and a bullpen that looks as though it can hold a lead in the late innings.

Four relievers combined to give up no runs and just two hits in the final 3.2 innings Wednesday against the Cubs after Jake Westbrook allowed four runs and nine hits in his 5.1 innings.

That kind of relief performance is what it is going to take for the Cardinals to maintain their success. The starting rotation has combined for a historically low 2.25 earned-run average so far this season, but it is not going to be able to keep that pace throughout the season.

But, it saved the Cardinals through the first month and perhaps the bullpen is coming around at the perfect time.

That could make for a lot of fun summer nights this season at Busch Stadium.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia is one of the most dominating pitchers on the team when everything around him is satisfactory. When it’s not, a team such as the Philadelphia Phillies can tag him for eight runs in three innings, as they did Friday in Philadelphia.

Garcia has struggled on the road throughout his career. He has a 15-12 record with a 4.40 earned-run average in road games, but he is 20-11 with a 2.45 ERA in his career at Busch Stadium where he is more familiar with the surroundings and can comfortably prepare for a game the same way every time.

But one more change might have factored into Friday’s poor performance. Regular catcher Yadier Molina had a day off for the first time all season. Tony Cruz got the start instead.

So without his regular home routine and normal catcher, Garcia gave up eight runs on nine hits and two walks. Sure, third baseman Ty Wigginton made a throwing error in the first inning to make four of their eight runs unearned, but four of the Phillies hits went for extra bases, so Garcia got hit around regardless.

Unfortunately, Garcia has too many of those nights, and that keeps him from being one of the better pitchers on not only the Cardinals, but in Major League Baseball.

He has the stuff. He throws his fastball in the low 90s with movement, he has a knee-buckling curveball and owns a changeup that is as good as any top-tier left-handed starter in the game. And when he has those pitches working correctly, he has the potential to throw a no-hitter.

But he also has nights when he can’t command those pitches and simply gets crushed.

That has been the main problem Garcia has fought throughout his five-year career. He looks like a pitcher who can dominate, and at times he does, but mind games tend to get in the way of him being a consistent pitcher who can fill a spot near the top of the rotation.

The problem is Garcia now has five years of big-league experience, and he hasn’t been able to get over those issues.

The Cardinals are aware of these issues. They’ve even manipulated the rotation in recent years to try to minimize the times Garcia has to pitch on the road.

And while it’s great his team is trying to help him out, Garcia has to get past those concentration issues at some point or he is going to become the next Oliver Perez, a left-handed starter who came up with the San Diego Padres in 2002.

Perez, who is now a reliever for the Seattle Mariners, had electric stuff when he debuted and even posted a 2.98 ERA with 12 wins for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004, but his inconsistency kept him from being Johan Santana or any number of other great left-handed starters.

For the most part, Garcia has had a good start to his 2013 season. He pitched well in spring training after recovering from a shoulder injury and started this season well in his first start on the road. He held the Arizona Diamondbacks to one run in 5.2 innings April 2 in Phoenix and then made two solid starts at home before the Phillies shelled him Friday.

Maybe Molina’s absence had more to do with the poor outing than anything, or perhaps he simply had an off night. All pitchers do. But Garcia is going to have to get beyond those relatively minor differences in each start if he is going to not only help the Cardinals in 2013, but also live up to his long-term potential.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (March 26, 2013) – The Cardinals are giving fans the opportunity to put the finishing touch on the 2013 uniforms by allowing them to decide which color cap the players will wear during road games this season. The team is taking a new approach to gauging fan sentiment by adding a social media polling option to the more traditional web vote.

“We want to let our fans decide whether they want our players to wear red caps or blue caps when the team is on the road,” said William DeWitt III, President of the Cardinals. “We also wanted to have a little fun by getting our fans to engage via social media to gauge how intensely they feel about the options.”

