Sure hate it that Lee is down with his wrist for 8-10 weeks, what a shame. Cubbies go to Busch III for first time....hope their stay sucks. :wink:
Ouch, that first game was painful. But the third one was good! Thank goodness for Maddox to prevent the sweep. 4 and 2 vs. the Cards so far ... I'll take that!
Jason Marquis needs to go bye bye. He was a negative liability as a pitcher last year IMHO and he's not gettin' the job done this year. They need to bring Reyes up from Springfield and or make another good trade early in the season. It's still gonna be a llllooooooonnnnnnggggg season though Wendy :wink:
See Wendy, what did I tell ya..... ST. LOUIS -- For those at Busch Stadium who settled into their seats a few minutes late on Friday night, the suspense was already gone. Jason Marquis simply wasn't on his game and it was obvious from the get-go. A pair of two-run homers, courtesy of Nick Johnson and Ryan Zimmerman, in the first lifted the Washington Nationals from the doldrums and put them well on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Cards, evening the four-game series at one game apiece. With that first-inning thunder, the Nationals abruptly changed the directions of the two teams. The Cards came in hot with a four-game winning streak. Washington was slumping with a five-game losing streak. But momentum doesn't mean much if the starting pitcher can't put the ball where he wants. "I was up in the zone a lot and they made me pay for the pitches that I didn't get down," Marquis said. "I didn't do my job tonight." Those fans who hung around until the end saw Albert Pujols hit his 13th homer of the month, which tied a Major League record for April. But the Pujols blast in the eighth brought the Cards only within five runs, which took away all the luster for Pujols, who sees no reason to celebrate homers that come in a losing cause. "Who cares about my home run?" Pujols said. "That's not what you play for." Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had seen Marquis turn in some solid work during earlier starts. Marquis came in with a 3-1 record and 3.55 ERA, but that ERA was up to 5.04 after Marquis was rocked for seven earned runs in the opening three innings. "He was missing the target a foot a lot of times," La Russa said. "He just didn't have it." Marquis at least stayed on the mound until the sixth, which saved the bullpen. But that was a small consolation. "His job was to go out there and give us a chance to win and he didn't do that," La Russa said. "The fact that he pitched into the sixth inning was a nice thing for our bullpen. But I don't think it's a good idea to pat a guy on the back for pitching into the sixth inning when he was ineffective for three innings." Although the Cardinals have an offense capable of big comebacks, they never showed signs of giving Washington starter Tony Armas any serious trouble. "We got off to a rough start, but everybody fought the whole game," Cardinals third baseman Scott Spiezio said. "Armas took advantage of his lead. He got ahead with his sinker and threw strikes. He didn't leave it down the middle. He had it on the corners or at the knees." If there was any doubt that it was Washington's night, that doubt was erased in the sixth with the Nationals up 7-2. The Cardinals had a runner at first with one out when Yadier Molina whistled a liner inside the bag at third that looked off the bat like a sure double. But Zimmerman made a diving grab and wound up lobbing the ball to first for a double play. The Nationals put it all together with hitting, pitching and defense. Armas left after allowing just four hits and two runs through six innings. The bullpen trio of Mike Stanton, Felix Rodriguez and Chad Cordero finished it off. When Marquis can't put the ball down in the zone, movement becomes an issue. That was the case as Johnson and Zimmerman went deep in the first to basically end the Cardinals' party before it could really get started. "If you're up, you get more of an east-west run on the ball, especially if you're a sinkerball guy," Marquis said. "Anytime you keep it down, it's harder for the hitters to square the ball up." Just a blip on Marquis' screen? The Cardinals righty can only hope so. "I put my team in a bad position," Marquis said. "I have to go out there next time and do a better job."