The Cardinals took advantage of the Stros’ shaky middle relief to overcome yaks by Beltran, JK, Berkman, and Lamb in beating the Stros 10-7 in the first game of the 2004 National League Championship Series at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Wednesday night.
The Stros had a couple of leads in this one after Beltran’s yak in the first and JK’s in the fourth, but neither lead lasted long. Brandon Backe pitched reasonably well for 4 2/3rd’s innings, but the roof fell in on Chad Qualls — who was dinked to death in the Cards’ 6 run sixth — and then on Chad Harville, who gave up the Edmonds‘ three run double that put the game away for the Redbirds.
One thing I did not understand about this game is why Manager Garner pitched Backe on three days rest when he could have started Pete Munro tonight and allowed Backe to pitch on his regular rest cycle in Thursday’s Game 2. As noted above, Backe pitched reasonably well, but ran out of gas quickly in the fourth. My sense is that the Stros would have gotten more out of him in the Thursday game.
Oh well. Game 2 is Thursday night as the Stros try to steal one from the Cards in St. Louis. And steal it that will have to do given that Munro is the unlikely starter in this one. Hope that the Stros’ bats keep crankin’ because it is almost certain that the Cardinals’ bats will.