If teams thought the St Louis Cardinals would flop without Albert Pujols, they should think again.

The scheduler did this team no favors.  Opening Day in Miami, ushering in a new era in Florida and a new ballpark.  Then a 1300 mile flight to Milwaukee, the team’s biggest rival, for their home opener.  Finally a 300 mile drive to Cincinnati, the Cardinals’ OTHER big NL Central rival.  Seven games in 3 cities over a little more than a week.  Lots of teams would limp back home under .500.  Or worse.

With last night’s win the Cardinals will open at home over .500 no matter how the last two games in Cincinnati go. They have done it with solid pitching and torrid hitting.  St Louis currently leads the NL in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, average, OPS, and total bases.  After a horrible spring training Rafael Furcal reached base 11 times in his first 20 plate appearances.  Carlos Beltran, David Freese, Matt Holliday, and Yadier Molina all have 2 HR so far, and the Cardinals have blown out their opponent in 3 of their first 4 wins, scoring at least 7 runs in those games.   They have been equal opportunity assassins, bludgeoning both aces (Josh Johnson, Yovanni Gallardo) and back of the rotation guys (Randy Wolf, Homer Bailey).

The pitching has been good – 3.86 ERA, 0.886 WHIP, 34K against 4 walks and 2 HBP. Kyle Lohse set the tone with six no-hit innings in that opener near South Beach.  Jamie Garcia survived a 2-run first inning to work 6 effective innings, Lance Lynn shut down the Brewers while striking out 8, and Jake Westbrook had his own no-hitter for 4 2/3 innings in Cincinnati.  Heck, when the starter who had the worst line the first time through was Adam Wainwright you know the team’s going well.  And Wainwright, just back from Tommy John surgery, will continue to round back into form the first month of this season.

Some prognosticators predicted this Cardinal team would be at least as dangerous as last year’s World Champs.  If the first time through is any indication that was an accurate prediction.  With 27 of their first 28 games against NL Central opponents, St Louis can make a real statement in this year’s divisional race, putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the field.  Three wins in their first 4 intra-divisional games is the start of a major statement, and should rightly put a shudder through the rest of the division.

St Louis is on pace to win 130 games, which of course is unrealistic.  Or is it?

Mike Metzger is a freelance writer based in San Diego.  He blogs about the Padres.  Follow him on Twitter @metzgermg.

The defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals roll into Cincinnati having taken two of three from the division rival Milwaukee Brewers.

The Milwaukee series gave fans a glimpse of the 2012 team.  David Freese, Rafael Furcal and Carlos Beltran proved that they can hit.  Adam Wainwright showed he was healthy, even if he did not have his best stuff.  Jason Motte showed that he is ready to be the team’s closer, at least as the season starts.

As they pull into the ballpark known as Great American, what do the Cardinals hope to see out of this series?

Jake Westbrook builds on his Spring
Let’s face it, most fans were perfectly okay with the thought of Jake Westbrook being relegated to the bullpen for the remainder of his Cardinal career, which most still hope is simply the end of this year.  However, Westbrook put together a fine Spring Training.

Spring stats are hard to judge.  It’s like the line from Major League 2 -

Rube Baker: Wow, Willie’s really got some power.
Lou Brown: Off a guy who’ll be bagging groceries in a couple of weeks!

So, who is the real Jake Westbrook?  The Cardinals could use some stability in the rotation and if Westbrook can be a fraction of the pitcher we watched as the flowers were beginning to bloom, it will go a long way towards that stability.

Sending a message early
I am not bold enough to say that a three game series in April will make or break this season.  There is a whole lot of baseball to be played.  But these two teams are coming together as the favorites to win this division.  A message can be sent here in the early going to let the other team know that they mean business.

As defending World Champs, the Birds need to send these messages quickly.  They are being counted against pretty regularly by most of the “experts” and a series win, or even a sweep, could silence some of their critics very early on.

The $200 Million man
The offseason and early part of 2012 has shown the world that teams are willing to dig deep and pay big for the big men at first base that can hold their lineup together.

Albert Pujols has admitted recently that the contract was on his mind last season.  Prince Fielder has started showing Detroit fans just what they paid for.  Now the focus fall on young Joey Votto and what he can continue to bring to the Reds.  The pressure is on his shoulders and, in my opinion, he will respond just as well as they need him to.  That being said, the Cardinals are going to see this young man facing off against them for a long time to come, someone will put a big step forward in establishing dominance in this series.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.
Follow him on Twitter here.

