Rogers: Cardinals still pushing to reach playoffs

Ho, hum. It was just another weekend for the St. Louis Cardinals, whose overly eventful defense of the 2006 World Series title makes it appear they won it in a cakewalk.

When the Cardinals arrived in Arizona, long since missing their ace and half of their everyday lineup to season-ending injury and another beloved teammate to death, they were greeted by questions about the validity of their remarkable late-season hero and soon were dealing with more problems, both old and new.

The reports linking Rick Ankiel to the use of human growth hormone were followed by the loss of catcher Yadier Molina to the apparent effects of a concussion and the continuing sight of slugger Albert Pujols' gritting his teeth to play through pain in his right leg.

AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Albert Pujols has 30 homers thus far this year after hitting a carer high 49 HRs last season.

"This is nothing,'' closer Jason Isringhausen told reporters in the visiting clubhouse at Arizona's Chase Field. "Not compared to the other stuff that's been going on.''

This was a reference to the death of reliever Josh Hancock after an alcohol-related car wreck on April 28 and the loss of 2005 Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter to Tommy John surgery after only one start. It also alluded to the loss of third baseman/clubhouse leader Scott Rolen to shoulder problems, outfielder Preston Wilson and second baseman Adam Kennedy to knee injuries and outfielder Juan Encarnacion after a horrifying incident in which he was hit in the face with a line drive when he was in the on-deck circle. Outfielder Chris Duncan could also potentially be sidelined for the rest of the season after he aggravated what the Cardinals are describing as a sports hernia on Saturday.

How much more can a team take?

That's a fair question to ponder as Tony La Russa's Cardinals head to Wrigley Field for a Monday makeup game, beginning an unusually important week in which they will play the Chicago Cubs five times. The Cardinals and Cubs will play a doubleheader on Saturday at Busch Stadium, the centerpiece of a historically challenging schedule for the Cardinals that will find them playing 35 games in the last 34 days of the season, weather permitting.

In another year, or another division, all of these twists might not smack of quite as much consequence as they do this season. After all, the Cardinals are 69-71, a record that would put them at least 10 games out in any division except the National League Central.

Yet they find themselves three games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers and two games behind the Cubs. The Brewers, who have taken advantage of attrition suffered by the Cardinals and Houston Astros (both had combined to win 10 of the last 11 titles in the Central) to lead the Central all season. This is a division that could be won by five games by any team that wins 85 games or a division that could find itself with a three-way tie at 81-81, maybe even 80-82.

The Cardinals might want to fold their hand, but the willpower of La Russa and many of his players, including Pujols, Jim Edmonds, David Eckstein and Isringhausen, won't let them. The standings provide a nice incentive to keep grinding, as well.

On June 30, St. Louis was 10½ games behind first-place Milwaukee. It was still eight back on Aug. 5, with a 50-58 record. But through last Tuesday, the 17-8 run fueled by the power hitting of Ankiel and the pitching of Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper had gotten them within one game of first place.

"We're actually playing like a team that has a chance,'' La Russa said.

From a low of 20-29, the Cardinals climbed over .500, if only by one game. They did it by winning more than their share of tough games, with La Russa doing a lot more as a manager than being confident enough to hit his pitcher eighth, which has gotten more chances for Pujols to drive in runs and jump-start what has been a down season by his high standards.

Opponents have outscored St. Louis by 62 runs -- a differential that ranked 11th in the NL. The Pythagorean standings credited La Russa for creating five wins from thin air and showed that, based on the math of Bill James, the Cardinals should be nine games behind the Cubs and six behind the Brewers.

Everybody as a group has problems. You've just got to look at it that way. It's just life. Life goes up and down. Just because you're playing baseball doesn't make you any
different.

-- Jim Edmonds, Cardinals center fielder

The standings in your morning paper, of course, show the only standings that matter to the Cardinals, who are the one team among the three Central contenders that has a habit of winning.

"Everybody as a group has problems," said the always banged-up Edmonds, whose career almost ended a year ago because of post-concussion syndrome. "You've just got to look at it that way. It's just life. Life goes up and down. Just because you're playing baseball doesn't make you any different."

It's amazing that the Cardinals have been able to weather the loss of Carpenter, who carried them into the postseason with a 15-8 record in 2006. Before losing Carpenter, they had seen Mark Mulder sidelined by shoulder surgery and Jeff Suppan, Jeff Weaver and Jason Marquis leave as free agents.

Think about that for a minute.

With Mulder returning only about a week ago, La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan have had to manufacture a pitching staff while thus far getting only two starts from five guys who combined for 129 starts a year ago.

They made a good decision in moving not only Wainwright (always a starter in waiting) from the bullpen into the starting rotation but also Looper, whose 157 innings have been a key in keeping the staff together. But the bullpen was weakened when Josh Kinney underwent Tommy John surgery in spring training and Hancock (one of those glue guys in the bullpen best appreciated when they are no longer there) was killed.

Carpenter had seemed fine until awaking with swelling in his elbow after facing the New York Mets on Opening Day. Consider that a harbinger of things to come.

"I believe losing Carpenter changed a lot," Duncan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "You can't discount his value to this team, especially this staff."

Pujols hasn't been his normal self. He's hitting .321 with 30 homers but has only 89 RBIs, putting a seventh consecutive season of 100-plus RBIs somewhat in doubt (he's never had fewer than 117 in a season, but will in all likelihood this year). His OPS could slide below 1.000 for the first time since 2002, largely because of a major decline in slugging percentage. He isn't the type to complain, but has recently said that his right leg is only "about 70 percent.''

Rest isn't an option for any of the Cardinals who are able to take the field. La Russa certainly doesn't have the flexibility to give Ankiel time to deal with the New York Daily News' disclosure of his 2004 purchase of HGH from an online pharmacy in Florida.

Ankiel has been St. Louis' exception this season -- a bright spot in the middle of a dark, deep forest of negativity. The guy who fell apart on the mound during the 2000 playoffs is hitting .330 since being promoted from Triple-A Memphis, where he had 32 homers and 89 RBIs in 102 games. His instant impact in the outfield begs only one question -- why did general manager Walt Jocketty and La Russa wait until early August to summon him?

Rick Ankiel

Left Field
St. Louis Cardinals

Profile

2007 Season Stats

GM	HR	RBI	R	OBP	AVG
26	9	29	23	.379	.330

Ankiel was dealing with questions of his own on Saturday at Chase Field, where he and Jocketty met the media to discuss the HGH revelations.

Another day, another crisis.

No World Series champ has ever defended in quite this fashion. The Cardinals know they can claim a distinction as the most resilient team ever if they can come up big in the last three weeks of the season, beginning with Monday's makeup game at Wrigley (Joel Pineiro will start for the Cardinals while Ted Lilly will go for the Cubs).

La Russa and some of the senior Cardinals remember how the Cubs took the division title away in 2003 by winning four of five games in a feverish September series in Chicago. They'd love to return the favor over the next week.

The schedule provides them the opportunity, but the circumstances make you wonder what kind of a chance they really have.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com. His book, "Say It's So," a story about the 2005 White Sox, is available at bookstores, through Amazon.com or by direct order from Triumph Books (800-222-4657).

Source: ESPN.com