Cardinals Back In NL Central Race
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Cardinals Back In NL Central Race
When the Cardinals opened the month of August by losing two straight to the Pirates and three straight to the Nationals it looked like their season was over. But since then they have won six of their last eight games against the Padres, Dodgers and Brewers. They have scored twelve runs in each of their last two games. They have outscored their opponents 30-7 in their last three games.
Even Kip Wells (6-13) is back on track winning three of his last four decisions and is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA for the month of August. After their 12-4 win over the slumping first place Brewers they are only 4 1/2 games behind the Brewers and 3 games behind the second place Cubs. They have two games remaining in Milwaukee then travel to Chicago to play the Cubs four games in Wrigley Field.
By the time the last game of the Cubs series is played on Monday we should have a better indication of how the Cardinals stand in the NL Central. Cubs have been staggering with a 4-9 record in August and have not been able to take over the lead in the division decisively over the slumping Brewers who are 4-8 in August. Brewers were fourteen games over .500 earlier in the season but now are only five games over .500.
Their 23-36 road record is really hurting them. The Angels are the only other division leader with a losing road record. The schedule favors them starting the 31st of August when they play a total of 18 games against the Pirates, Reds and Astros the bottom three teams in the division and the last of those games won't be played till September the 19th then they finish the season with eleven games against the Braves, Cardinals and Padres.
Albert Pujols with 24 home runs only has four more than Chris Duncan. Most amazing stat is that Ryan Ludwick has 10 home runs in 185 at bats while Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds have a combined 14 home runs in 599 at bats. With only one home run and 4 RBI's in August Pujols is in danger of not reaching 100 RBI's for the first time in his career.
Rick Ankiel has hit well since joining the team with 3 home runs and 6 RBI's in 5 games but has struck out 9 times in 22 at bats. Skip Schumaker has struck out 9 times in 102 so Ankiel is striking out way too often but the Cardinals needed more power hitters since Edmonds, Rolen and Juan Encarnacion have all hit seven homers this season so they will trade the strikeouts for more power.
Prince Fielder is hitting home runs again for the Brewers but the team still is not winning very often. Ryan Braun should be a shoo-in as NL Rookie of the Year with 23 home runs despite not joining the team till the 26th of May. Braun is leading all major leaguers with more than 250 at bats with a .684 slugging percentage. Alex Rodriguez is the next closest to Braun with a .632 percentage. Braun is tied for the major league lead in OPS with Barry Bonds at 1.080.
Braun's .354 batting average is second only to Magglio Ordonez with a .359 average among players with over 250 at bats so if he had enough at bats he would be leading the NL in hitting.
It will be interesting to see how the NL Central race plays out in the next six weeks. Right now the race is up for grabs with the team that gets hot and stays hot having the best chance to take the NL Central crown.