So far, the St. Louis Cardinals are making it look easy in 2012. And while no one would say anything in 2011 was easy—maybe when they put Game 7 of the World Series out of reach…maybe—the Cards are playing a lot like they did at the end of last season.

And that’s no small feat, for a couple of reasons. Mike Matheny and his revamped coaching staff may not have been tested with any chess match-type of games, but so far the rookie manager has not made any mistakes either. The Cards are 2-0 facing two different teams in their home openers and against their aces: The Miami Marlins threw Josh Johnson, and the Milwaukee Brewers sent out Yovanni Gallardo. The Redbirds handled them both, and without the benefit of having an ace on the mound either time.

There are a lot of similarities between this year’s squad and last year’s World Champs. The Cards have gotten two really solid starts from their rotation already. The team plays good defense, and the middle of the order is hitting the ball well. Even David Freese looks the same; every time he comes up with runners in scoring position and two outs, he gets a hit. It’s getting to be a shock when he does not. But the 2012 Cardinals are doing some things a little differently, too. They already have three stolen bases this season, and one was (gasp!) while the #3 hitter was up to bat. And for the second game of the season, Matheny trotted out the exact same lineup he used in the first game of the season. It’s almost as if he is just taunting Tony La Russa now…

But the first big test comes Saturday in Milwaukee. Adam Wainwright makes his regular season debut just 13 or so months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Wainwright will probably be his old self, but his stats at the end of the game will not be the whole story. What really matters on that mound Saturday is how many pitches he’s able to throw before he tires. And then the next story will be how he feels on Sunday. The Cardinals have no idea when Chris Carpenter will be back; they need Wainwright to be the go-to guy indefinitely this season. And that may require him to throw fewer innings based on how he recovers after each start. In the meantime, it will be great to see him on the mound.

The Cardinals are coming out of the gate with guns blazing, but it can’t last. Their stats will fall back down to near their averages. But this is so much like what happened in the 2011 season end and postseason. Imagine that: solid pitching, timely hitting, and good defense lead to wins. Still, the Cardinals have to be careful not to kick back and think they have things in the bag. That is one reason the stolen bases are so significant: they represent a bit of a culture shift. The Cards are exploring new—or, at the very least, expanded—ways to “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em out” and there is nothing wrong with that.

Couple it with the “never say die” attitude of last year’s team and maybe the Cardinals will be as good as the team that won it all last year. Maybe they will even be better.

We have arrived at the regional finals in the All Time Cardinals Team Tournament.

The winner of this round advances to the Final Four, to be held at the official site of the United Cardinal Bloggers.

Following along with the finals can pay dividends.  Enter now in the All Time Cardinals Team Tournament Contest and win a copy of A & E’s Complete World Series DVD Set. Details here.

Our bracket has worked all the way down to two teams from the sixteen we began with.  While some of the lower seeds held on for just a while, it ultimately came down to the top two seeds in this region, the 1942 team vs the 1985 team.  Who wins is entirely up to you.

You have read about the teams as we have went along, but here’s the tale of the tape in this regional championship match:

1942		1985
1	Seed	2
106	Wins	101
61	Losses	48
World Champs	Finished	Lost World Series
Enos Slaughter .318/.412/.494 13/98/100	Best Hitter	Willie McGee .353/.384/.503 10/82/114
Mort Cooper 22-7 1.78 ERA	Best Pitcher	John Tudor 21-8 1.93 ERA
Billy Southworth	Manager	Whitey Herzog

Now it’s up to you.  Tell us who moves on by placing your vote below.  Is it the I-70 Namesake from 1985 or the franchise’s most winning team from 1942.  You decide.

Voting closes at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 29th

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St Louis Cardinals fans rejoice in Ozzie Smith’s return to the spring training fold.  Seeing the older but still fit Wizard in uniform brings back fond memories of his 15 seasons in the St Louis infield.  Twenty-five years ago, during the last of Whitey Herzog’s runs to the World Series, Ozzie enjoyed his finest season along the banks of the Mississippi.

