Despite placing two key members - Jim Edmonds and Braden Looper - of their team on the DL recently, being six games below .500 and sporting the worst run differential in the worst division in baseball, things are looking up for the St. Louis Cardinals. Their bats are waking up (they've scored 33 runs in the last four games), Albert Pujols is once again playing at an MVP level (he's hitting .323 with seven home runs in the month of June), and - the best news of all - Chris Carpenter is throwing off the mound with no soreness.
Carpenter, who will throw a 50-pitch session today, met with the team doctor Monday, and the results couldn't have come back better for the Cards.
"I had zero (soreness)," he said. "I was pleasantly surprised." Carpenter expects to throw as many as 50 pitches today at what he called "75 percent." "I've felt stronger each day; the ball is coming out better," Carpenter said. "And there's no soreness."
We're tempering our expectations, of course. The Cards still trail Milwaukee by 7.5 games, Kip Wells is still on the roster, and - we hate to say it - the Cubs look to be reenergized (and trading Michael Barrett can only help). But as the guys at Viva El Birdos say, if the Cards can get to .500 before the all-star break, anything can happen.
We just hope Carpenter shaves that soul patch before he comes back. Between him, Spezio and Pujols, the entire Cardinal roster seems to have a facial hair identity crisis.
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