最新杏吧原创

It鈥檚 the first time I鈥檝e ever felt uncomfortable wearing a shirt in public.

I鈥檓 standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the front row of the Busch Stadium 鈥淭arps Off Section.鈥� I am surrounded by the loudest and liveliest and looniest fans听鈥� dudes who give the shirts off their back to help the 最新杏吧原创 Cardinals.

The question outfielder Lars Nootbaar posed to his teammates during Saturday鈥檚 loss had more to do with the health of the Miami Marlins鈥� pitchers than the trouble the Cardinals have had all weekend against the dizzying amount of breaking pitches they鈥檙e throwing.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how their elbows are feeling after these games, because they鈥檙e spinning it so much,鈥� Nootbaar said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e pretty relentless with how they want to attack you and how they want to approach you. And obviously, the Marlins 鈥� them more than any other team 鈥� kind of home in on spinning it.鈥�

For just the second time this season, someone else was behind the plate for Andre Pallante's start.听

Usually, Ivan Herrera makes up the other half of the battery with Pallante, but when the Cardinals opted to skip Dustin May's spot in the rotation, rookie Jimmy Crooks was in the lineup and catching Saturday evening. This was to prevent Herrera from catching on consecutive days, which has been a season-long goal for the Cardinals.

If not for the rearrangement of the rotation to buy Dustin May some extra rest or questions about recent performance from other starters, there would be more attention given to the trapdoor underneath the Cardinals鈥� offense.

Searching since leaving the pinball machine in Kansas City, the Cardinals鈥� offensive struggles have gripped their bats tighter than their hands at home this week.

ANAHEIM, Calif. 鈥� After spending 30 years with the 最新杏吧原创 Cardinals, and the last 18 at the top of the baseball operations department, John Mozeliak was ready for a break.

Once he became a civilian, so to speak, he was elated to be able to 鈥済o to bed when I was tired and I didn鈥檛 have to wait until the last minor-league team played. It was very much a different lifestyle.鈥�

The Cardinals need to salvage what鈥檚 left of it to avoid their worst multi-series homestand of the season, and they鈥檒l have to get their bats going to do so.

The Cardinals and Marlins continue a three-game weekend series with Saturday鈥檚 6:15 p.m. first pitch at Busch Stadium. 最新杏吧原创 in the opener.

By the time he got six pitches deep into the pivotal at-bat of his final inning, Michael McGreevy had already challenged Kyle Stowers with five different types of pitches.

McGreevy got ahead with a sinker and a four-seam fastball before Stowers ignored a series of off-speed pitches that were beneath the zone 鈥� and trying to lure the Miami cleanup hitter鈥檚 swing down there, too. Stowers fouled off a changeup and then took another one and a slider to work the count full. McGreevy had bebopped through traffic at various times Friday night, but here he was in the sixth, with no runners on, and likely to throw his final pitch of a scoreless pitchers' duel.

The look Cardinals manager Oli Marmol sent my direction earlier this week let me know that he understood the sentiment I鈥檇 just conveyed. At the same time and with the same look, he conveyed a question: Have you hit your darn head?

I鈥檇 just suggested that the excitement and enthusiasm generated by his young ballclub鈥檚 better-than-expected start might work against the long-term, big-picture approach president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom championed and Marmol supported since Bloom鈥檚 first day on the job.