The Cardinals entered the 1987 season as a question mark.  For the second time in the decade they had followed up a World Series appearance with a sub-.500 season.  No one expected them to challenge the New York Mets for NL East supremancy; the 1986 World Champs were coming off an 108-win season and looked like a budding dynasty.  Over the first week of the 1987 season, that future appeared to be today, as the Mets won six of their first 8 while St Louis stumbled out of the blocks.  The Cardinals were two games back of New York when the Mets came to town for an early 3-game series.

New York did not roll over the Cardinals on their way to the post-season.  Instead, St Louis swept the Mets, and rarely looked back.  They never trailed by more than a game in April and early May, took sole possession of first place permanently on 22 May, led by 9 games at the All-Star Break, and won their third NL East title in 6 years.

In the middle of this Cardinal resurrection was Ozzie, who had the best offensive year of his career.  It was the only year he hit over .300 (.303).  He set career highs in OBP (.392), hits (182), doubles (40), RBI (75), runs scored (104), stolen bases (43), walks (89), and total bases (230).

Those career highs compared favorably with the rest of the league.  He finished eighth in batting average, eighth in runs, third in hits, second in doubles, sixth in walks, seventh in stolen bases, and was fourth in at bats per strikeout. He was the only player in the top 10 of all those categories.   By Baseball Reference’s calculations, his WAR of 7.1 was fifth-best in the NL, behind Tony Gwynn, Eric Davis, Dale Murphy, and Orel Hershiser.  Broken into categories, his offensive WAR was seventh, his defensive WAR third.

As seemed to be the trend with those 1980s Cardinals teams, they quit hitting in the post-season.  In years past Smith had hit in the NLCS but struggled in the World Series, but in 1987 he struggled in both.  Ozzie hit only .207  combined (11 for 53) that October, and although St Louis rode home-field advantage and superior starting pitching to the NL pennant, they were bested by Minnesota in the Fall Classic.

Ozzie had some good years after that, and some years with better power numbers, but he never quite reached the heights he had in 1987.

It’s a shame he and Tony LaRussa could never find common ground, and that LaRussa had to retire before Ozzie was willing to come back to Spring Training.  Although it’s not the same without Don Tony, the team is better with Ozzie teaching the finer points of middle infield defense to a new generation of Cardinal players.

Welcome back, Ozzie.

I learned a new word during a discussion recently.

I would think that the word, among Cardinal fans, would suggest that opposing players were developing a fear of the non-closer, Jason Motte. Who could blame them? The once-catcher-turned-pitcher has a live fastball and a reckless abandon towards the mound. Motte seemed to find his footing throughout 2011 and became a solid addition to the back of the bullpen for the eventual World Champs. A player that manager Tony LaRussa refused to call his closer, Motte was the guy on the mound to end ball games, close or otherwise.

A quick look at Jason Motte’s 2011 statistics:

A look at Motte during the 2011 post-season

The conversation that led me to the discovery of my new favorite word did not, however, center around the bearded man at the back of the Cardinal ball games. The new term came up, as it were, during a discussion about the strange 2011 season of the Cardinal left fielder. Matt Holliday, during a Monday night game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 22, had a moth fly into his ear deeply enough that he had to come out of the game and the trainer had to extract the nuisance from his ear.

Many people are afraid of bugs, spiders, and any other form of insect. I could not blame Matt Holliday if he suddenly had a very unnatural fear of moths for the remainder of his life.

The fear of moths? You guessed it: Mottephobia.

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.

Thursday morning the BBWAA official Twitter feed announced which Hall of Fame candidates the Veterans Committee will consider. The complete list: Buzzie Bavasi, Ken Boyer, Charlie Finley, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Allie Reynolds, Ron Santo, and Luis Tiant.

Of the men on the list, two stand out to me: Ken Boyer and Jim Kaat. Kaat played for the Cardinals, but it was the last 3 years of his career. He was a member of the 1982 World Champs, but played the majority of his career in Minnesota.

Ken Boyer, on the other hand, played the majority of his career in St Louis, and was one of the key members of the 1964 World Champs. He happens to be the only Cardinal with a retired number who is not in the Hall of Fame. Boyer should be in the Hall, not solely to clear that historical footnote, but because he was really good.