For the next two days, fans can go online to cardinals.com/redvsblue to vote for their favorite cap and uniform combination. The team’s Twitter followers will have a chance to sway the final outcome in a one-day Twitter vote on Thursday. Fans may vote for any of the following four options:

1.      #AllBlueSTL:  Continue to wear blue STL caps during road games red STL caps at home

2.      #AllRedSTL: Wear red STL caps during both road and home games

3.      #BluevsRed: Wear blue STL caps on the road but only when playing against red teams

4.      #GetawayDays: Wear blue STL caps on road “getaway days” (the last game of each road series)

Throughout today and Wednesday, all fans may vote online at cardinals.com/redvsblue, opting to vote for as many of the options and as frequently as they’d like. After the polls close oncardinals.com/redvsblue, Cardinals Twitter followers will have the final say with tweeted votes all day Thursday. Fans may tweet using the designated hash tag for the cap color of their choice. Each tweet will be counted as a single vote. Fans may tweet as often as they like, but only one hashtag per tweet will be tallied. The Cardinals will add the Tweet tally to the rest of online voting, and the final result will be announced once all of the votes are tabulated.

The Cardinals have most currently worn navy blue STL caps during all road games and red STL caps at home – with the exception of Spring Training games in which they wear the traditional red home caps for both home and road games.

In November, the St. Louis Cardinals unveiled new uniforms for the 2013 season, the first update to the teams’ wardrobe in more than a decade. For the first time in more than 80 years, the team will wear an alternate uniform on Saturdays that will feature “St. Louis” in place of “Cardinals” on the jersey. In addition, all the team’s jerseys (home, road, home alternate) will feature more detail in the embroidery, consistent with the graphical logo used by the club since 1998. The cap color change marks the finishing touch on the 2013 uniform updates.

KANSAS CITY, MO (January 31, 2013) – The Kansas City Royals and FOX Sports Kansas City today announced a 142-game television schedule for the 2013 season, featuring two exhibition games and 140 regular season games.

The Royals and FOX Sports Kansas City are entering the sixth season of a long-term agreement in which FOX Sports Kansas City is the exclusive television home of Royals baseball.  The 140-game regular season television schedule features 67 road games and 73 from Kauffman Stadium.  Every game on FOX Sports Kansas City will be preceded by a 30-minute pre-game show, “Hy-Vee Royals Live,” and followed by the “Boulevard Royals Live” post-game show.  All 140 regular season telecasts will be presented in High Definition.

FOX Sports Kansas City’s coverage of Royals baseball kicks off with a Spring Training telecast from Surprise, Ariz., on Monday, March 25, when the Royals host the Los Angeles Dodgers at 8:05 p.m. (CDT).  A second exhibition game will be broadcast on Wednesday, March 27, when Kansas City hosts the Chicago Cubs, also at 8:05 p.m. (CDT).

FSKC will air Kansas City’s Opening Day contest on April 1 at Chicago as well as the April 8 home opener vs. Minnesota.

Ryan Lefebvre will call 90 regular season games and one exhibition for Fox Sports Kansas City and Steve Physioc will provide the play-by-play on 50 games during the season and one exhibition.  Rex Hudler will return for his second season as the analyst and Royals’ Hall of Famer, Jeff Montgomery, will provide analysis throughout the season on Royals Live with host Joel Goldberg.

The complete season schedule with telecasts is listed on the attached schedule, which you can download by clicking here.  All game times and the TV schedule are subject to change.

KANSAS CITY, MO (February 10, 2012) – The Kansas City Royals and FOX Sports Kansas City today announced a 142-game television schedule for the 2012 season, featuring two exhibition games and 140 regular season games.

The Royals and FOX Sports Kansas City are entering the fifth season of a long-term agreement in which FOX Sports Kansas City is the exclusive television home of Royals baseball.  The 140-game regular season television schedule features 66 road games and 74 from Kauffman Stadium.  Every game on FOX Sports Kansas City will be preceded by a 30-minute pre-game show, “Hy-Vee Royals Live,” and followed by the “Boulevard Royals Live” post-game show.  All 140 regular season telecasts will be presented in High Definition.

In the booth, Ryan Lefebvre returns for his fifth season as the play-by-play voice of the Royals on FOX Sports Kansas City and he will be joined in 2012 by former major leaguer Rex Hudler as the analyst.  Also joining the Royals’ broadcast booth this year is play-by-play announcer and Kansas State University alum, Steve Physioc.  Both Physioc and Hudler worked together in the television booth of the Angels for 11 seasons.  Lefebvre and Physioc have each agreed to multi-year contracts, with Ryan slated for 90 regular season telecasts while Steve provides the call on 50 games.

