Current Record 66-38
On Pace For 103-59
Magic Number 49

Vin Scully, who's full of thousands of little facts (as well as a line about Gall looking like he was divided into three parts), said the Cardinals just completed their tenth consecutive winning month. Would you believe the Cards went 17-9 in July? I didn't, perhaps because those 11 wins against the dreadful NL West don't feel like full wins. Of course those three wins against the hard-charging Astros should count double, so maybe it breaks even. Whatever the case, it's looking good for the Cardinals right now and for the Astros too. The Cubs continue to amaze with their mediocrity -- can you get more mediocre than 27-26 at home, 26-26 on the road, 479-470 runs scored-runs allowed and 5-5 in their last ten? -- and if Dusty Baker keeps his job it will be even more amazing.

The big news is that four Cardinal regulars went to the DL. Remember the Korean cartoon about Odalis Perez? Only Albert Pujols started that game and yesterday's game. On the brighter side, the Cardinals had a 2.97 ERA for the month. Let's walk through some of the individual highlights and lowlights.

WHO'S HOT?

John Rodriguez has taken St. Louis by storm, hitting 333 / 396 / 643 in 48 plate appearances. Yeah, I know, it's a small sample size and it's not that material in projecting what he'll do going forward. However, in light of the twin DL stints for Reggie Sanders and Larry Walker, that was precisely what the Cardinals needed, a real lift as LaRussa put it. Perhaps more interesting is that Rodriguez has had a couple of starts against lefties, suggesting the Cardinals want to get a good look at him with October and 2006 in mind. Rather than trading for Matt Lawton, who's merely OK with the bat and bad with the glove, it's good to get the chance to find out whether we have another Melvin Mora on our hands.

Chris Carpenter was an absolute monster in the month of July. Naturally he's cooled down in the last couple of starts. There isn't much more to say than what's already been said. Well, I will add that when I saw Carpenter pitch at Busch in June, the crowd groaned when he gave up a single. It was the kind of groan you would've heard last year when Matt Morris gave up one of his many homers or in 2001 when Lankford K'd with the tying on third and one out. In this case though, the crowd was groaning that Carpenter lost a no-hitter... in the third inning. He really spoiled us there for a while. Oh, one other thing, as good as Carpenter's been this season, his ERA+ would be third among Astros' starters, and he wouldn't have much of an advantage on Andy Pettitte.

Abraham Nuñez did his best Scott Rolen impression, hitting 354 / 432 / 508 in July. Maybe he and Rolen did a Vulcan mind meld or something, because Scottie engineered a 204 / 290 / 278 in July before mercifully being sent to the DL. I suppose Nuñez could be the starting 2B in 2006. John Mabry is another role player who had a good month (341 / 396 / 591) in limited at-bats. That's some nifty slack-picking-upping.

Mark Mulder had a 2.29 ERA in July. Honestly I think he was darn lucky and I don't just mean the more-BBs-than-Ks thing either. His fastball isn't fast, his control is off, and I'm not seeing much movement to his pitches. Against the Padres his curveball looked like something I've seen from A-ball pitchers. I'm trying to restrain my barking dogmatism though, so I'll nod my head at the bottom line for Mulder. I must note my disappointment with Mulder's lack of chemistry with Vin Scully, after whom the X-Files character was named.

WHO'S NOT?

Mike Mahoney and Einar Diaz combined to hit 181 / 203 / 250 in 72 July PAs. They also had six sac bunts hitting in the 8th spot. Mahoney seems to be the #1 catcher in Yadier Molina's absence, leading me to wonder how the heck the Rangers could trade Travis Hafner for Diaz. A Rangers fan pointed out that his team also got the recently released Ryan Drese too. The moral of the story is to start watching college football if the Cardinals hire John Hart. I'm ready for Yadier's return, and judging by Morris's recent loss of poise, I'm probably not alone.

David Eckstein hit 218 / 259 / 307 in July and his double play partner Mark Grudzielanek wasn't much better at 273 / 284 / 384. We can still make fun of the Yankees and Red Sox for paying much larger amounts of money for Renteria and Womack. Grudzielanek has looked great on defense, especially turning the DP, and to my eye Eckstein has improved somewhat with the glove.

Jim Edmonds hit 215 / 361 / 443 in July, although he showed signs of life in the last week or so. Of course he also had a couple of strange bunts in the last week, which just fuel my suspicion that he's playing hurt. Something like this happened in the second half of 2003, when Edmonds tried to play through injuries and registered a very similar line of 214 / 357 / 507; there were lots of at-bats late that year where Edmonds just wanted to do an Eckstein and work a walk. As unpleasant as it sounds, giving Edmonds days off against lefties makes sense. Edmonds needs the rest and So Taguchi gets leveraged a little bit.

Al Reyes gave up a grand slam to Neifi Perez. Let us not speak of this event further.

Down on the farm, Tyler Johnson seems to be putting it together. Johnson's K-rate led the A's to take him in the Rule 5 draft, but his continued control problems led the A's to return him. He's a lefty reliever worth watching. Adam Wainwright hasn't been so fortunate of late, and let's leave it at that.