How good was Ken Boyer? He finished in the MVP top 20 every year from 1958 through 1964. Four of those years (1959-1961, 1964) he finished in the top ten, and won the MVP in 1964. Boyer’s 119 OPS+ from 1955 to 1965 is seventh best among me with at least 5500 at bats during those years, and the men ahead of him on that list are all in the Hall of Fame. A third baseman, he won five Gold Gloves while with the Cardinals.

That 1964 season was definitely his best. His MVP award was the first one one by a NL third baseman in almost 50 years. After leading the Cardinals to an improbable NL pennant, he won Game 4 of the Series with a Grand Slam, and contributed 3 hits to the Cardinals Game 7 triumph, the last Fall Classic ever played at Sportsman’s Park.

Like Ted Simmons, another Cardinal who didn’t get much HOF consideration five years after he retired, Boyer’s HOF case may have been hurt by hanging around too long. He won that MVP at age 33 with a 130 OPS+. In the years that followed, plagued by back problems, he never again cracked 110. Boyer played one more season with St Louis, then bounced around the majors for several seasons, playing for the Mets, White Sox, and Dodgers.

He retired following the 1969 season. At the time of his retirement, only Eddie Mathews had hit more HR as a third baseman.

The problem guys like Boyer face is the dwindling number of people who were alive to see him play. Those of us at this end of the timeline are reliant on what we read, what we see World Series highlight DVDs, and whatever we can cull from his statistical record. Boyer has never had a lot of support amongst the BBWAA vote – he peaked with 25.5% of the vote in 1986 – but the peers he played with clearly perceived him to be one of the elite players in baseball.

There are several men on this year’s list who have good cases for election. Ken Boyer is one of those men.

Mike Metzger is an I-70 contributor. He maintains a blog about the San Diego Padres. Follow him on Twitter.

I said a couple of weeks ago that I thought the most important upcoming series on the Cardinals schedule was the 4-game set at Busch against the Giants. Check out that show here. Seeing as how that series is the one currently being played, now is hardly the time to reflect on it. The good is news is that while the Cards & Giants duke it out, the Reds & Brewers have been beating up on each other roughly 350 miles to the east. So, the standings in the National League Central remain largely unchanged over the past couple of days, and I think that even if the Cards end up losing the series to San Fransisco, all is not lost.

I cited San Fransisco’s starting rotation (to say nothing of the bearded one) & the fact that it’s 4 games, not 3, as the main reasons why this would be an important series to watch. With four games, there’s no break from facing exceptional pitching when the Giants come to town. I recall being at a game last year when we faced the (then future) World Champs, and the redbirds chased Lincecum after 5 ⅓ that night.

Photo courtesy: The City Graphics

When your team struggles to score runs off Ryan Vogelsong (1 ER Tuesday night), that makes it hard to win games. Not to take anything away from Vogelsong, he pitched well, but he’s yet to prove himself worthy of the same conversation as two-time (back-to-back) Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and others like Sanchez and even Bumgarner. Of course, if you don’t score “early & often” it’s easy to find yourself “late & close”, as the Cardinals often have this season. Enter a three-run 8th inning rally (that included a slide into first base by Skip Schumaker), and you get an exciting comeback for a Cardinals victory.

I figure as long as the Cardinals don’t hit a long losing streak, and can keep their pace until they’re back to full health…or at least get Holliday’s bat back into the lineup, and McClellan back on the mound, they’ll be in good shape. Try to imagine the Reds in first place, losing Jay Bruce to the 15-day DL, and staying in first place during his entire stint on the DL…and what that would do to your confidence as a team in the NLC vying for that top spot in the division. Knowing they were able to defend their position without the aid of such a slugging threat in the lineup everyday would give me pause…especially once he came back. So, imagine how some might be feeling if the redbirds were able to do that during Holliday’s absence.

A closer look at the next couple of weeks for the three teams at the top of the division looks to me like opportunity served at the Cardinals’ feet, on a silver platter, with a cherry on top. I’m not saying the Cards will sweep the next 5 series’, but I am saying that each of the next 5 are definitely “sweepable”.