“During the winter months, Ryan relayed to us a desire to expand his responsibilities and have a larger presence in the radio booth, thus bringing in a strong veteran announcer like Steve Physioc enabled us to give Ryan that flexibility,” said Mike Swanson, Royals Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting.  “The addition of Steve brings a familiar voice back home to the Midwest and affords us the luxury of having both he and Ryan on radio and television throughout the season.  As for the addition of Rex, he was a ‘run through a wall’ type of player and brings that same high-energy style to the broadcast booth.  His enthusiasm for the game of baseball is infectious and it translates very well on the air.”

“This is a great day for our broadcast team,” said Lefebvre.  “For me professionally, I get to work with two of the most enthusiastic and respected men in our business, and personally, I’m grateful the Royals have allowed me to return to the Royals radio booth in a larger role.”

FOX Sports Kansas City’s coverage of Royals baseball kicks off with a Spring Training telecast from Surprise, Ariz., on Friday, March 30, when the Royals host the Chicago White Sox at 8:05 p.m. (CDT).  A second exhibition game will be broadcast on Tuesday, April 3, when Kansas City visits the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park in a 9:05 p.m. (CDT) start.

FSKC will air Kansas City’s Opening Day contest on April 6 at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Royals Announce 2012 Regular Season Schedule
Home opener scheduled for April 13 vs. Cleveland

KANSAS CITY, MO (September 14, 2011) — In conjunction with Major League Baseball, the Kansas City Royals today announced their 2012 regular season schedule. Opening Day is scheduled for Friday, April 6 when the Royals visit the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium. It marks the fifth time in franchise history that the Royals have opened against the Angels (1971, 1973, 1975 and 2011), the fourth time in Anaheim. Kansas City will begin the home schedule on April 13 vs. Cleveland at 3:10 p.m.

Kansas City will host Interleague matchups against Arizona (May 18-20), Milwaukee (June 12-14) and St. Louis (June 22-24). The road Interleague schedule consists of visits to Pittsburgh (June 8-10), St. Louis (June 15-17) and Houston (June 18-20).

Kansas City’s holiday schedule sees the Royals at home on Labor Day vs. Texas (September 3), and on the road at the Angels on Easter (April 8), in Chicago on Mother’s Day (May 13), at Cleveland on Memorial Day (May 28), in St. Louis for Father’s Day (June 17) and in Toronto on July 4th.

The month-by-month home game features: April – 10; May – 12; June – 15; July – 11; August – 15; September – 15; October – 3. The Royals will host a pair of 10-game homestands, first from April 13 to 23 and again after the All-Star Game from July 13 to 22. The club’s longest road trip is a 10-game stretch from June 29 to July 8.

In addition to the 3:10 start for the home opener, the Royals host 1:10 weekday contests on May 17 vs. Baltimore, June 6 vs. Minnesota, June 27 vs. Tampa Bay and July 19 vs. Seattle.

Standard start times for all other contests at Kauffman Stadium in 2012 are:
Monday through Friday: 7:10 p.m.
Saturday: 6:10 p.m.
Sunday: 1:10 p.m.

The complete 2012 schedule is attached with game times for home contests. Times for road games will be announced at a later date. The game dates and times are subject to change.

Our generation of sports fan has been influenced immensely by the players that can dial it up another notch and perform at a higher level when the spotlight falls directly on their shoulders. Football great Deion Sanders made a career out of it and introduced a nation of sports fans to the term “primetime” in a whole new way.

The St. Louis Cardinals will play tonight against the Colorado Rockies in St. Louis. The game will mark the eleventh time this season that the Cardinals will find themselves aired on ESPN as a featured game. The spotlight has burned bright on the team with only the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies having appeared more times on the national stage. Their Rockies will make their second appearance on the network this season, having lost in Philadelphia on May 18th.

The bright lights of center stage have not treated the Cardinals well, dealing them losses at home against the Padres on March 31, the Giants on June 1, the Phillies on June 22, and the rival Cubs on July 31. They have also lost road games in Chicago to the Cubs on May 11 and New York to the Mets on July 20. They have only managed to win four of the ten games broadcast by the sports network, all of which occurred at home, defeating the Reds on April 24, the Phillies on May 16, the Giants on May 31 and the Reds on July 5. Overall, the Cardinals are 4-6 when featured on the network with all four wins coming at home. Over the course of ten games, while it is a small sample size, we find much of the same story lines that have made up the Cardinals season.

