"Yeah, it's only one game. Only 161 to go and all of that. Understood. But goodness, didn't the first game of the Cardinals' 2011 season look like a replay from the disappointing middle of last August? Padres 5, Cardinals 3. It was 11 innings of baseball that seemed like 111, or at least extended spring training. The home team had leads three times Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium, only to come undone by slapdash defense, a picked-off runner, questionable strategy by manager Tony La Russa, three double-play rally-killing ground balls by Albert Pujols and the ceremonial first blown save by Ryan Franklin. These events probably churned your stomach and had you reaching for the Zantac. "It's a weird, difficult way to lose," La Russa said. And if you think I'm being too negative on the morning after the season's first day, this is probably true. Then again, thousands of fans vacated Busch in the late innings, so I'm just going along with the crowd. The exodus to the exits seemed to puzzle the new Cardinal, Lance Berkman. "It was great," Berkman said when asked for his initial impression of the St. Louis baseball experience from a new perspective. "The energy was good. Unfortunately a lot of people left, I felt like toward the end of the game. But at the beginning of the game it was great." If a lot of fans left early, it's probably because they'd seen this game before, in 2010. Many times. Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter deserved a win. He went seven sturdy innings and allowed two hits and two runs. And one of the runs should have been prevented. Second baseman Skip Schumaker fumbled a caught-stealing tag of Ryan Ludwick in the fifth. It would have ended the inning. And with Ludwick on second base, two out and the pitcher on deck, La Russa declined to issue an intentional walk to No. 8 hitter Nick Hundley, who doubled in Ludwick for a 2-2 tie. Why not just put Hundley on and take your shot at the pitcher?" Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_29611bef-1bcd-5328-afd8-a737e582e026.html
