Quotebook: Astros 6, Cardinals 3

Just coming up here and doing pretty well kind of gives me a gauge of what I need to work on and things I need to do to be able to stay up here. It seemed to me like these guys were geared up to hit fastballs early on, so I didn't really want to give them too good a look on it. I tried to use [all] my pitches.

-- Anthony Reyes

Despite the loss, Cardinal fans have to be pleased with the performance of Anthony Reyes. His command of multiple pitches is a very hopeful sign that Reyes has elevated his game. Baseball people constantly talk about the need to "adjust," so it's heartening to hear young Reyes talking about how he did just that in last night's game. He outpitched the suddenly-old Andy Pettitte (57-49 game score). In his two starts this year, Reyes has kept the ball in the park and the free passes to a minimum, and now sports a 2.52 DIPS ERA. Bullpen matters

I don't want to give up runs that a guy has left on. My job is to come in to clean it up.

-- Josh Hancock

I just made bad pitches. They hit them. And that was it.

-- Josh Hancock

A lot of times you come in out of the bullpen and if your first pitch isn't working, they get a base hit there.

-- Braden Looper

One of the things that TLR prides himself in -- and for good reason -- is his ability to put players in positions in which they can succeed. And that's why it was curious that he left Reyes in to pitch the seventh inning -- after all, TLR has a history of pulling a struggling or young starter once he's gotten a lead, in order to preserve the pitcher's chances at a win (and prevent a loss) and therefore boost his confidence. TLR probably pulled Reyes at least one batter too late, but that wasn't as egregious as leaving Hancock in to surrender Biggio's backbreaking home run, after Hancock had already been banged around. If, as Hancock admitted, he was consistently making bad pitches, LaRuncan needs to recognize it and yank the guy. And as Looper alluded, the margin for error in terms of "having your pitches working" is much less in a relief appearance, and that's something that the manager/pitching coach has to be aware of. Besides, the team has plenty of other weapons in the bullpen, and TLR has pulled pitchers after far more innocuous stints.

I haven't done a very good job of inherited runners this year.

-- Hancock

Sounds like someone has been spending his off-days checking his BPro stats: Hancock is worst on the team in Inherited Runs Prevented from scoring (the expected number of inherited runners that would score in the reliever's appearances based upon league average performance, minus the actual number the reliever allowed to score):

NAME	G	IP	InhRP
Tyler Johnson	9	5.7	0.3
Adam Wainwright	17	24.7	0.0
Ricardo Rincon	5	3.3	0.0
Brian Falkenborg	5	6.3	-0.2
Brad Thompson	20	23.3	-0.8
Braden Looper	19	21.3	-2.1
Jason Isringhausen	21	18.7	-2.2
Randy Flores	19	15.3	-2.2
Josh Hancock	20	25.0	-3.0

Speaking of not giving up inherited runs and using players to their best advantage, it's interesting that the team's best reliever -- as measured by ARP (Adjusted Runs Prevented from scoring) -- Adam Wainwright has yet to enter a game with runners on base. Unless LaRuncan is protecting the psyche of young Wainwright, he would've been the better bet to come into the seventh-inning jam (or Brad Thompson). Based on the numbers, the Cardinals' bullpen may have its strengths, but its weakness is bailing out preceding pitchers. Perhaps the strategy should be to remove starters after the completion of an inning? Sco-Ro Slugging Proof that there's more to slugging that merely home runs, Scott Rolen -- with a homer and two doubles last night -- upped his slugging percentage to .544, which is 29 points higher than his career mark. Curiously, his home-run rate is worse than his career rate, which would seem to contradict a higher SLG: But compare Rolen's six homers and .544 SLG with Juan Encarnacion's seven and .438, and it shows that Rolen's lack of long balls doesn't necessarily mean he's a worse hitter.