The upcoming schedule for the Cards, Brewers & Reds stacks up like this:

STL:
vs. CHC for 3; @ HOU for 3; @ MIL for 3; @ WAS for 3; vs. KC for 3 – very winnable series’ there, in which the Cards need to capitalize while Holliday & McClellan are out. As long as the Cardinals play their kind of baseball, and not the “playing down to the level” of bad teams, as was a huge problem last year (I still have nightmares of the 2-8 road trip to PIT, WAS, & HOU late in the season), this could be the couple of weeks that allow the team to really put some distance between themselves and the rest of the NLC. No reason the Cards can’t end this particular stretch with a dozen wins, anything short of ten and they’ve left wins on the table.

MIL:
@ FLA for 4; vs. NYM for 3; vs. STL for 3; @ CHC for 4; @ BOS for 3; vs. TB for 3 – The Brew crew is slated to face Nolasco, Volstad, Sanchez, & TBD…VERY tough pitching! Notice the 4 games in Chicago–they dodge a bullet here, as they play 3 night games, then a day game on getaway day. Usually a trip to CHC is good for jacking up your schedule, as they play so many day games, so they got lucky there. That’s good, because following that series, they head straight to Boston, which is sure to be a hard series!

CIN:
vs. LAD for 3; vs. CHC for 3; @ SF for 4; @ LAD for 3; then 3 vs. TOR & 3 vs. NYY – those are some tough games coming up for them. The 4 in San Fransisco will show the Reds very good pitching (as earlier stated, the Cards are currently seeing), and with Jose “The-Beast-Ah” bringing his Bluejays to the Great American Small Park for three before the Bronx Bombers come to Cincinnati, the Reds will have their work cut out for them.

All in all, I think the next two weeks will be a window in the season that we may all very well look back on as critical, once the calendar turns to August or September. The schedule is very favorable for the situation the redbirds are in right now, especially given MIL & CIN’s position in the standings. I realize June is a little early for “make or break” and “must win” talk, but the Cardinals really need to make the most of this opportunity. Every game won over the next couple of weeks is one that doesn’t become a “must win” come September!

Continuing the look at the men who have played for both Missouri franchises, we examine the career of Danny Jackson.

The Kansas City Royals drafted Jackson with the number one pick in the January (secondary) phase of the 1982 amateur draft. Jackson was born in San Antonio but attended secondary school in Aurora Colorado, and was playing for Trinidad Junior College (also in Colorado) when the Royals selected him. He zoomed through the minors and made his major league debut on 9/11/1983 in Minnesota, throwing 3 shutout innings in middle relief and getting the win. He bounced between Kansas City and their AAA affiliate in Omaha in 1984, but became a full-time member of the rotation in 1985.

Jackson was a workhorse for the World Champs. He tied for third (with Mark Gubicza) on the team in wins (14), and was third among the starters in ERA (3.42) and innings pitched (208). Despite that success he wasn’t one of the three starters manager Dick Howser initially selected to pitch in the ALCS. When the Royals went down 3-1 in that series to Toronto, Howser passed up his game two starter Bud Black and gave the ball to Jackson for the final Kansas City home game. Danny was fantastic, scattering 8 hits over 8 shutout innings and beating Jimmy Key 2-0. His start began the Royals improbable comeback to win the AL, as they took games 6 and 7 from Toronto in Toronto.

Jackson’s success in that series was rewarded in the World Series, as he got the Game 1 start. He pitched well, allowing 2 runs in his seven innings, but Cardinal lefty John Tudor was better, and Jackson lost Game 1 3-1. He found himself the starter in another Game 5, with his team down in games 3-1 again. The Royals jumped on Bob Forsch for 4 runs in the first 2 innings, and Jackson cruised to a 6-1 victory. Kansas City came back to win in seven games. Other than Bret Saberhagen, Jackson was the best pitcher the Royals had against St Louis.

His 1985, 1986, and 1987 statistics are fairly similar in terms of innings pitched, home runs allowed, strikeout to walk ratio, and so on. Unfortunately, that consistency did not translate to success in terms of games won. Jackson was one game under .500 in 1986 (11-12), then suffered a 9-18 season the following year. Royal management must have thought Jackson was a flash in the pan, with the flash being his 1985 season, because they traded him to the Cincinnati Reds following the 1987 season.

Jackson responded with his finest season as a pitcher, winning 23 games and finishing second in the NL Cy Young voting to Orel Hershiser. He returned to the post season two years later with those Reds, helping them knock out the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS (he won Game 3, and left Game 6 tied 1-1). He did not have much success in the World Series, but the Reds swept Oakland’s Bash Brothers, giving Jackson his second World Series title.