Five different starters have taken the mound this season for the Cardinals in these situations with Jake Westbrook starting in half of them himself. Westbrook’s five starts have resulted in a 2-2 record with one no decision. To his credit, he has one start that lasted six innings of shutout ball and another that was seven innings with only one run crossing the plate for his wins. However, consistency has not been the Cardinals strong point this season and Westbrook has also put up a six inning-four run outing and a two and one third inning-six run debacle in his losses. In his no decision, he would give up three runs over five and a third innings.

Jaime Garcia holds the only other Cardinal victory for the starting rotation, having pitched well in the July 5 game against the Reds. Jaime would only go six innings in that game but would also only surrender one run, strike out four, and walk three gaining his eighth win of the season.

Kyle Lohse is the only other starter that has taken a decision, having taken a heart breaking loss to the Phillies on June 22. Lohse, who holds the best earned run average and longest start of any Cardinals pitcher this year during ESPN games, would go eight innings and surrender three runs and be saddled with his fourth loss of the season as the Cardinals would get shut out 4-0.

The remaining three games would be split between the team’s ace, Chris Carpenter, who started in two of them and the man that has been relocated to the bullpen, Kyle McClellan, who has appeared as a starter and a reliever. Carpenter has pitched well, giving up two runs in each game, one over five innings and the other over seven. While he has not been lights out on national broadcasts, he has been very impressive for a guy that does not get a win in either game. McClellan’s start looks very similar to the majority of his starts this season having lasted six innings and allowing four runs while walking two and striking out two.

The bullpen has not been overly impressive but the also have not been overly disappointing in prime time games on ESPN. Due largely in part to solid performances from closer Fernando Salas and setup man Jason Motte, the bullpen has maintained a good presence when being showcased to the nation.

The offense has not exactly taken to the spotlight for a reason to break out of the funk fans have found it in all season long. Struggling superstars, surprising production elsewhere and mediocre numbers have littered the season and nationally broadcast ESPN games would be no different.

When you are on the big stage, you turn to your big stars to produce. There is little doubt who the big offensive stars of the St. Louis Cardinals are, the combination of Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols have had people talking off and on all season long. The biggest surprise of the season has been Lance Berkman. While his numbers on ESPN games are nothing to be laughed at, they are not quite as dominant as his season would suggest. He has managed a pair of home runs, five runs, five runs batted in, and a .265 batting average to go along with a disappointing 12 strikeouts. Albert Pujols has continued his frustrations in big spots this year and the national spotlight will show no difference. The best hitter in the game has only two extra base hits, both doubles, two runs scored, three runs batted in and an abysmal .207 batting average. The one stat that has seemed to haunt the big slugger this year rears its ugly head here as well, Albert has grounded into four double plays over the ten games in front of the world. Matt Holliday is the saving grace for the powerful trio, having hit .310 with a double, three home runs, seven runs, and eight runs batted in. Holliday went deep twice in the July 5 game with the Cincinnati Reds, driving in four runs in that game alone.

Sometimes, when faced with the big stage, players that are sometimes overlooked due to the stars on the team start to produce at a higher level. Sometimes they follow suit and under-perform themselves. David Freese, who was injured for much of the season during these games, has not been able to seize the opportunity to step out from the shadows a bit and show that he can be the clutch performer the Cardinals expect him to be. In seventeen at bats on ESPN this season, Freese has yet to notch a run batted in or a run scored and is hitting just .235. Yadier Molina has shown a consistent bat throughout this season and has managed to post a .344 batting average in front of the world this season. Add in three runs scored and four runs batted in to go with a home run and Molina seems to be enjoying the attention.

Delving deeper past the players considered to be stars and looking at the supporting staff finds a few guys that are performing well in the spotlight, namely, Ryan Theriot. Theriot has been very impressive on ESPN games this year, posting a .367 batting average while driving in five runs and scoring two more of his own. Meanwhile, his frequent partner in the middle infield Skip Schumaker has shown that he is not afraid of a little attention himself. Skip is hitting .304 during these games with a pair of doubles, three runs batted in and two runs scored. Finally, Jon Jay continues to try to break out of his shell and does well with a .286 batting average and three runs batted in of his own.

Overall, it is time for someone to step into the spotlight and claim their rightful spot in “Primetime” for the St. Louis Cardinals.

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.
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