Mulder's gem not enough for Cards
ST. LOUIS -- The standings say the Cardinals' magic number is 11. According to the old "Schoolhouse Rock" song, three is the magic number. Mark Mulder just knows that for him, it's not two.
For the second straight game, a two-run second inning was all that stood between Mulder and a spotless outing. For the second straight game, that two-run second resulted not from a couple of rockets, or one big shot, but from dinks and bloops. For the second straight game, Mulder pitched well enough to win, but the Cardinals lost.
On Wednesday night, in the Cubs' final game at the current Busch Stadium, Chicago's Greg Maddux outdueled Mulder -- but didn't necessarily outpitch him -- in a 2-1 St. Louis defeat. The Cardinals have lost consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 11-12 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. By dropping two out of three to Chicago, they also lost their first series since that same visit to Wrigley, when they lost three out of four from Aug. 11-14.
Mulder, despite the team's losses in his last two games and three out of five, is pitching as well as anybody on the team, short of Cy Young contender Chris Carpenter.
"I'm going out there with a lot of confidence right now," Mulder said. "It's taken me a little while to find a good sinker, but I've found it, so you've got to go with what's working. You don't want to try to do [something different] just because you've had a couple games like this. You keep doing what you're doing and everything else will take care of itself."
Mulder was done in by a two-run second in which only one ball was even hit all that hard. Michael Barrett dribbled a one-out single up the middle, the kind of ball that's an easy out if it's hit anywhere else. Jeromy Burnitz barely beat out a potential double play to keep the inning alive, bringing up Neifi Perez with two outs and Burnitz on first.
Perez drilled a double to straightaway center field for the first run, and Matt Murton hit a bloop single over second baseman Hector Luna to bring home Perez. After that -- and before that, for that matter -- Mulder was all but untouchable. He mowed down the Cubs mercilessly and efficiently until the ninth inning. It wasn't enough, however, and the left-hander was saddled with his seventh loss of the season.
"I've lost my share of 2-1 complete games before," he said. "It's happened. I was happy with the way I finished the game, though -- the last couple innings, having guys on base and getting those double plays. You don't walk away from a loss like this [ticked] off and disappointed. Sure, you'd like to win it, but it happens."
The missed double play might have been the key play in the game. If David Eckstein had been able to turn an admittedly very difficult twin killing, Mulder might have been a 1-0 winner instead of a 2-1 loser.
"I went and got it," Eckstein said of the ball that went straight up the middle. "I went across the bag and came up, and just stepped and threw.
"It's more of a reaction. The main thing once I got back -- Barrett was on top of me -- was just to step on the base, jump out of the way and throw the ball. Just get some room to throw it."
Mulder didn't allow another runner to reach second base until the ninth inning. By contrast, the Cardinals had plenty of chances -- they just couldn't do anything with them. Three straight singles loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but Jim Edmonds hit into a 1-2-3 double play and John Mabry struck out.
"That's the one thing," lamented manager Tony La Russa. "Jim's a veteran hitter. If you make a double play to short, the left side or the right side, you get a run. But that's Maddux. He made a pitch and that's where the ball was hit."
The Cardinals couldn't plate a run after So Taguchi's one-out double in the sixth. Pinch-hitter John Rodriguez walked to bring up a first-and-third, two-out chance, but Mulder struck out. An inning later, Albert Pujols cut the lead in half with a massive solo home run.
One last chance, against closer Ryan Dempster, fell short. Rodriguez barely beat out an infield single to open the inning, but was removed from the bases when Skip Schumaker bunted into a force play at second base. Schumaker took second on a wild pitch by Dempster and moved to third on Eckstein's groundball out, but Abraham Nunez struck out looking to end the game.
"It was too close to take," Nunez said of the game's final pitch. "I thought it was a ball, but it was closer than I thought."
The Cardinals have lost just three series since late June, all of them at the hands of the Cubs. St. Louis' magic number to clinch the National League Central remained at 11 over the Astros, who finished a sweep in Philadelphia to climb within 12 1/2 games.