He was a free agent after the 1990 season, and signed on with the Chicago Cubs. He missed all of May and all of July 1991 to injury, and so threw the fewest innings he had since his 1983 call-up (70.2). He was healthier and threw better in 1992, but the Cubs decided he was expendable and traded him to the Pirates in July. He pitched fairly well for the Pirates down the stretch, but was cuffed around in his lone NLCS appearance, not surviving the second inning of a game Pittsburgh eventually lost 13-5. The Pirates left him unprotected in the 1992 expansion draft and Florida grabbed him, however he never played for the Marlins as they traded him to Philadelphia the same day.

Jackson enjoyed his best back-to-back seasons with the Phillies, helping Philadelphia to an improbably NL title in 1993 and finishing 6th in the Cy Young voting in 1994. A free agent after the 1994 season, he signed a 3-year, $10 million deal to join the Cardinals. By this point, Jackson had won a league title in both leagues, and pitched in 3 World Series, over a nine-year span. Unfortunately the magic carpet ride was over.

He was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer before the 1995 season, and had his thyroid removed. The cancer went into remission after the gland removal, allowing Jackson to make a full recovery, but that was not the end of his trouble. Jackson also severely injured his right ankle during spring training in 1995, and although he did recover he was never the same pitcher. Jackson had a rather unique delivery in which he pushed off violently from the rubber and landed full force on his right ankle, sometimes in a heap on the front of the pitcher’s mound. With an unsteady ankle as his landing gear he did not have the same control he once had.

Jackson suffered through a miserable 1995 going 2-12 for a forgettable Cardinals team that finished 19 games under .500. In 1996, Jackson continued to fight the injury bug, throwing only 36.1 innings the whole season. Those Cardinals won the NL Central, sending Danny on his fourth trip to the post-season in 12 years, but he made only one appearance, a three-inning stint in relief of Todd Stottlemyre in Game 5.

After making 4 starts for the Cardinals in 1997, he was traded in June to San Diego for another fading left-hander (Fernando Valenzuela). Jackson finished out the season with the Padres, then retired.

Danny Jackson will be remembered as one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game from 1985-1994. How his career ended won’t change that one bit. Tough, durable, and consistent, he was a significant contributor to three pennant-winning teams over that stretch, starting with the World Champion KC Royals. Of all the games he started over his big-league career (he made 324 starts, not counting the post-season), the biggest by far were the two he made in the 1985 Playoffs. Both Game 5′s, both with his team facing immediate elimination if he did not perform. He allowed one run combined in those two games, and won each one. At the tender age of 23.

Danny Jackson was a quality major league pitcher, but he is a Legend for his performance over 2 weeks in October, 1985.

Any baseball writer or “expert” could have predicted the outcome of the first two games of the Yankees-Royals Series. CC Sabathia notches another victory closer to his Cy Young caliber year. AJ Burnett found his grove again. Rivera, Jeter, A-Rod and company did everything that is expected of the defending world champs. The Royals notched a victory against Pettite’s replacement (Mitre) while keeping Rodriguez in the park. After a weather delay, the Yankees did what they are expected to do with a nine-figure team salary team, win.

The Royals were outmatched in pitching, defense, and offense. There was not enough timely hitting or timely defense. The Yankees took advantage of the miscues and put games the games away early. The Royals will attempt to get back on track against a team that has been a nemesis for the franchise since day one (The Royals won the first one in 1969 by a score of 4-3). The Twins this year are again in the hunt for a playoff spot or a shot at the division title. Joe Mauer is having an off year but hasn’t had to have a typical Mauer year in order for the twins to stay in contention.

Game 1: Liriano (8-7) vs. Greinke (6-9)

At the beginning of the season if you asked me about where these two pitchers’ records would like at this point in the season I would have told you Greinke would have ten victories under his belt and Liriano would have about the same record he has right now. But due to poor run support and too many early season mistake pitches by Greinke has led him to his .400 winning percentage on the season. Going into this game, both pitchers are coming off strong performances and notching another win for their respective teams.

