With Matt Morris scuffling and Mark Mulder muddling along, Jeff Suppan had an impressive outing last night. Suppan will pick and choose his spots for glory, but this is the first time all year that his K's exceeded his hits, and he didn't walk anybody. Obviously Suppan won't turn into Carpenter II, but the occasional great start was a nice pick-me-up.

Of course the big hero was So Taguchi last night. So's earned a stanza with his recent play and on a more prosaic level he pushed his OPS over 800 -- the Vander Wal Line? -- with a big game last night. What do you know, he's got a higher OPS than Ichiro (801 to 794), although as VEB points out, So's rate stats have benefited from selective usage and it's not an overwhelming sample size. That's a cute fact nonetheless. The Cardinals should produce a video of So Taguchi's career for presentation to their players at the minors to demonstrate the value of hard work.

The Cardinals caught the White Sox last night in the standings, as they're both 31 games over, although the Pale Hose remain a few percentage points ahead. It's hard to believe what they've accomplished with so little from Rolen and with all the other injuries. And you can hear the cavalry tooting its horn.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Baseball Prospectus stated So Taguchi is not signed for 2006, which is technically true, but not what it implies. Taguchi will only have 2.079 years of service time at the end of the season, so he's not eligible for free agency. He's not even eligible for arbitration. Strangely they also say Suppan's contract is up this year, which is true to the same extent that Mulder's is. The Cardinals have options on both pitchers (and I think MLB Contracts has Suppan's 2006 option over-valued).