Around the horn: Facing Morris

As it turned out, the five Cardinals who had faced Matty Mo previously in their careers made the most of their experience, going 6-for-15 with a .571 OBP. Juan Encarnacion had the most at-bats vs. Morris coming in, and it showed: He went 2-for-3 with a Bonds-aided RBI double and a two-run single. As a team, the Cardinals batted .308 vs. Morris, but the the players who had faced Morris did the most damage last night, accounting for most of that:

vs Morris	AB	H	BB	K
D. Eckstein ss	4	2	0	0
S. Spiezio lf	2	1	1	0
S. Rolen 3b	3	1	0	0
J. Encarnacion rf	3	2	0	0
G. Bennett c	3	0	0	1
BA: .400	15	6	1	1

But on the other hand, as I predicted yesterday, Morris had the advantage on his former mates -- at least those who had never faced him before:

vs Morris	AB	H	BB	K
A. Pujols 1b	3	1	0	0
J. Edmonds cf	2	0	1	0
A. Miles 2b	3	1	0	0
J. Marquis p	3	0	0	1
BA: .182	11	2	1	1

Isn't it fun when a small sample size breaks your way and makes you look like a genius? In the other dugout, Mike Matheny couldn't take advantage of his intimate knowledge of Jason Marquis's repertoire but did coax a 9th-inning RBI walk out of Jason Isrinhausen (by the way, tell me you weren't pulling for Matheny on that at-bat... I know I was.). Missing Mike Speaking of Matheny, he showed why he was such an important part of the Cardinals' division championships with his textbook play on Edmonds trying to score. Matheny blocked off the line foulward, forcing Edmonds to not only break his stride but to awkwardly redirect his approach to the plate on the infield side. It took a good relay throw from Omar Vizquel, but Matheny gave JEd no chance to score on the play (of course, it didn't help that as he rounded third, JEd was looking back to see where the ball was). Cheap saves As soon as Kevin Frandsen bailed Isringhausen out, Mike Shannon boasted that Izzy now leads the league in saves with 15 (which happens to be one more than he has walks). Izzy may lead the league in saves, but not even in the top five NL closers (more than two saves) in WPA% per game, according to Fangraphs.com:

Name	Team	SV	WPA/G
Brian Fuentes	COL	10	7.3
Tom Gordon	PHI	13	7.0
Trevor Hoffman	SD	8	6.0
Derrick Turnbow	MIL	14	5.9
José Valverde	ARI	13	4.6
Jason Isringhausen	STL	15	4.0
Billy Wagner	NYM	9	3.6
Chad Cordero	WAS	6	1.5
Mike González	PIT	6	0.6
Joe Borowski	FLA	5	0.2
Tim Worrell	SF	6	-1.1
David Weathers	CIN	9	-1.3
Chris Reitsma	ATL	8	-1.7
Brad Lidge	HOU	12	-1.9
Ryan Dempster	CHC	8	-2.6
Danys Báez	LAD	9	-3.0

Cardinals fans will no doubt feel a sudden rush of schadenfreude at the sight of Brad Lidge's negative average WPA. Notice that the relievers with negative numbers have either lost or are in the process of losing their jobs... Longing for Lohse? Hopefully Carpenter's achy back won't degenerate into something worse, in which the team needs to replace him. But just in case, Ed Thoma of the Mankato (Min.) Free Press speculates that recently demoted Kyle Lohse could revive his career -- if he went to St. Louis:

That said, it’s certainly possible — even likely — that Lohse will emerge somewhere, someday, as a quality major league pitcher. He’s just 27 and he’s established that he’s capable of working 200 innings a year without injury. History tells us that sooner or later, pitchers like that figure it out ... It’s clearly not going to happen for him in Minnesota. Here’s a good guess of where it will happen: St. Louis ... Lohse is exactly the kind of pitcher upon which Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan have built their impressive reputations on. This manager-pitching coach combo has been working together since 1983, with the White Sox, Athletics and now Cardinals. They’ve done poorly with young starters — their highlight in breaking in rookies is Matt Morris, and he had two career-threatening arm injuries — but man, do they thrive with castoffs. From Dave Stewart and Mike Moore to Andy Benes and Chris Carpenter, they have time and again refined talented disappointments into rotation stalwarts. And besides, St. Louis is one organization that doesn’t shy away from Lohse’s agent, Scott Boras. Not that the Cardinals should be dialing Ryan’s cell phone, hyperventilating at the thought of acquiring Lohse. They can wait. Lohse isn’t going anywhere.

For Carp's and the team's sake, let's indeed hope that the Cardinals can wait. Bottom story of the day Bonds may sit out -- Yahoo! Sports headline Writer seeks ancedotes about One Tough Dominican New SABRen Malcolm Allen is wrapping up a book about former Cardinal Joaquin Andujar and needs the following input:

• Eyewitness memories of his career, "brush with greatness" encounters at the ballpark or hotel, or anecdotes that haven't grown stale
• Photographs from any stage of his career
• If you're an expert about any of the teams he played for, relevant details about those clubs would also be great.

Contact Malcolm at malcolm@jammyland.com. Vintage Base Ball in the news The P-D has a fun story on vintage base ball in St. Louis and mentions my own St. Louis Perfectos in addition to our cross-town rivals, the St. Louis Unions (starring SABRen Brian Flaspohler and Brian Robison). Come out and watch the match this Sunday (the Cardinals' Marty Hendin and Bing Devine are expected to attend).