Last Season Liriano had two starts against the Royals and hand cuffed them both times. Between the two games the Royals managed only seven hits in thirty-five at bats. He struck out nine and walked only four. If you were to combine his stats against the Royals since 2006 he has held the Royals to a .271 batting average in six appearances while striking out thirty-three. The Twins have kept him around even though last season he was one of the leagues most ineffective starters with a 5-13 record. Their belief in that he was better than that must have worked because he has nearly double the wins that he had all of last year.

If you were to look at who Greinke has struggled against the most during his young career, it would probably be the Twins. In his one start against them this year he was anything but effective. He gave up fifteen hits, six walks and ten runs. During the same time frame as Liriano, he has ten appearances against the Twins. He has managed only forty-six strikeouts while allowing the Twins to rack up sixty-one hits for a combined team batting average of .292. In order for him to start changing this negative mark on his record, he’s going to have to make sure each pitch is where he needs it to be and not in the sweet part of the strike zone.

Game 2: Pavano (12-6) vs. Chen (5-4)

Pavano has been on fire since the beginning of June with his start against the Royals. He has gone a perfect 7-0, including his victory against the boys in blue on June 9^th. He has an impressive strikeout to walk ratio this year as well (nearly 4 ½ to 1). He has three starts against the Royals this year and the Royals have hit him well. He has given up twenty-one hits for a .292 batting average. This will be his second start at Kauffman this year. His first start in KC was by far his best performance against them this year. He gave up only four hits, zero walks while striking out five.

Bruce Chen has had two appearances against the Twinkies this year and has been less than stellar. He has given up eleven hits in thirty at-bats for a .367 batting average. He has however, held Mauer and Morneau to only one hit each so far this season. If he can expand his success to more than just the two best hitters in the Twins lineup he will give the Royals a fighting chance against one of the hottest pitchers in baseball.

Game 3: Duensing (3-1) vs. Bannister (7-9)

Duensing has been a solid relief pitcher for the Twins this season and is getting the chance to make his second start this season. He has an impressive 1.69 ERA in forty appearances and his opponents have managed a dismal .214 average. In his most recent appearance he went five innings and gave up only one earned run. One of the few teams that he has struggled against this year has been the Royals. In twenty at-bats this season the Royals have managed six hits and a walk, including one home run against him.

Bannister, like Greinke struggled in his start earlier this season against the Twins. He gave up nine hits in twenty six at-bats, walked two and struck out zero. Four of those hits went for extra bases, including a Morneau solo home run. Bannister has not won a decision since June 23^rd against the Nationals. He’s lost to the White Sox twice and in his most recent start he received a “Bronx bombing.” He has given up twenty home runs in twenty starts this year. If he wants to help his team win, he has got to keep the ball down in the zone and induce ground balls.

Offense:

The Royals offense did manage to dent the Yankees formidable pitching but was unable to break it. Despite the lack of timely hitting the Royals are still leading the Majors in team batting average. The Twins are right behind them at number two going into the series. The Royals may have more hits than the Twins but the Twins have forty-four more extra base hits than the Royals so far this season. However the Royals can make up for their lack of power by using their speed and smart runners. The Royals have stolen sixty-six bases versus the Twins forty-one.

Defense:

After watching three of the games on television the Royals had against the Yankees, I can see partially why the Royals lose close games, defensive miscues. Errors that aren’t counted in the scorebook, but if I were the coach I would bring it up in the post game team meeting. Throwing to the wrong base or not turning an easy double play. The Twins have the best defense in baseball. They have only had thirty-four errors and have a fielding percentage of .991. In order for the Royals to get guys on, they had better “hit’em where they ain’t.” Despite the injury to DeJesus, when he comes back next season his errorless streak will still be intact.

Pitching:

Greinke starts off another season for the Royals. He has a chance to again improve upon not only his current season record but begin to erase some black marks on his career when he has faced the Twins. The Royals are going to have to take what the Twins pitching will give them and steal bases when given the opportunity. Putting pressure on a pitcher by running is the same as a good blitz in football on the quarterback.

X-Factor:

The Royals are at home but are coming off a very disappointing series against the best team in baseball. The Twins are in the middle of a road trip and will be traveling about the same distance the Royals are after Sunday’s games. The Royals will definitely miss DeJesus in the line up and in the field for the rest of the season. He is one of the Royals that has had a large amount of success against Twins pitching. Last year he batted .412 and so far this year managed a .351 batting average. Maybe he can funnel his success and his tips to the rest of his teammates for the rest of the season.