On Saturday when Brad Thompson got thrown into the fire, Al Hrabosky pointed out that this was Thompson's first road game in the majors. He added that it's particularly tough to have your first road game in New York, but I suspect Thompson looked around Shea Stadium and thought to himself "Gee, what a dump. This is New York? I pitched in a nicer park in Memphis. Heck, I pitched in a nicer park in Sevierville, Tennessee." And so Thompson overcame what should've been scored as two errors from Albert Pujols and a target-less throw from So Taguchi to keep the Cardinals close. That's my main impression from this series, that it's unbelievable the New York Mets play in a run-down park with all the charm, grace and PA music of a forty year-old sewage treatment facility.

Jason Marquis and Matt Morris pitched well for the Cardinals, but unfortunately for Marquis he was up against a future Hall of Famer who forgot that he's supposed to be washed-up. While Morris had a little stretch in the 6th where he forgot how to throw strikes, overall he had a solid, groundball-happy performance and, unless La Russa and Duncan were asleep Sunday, evidently Morris can go 100 pitches. In my misspent youth Tommy John was the gold standard for groundball pitchers, and his gold standard was 20 groundball outs. With such a groundball-heavy staff that might happen once or twice this season, although hitters aim for the fences and strikeout a lot more than they did thirty years ago.

Mark Mulder struggled on Saturday, and I have to wonder if one of the other things pitch counts hath wrought is managers leaving their starter in the game until he gets 100 or so pitches. When you're getting the Eckstein treatment from career .214 hitter Ramon Castro in the 6th, warning bells should be ringing. They didn't ring loud enough though, or maybe the Shea synthesizers drowned the alarms out, as Kaz Matsui chased Mulder with a bases-clearing triple. Mulder will rebound, Morris will regress, and hopefully we'll end up with a three-way competition among 1A starters for Game 1 honors.

John Mabry had a home run swing (and miss) on the pitch before the home run. Maybe La Russa has another chapter for the sequel to "August Nights", because Mabry isn't swinging the bat like a guy with a career .414 slugging percentage. Don't get me wrong, Mabry (and Abraham Nunez) will not end the season with a 1000 OPS, but I like the confidence. With their hot streaks, La Russa was liable to do weird stuff with Mabry and Nunez, so some of the impact of Scott Rolen's injury would've been felt anyway.

Mark Grudzielanek stole second today when the Mets pitched out on yet another Yadier attempt to bunt. Even if you didn't see it, your first thought is probably "Ugh, Piazza", and you'd be right, as Piazza threw a two-hopper to second on said pitchout. While the Cardinals aren't a base stealing team -- presently only the Brewers, Red Sox and A's have fewer stolen bases -- I think they made a tactical mistake by not stealing on Friday and Sunday. Piazza really is that bad, having thrown out only 4 of 32 this year. I don't know if the Mets can leave him back there if he's going to hover around the Mendoza line as a hitter, but if they do, he's too easy to exploit.

Last but not least, it pains me to look at the lineup and see Pujols and Rolen missing, even though Pujols looked like he could use a day off. To make matters worse, Edmonds left the game early with a foot problem that seemed to go back to his slide into third on Saturday. The Cardinals have their first off-day in three weeks, and it couldn't come sooner.