Source: http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/
For the second straight game, a two-run second inning was all that stood between Mulder and a spotless outing. For the second straight game, that two-run second resulted not from a couple of rockets, or one big shot, but from dinks and bloops. For the second straight game, Mulder pitched well enough to win, but the Cardinals lost.
On Wednesday night, in the Cubs' final game at the current Busch Stadium, Chicago's Greg Maddux outdueled Mulder -- but didn't necessarily outpitch him -- in a 2-1 St. Louis defeat. The Cardinals have lost consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 11-12 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. By dropping two out of three to Chicago, they also lost their first series since that same visit to Wrigley, when they lost three out of four from Aug. 11-14.
Mulder, despite the team's losses in his last two games and three out of five, is pitching as well as anybody on the team, short of Cy Young contender Chris Carpenter.
"I'm going out there with a lot of confidence right now," Mulder said. "It's taken me a little while to find a good sinker, but I've found it, so you've got to go with what's working. You don't want to try to do [something different] just because you've had a couple games like this. You keep doing what you're doing and everything else will take care of itself."
Mulder was done in by a two-run second in which only one ball was even hit all that hard. Michael Barrett dribbled a one-out single up the middle, the kind of ball that's an easy out if it's hit anywhere else. Jeromy Burnitz barely beat out a potential double play to keep the inning alive, bringing up Neifi Perez with two outs and Burnitz on first.
Perez drilled a double to straightaway center field for the first run, and Matt Murton hit a bloop single over second baseman Hector Luna to bring home Perez. After that -- and before that, for that matter -- Mulder was all but untouchable. He mowed down the Cubs mercilessly and efficiently until the ninth inning. It wasn't enough, however, and the left-hander was saddled with his seventh loss of the season.
"I've lost my share of 2-1 complete games before," he said. "It's happened. I was happy with the way I finished the game, though -- the last couple innings, having guys on base and getting those double plays. You don't walk away from a loss like this [ticked] off and disappointed. Sure, you'd like to win it, but it happens."
The missed double play might have been the key play in the game. If David Eckstein had been able to turn an admittedly very difficult twin killing, Mulder might have been a 1-0 winner instead of a 2-1 loser.
"I went and got it," Eckstein said of the ball that went straight up the middle. "I went across the bag and came up, and just stepped and threw.
"It's more of a reaction. The main thing once I got back -- Barrett was on top of me -- was just to step on the base, jump out of the way and throw the ball. Just get some room to throw it."
Mulder didn't allow another runner to reach second base until the ninth inning. By contrast, the Cardinals had plenty of chances -- they just couldn't do anything with them. Three straight singles loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but Jim Edmonds hit into a 1-2-3 double play and John Mabry struck out.
"That's the one thing," lamented manager Tony La Russa. "Jim's a veteran hitter. If you make a double play to short, the left side or the right side, you get a run. But that's Maddux. He made a pitch and that's where the ball was hit."
The Cardinals couldn't plate a run after So Taguchi's one-out double in the sixth. Pinch-hitter John Rodriguez walked to bring up a first-and-third, two-out chance, but Mulder struck out. An inning later, Albert Pujols cut the lead in half with a massive solo home run.
One last chance, against closer Ryan Dempster, fell short. Rodriguez barely beat out an infield single to open the inning, but was removed from the bases when Skip Schumaker bunted into a force play at second base. Schumaker took second on a wild pitch by Dempster and moved to third on Eckstein's groundball out, but Abraham Nunez struck out looking to end the game.
"It was too close to take," Nunez said of the game's final pitch. "I thought it was a ball, but it was closer than I thought."
The Cardinals have lost just three series since late June, all of them at the hands of the Cubs. St. Louis' magic number to clinch the National League Central remained at 11 over the Astros, who finished a sweep in Philadelphia to climb within 12 1/2 games.
Source: http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/
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