Dust-In Time

Giant's eye series win, October ball
By Neale Fenn

@

It's not just the St. Louis logo that's flashy. Faster than you can say "NLDS", this team has the critics crying "post-season!". Playing in the division that's widely considered the most competitive -- if not the very best -- in baseball, the Cardinals entered play Friday with a ten game lead over the second placed Chicago Cubs.

Their cause is helped by having Albert Pujols in the line up, a man who has a legitimate shot at 700 career home runs. Only three players have in MLB history have hit 30 home runs in their first three years in the bigs. Pujols is one of them. This year, as of Friday, he already has 28. And anyone who doubts his ability should take a look at today's 434 feet tape-measure blast. Hard, even, to tell on which team was the real MVP.

Into this one-man mix throw future hall of famer Scott Rolen and his NL-leading 86 RBIs, Edgar Renteria and his 40 game hitting-streak, and veteran Tony Womack (hitting .296), you have quite an offense. Yet that's just the infield -- which also happens to be the finest defensive entourage in the land. Further afield, St. Louis can boast the talents of Jim "check this out" Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, who are virtual locks for 35 and 25 homers, respectively. In short, this bunch bangs.

Today, in the 84 degree Busch Stadium heat, the script was tossed as Dustin Hermanson no-hit the Cardinals through 6 1/3 innings. Giant's pitching coach, Dave Righetti, observed:
"He obviously threw very well. I'm sure he was fired up."

Probably the biggest understatement since rolling juke-box Matt Herges said that nineteen baserunners in 3 innings of work "probably wasn't going to win a lot of ball games."

Hermanson, along with tomorrow's starter Brett Tomko, could hold the key to San Francisco's season. Ever determined, and lately consistent, these two have the chance to make Giants' rotation look at lot like St. Louis'. Even now, they're not as far off as people might think.

The Giants' rotation has a composite ERA of 4.19. They allow 1.34 base runners per inning, well above the league average of 1.25. The St. Louis' quintent, by contrast, are twenty-one cents cheaper than San Francisco at 1.13 RPI. Their combined ERA however, stands at 4.02. Not bad. Not particularly good, either. That's a distinction bourne out in a game like today's. Indeed, Cardinals' starters may have won 11 more games (46) than their counterparts, but they have also lost one more (26). Hermanson meanwhile has laboured through ten no-decisions. He has three losses, as few as Jason Schimdt.

The point is either the both Cardinals' and the Giants' rotations are sound, or someone's been exaggerating. You can't have it both ways. But you can win with a good rotation. And you can lose with a good rotation, even a very good one (see Houston).

When the smoke clears, and the Bonds-Pujols golfing contest has abated, it's clearer why the Cardinals are 26 games over .500, and the Giants only 10. St. Louis has the edge in every department: hitting for average, hitting for power, defense, speed, experience, chemistry and indeed, the rotation -- although the case for Morris, Williams, Carpenter, Suppan and Marquis may have been overstated. If the Giants are to prevail, they must look first to their starting five. With or without Kirk Rueter.

These guys have already raised their game once, (on May 1st the rotation sported an ERA of 5.60) and now they will have to do it again. But even if they succeed, it may not be enough. For that hypothetical Cardinals' edge becomes the numerical chasm represented in the standings only when we look towards the quagmire that is the Giants' bullpen. This is where the story -- and it seems almost every other -- ends.

Until then, kudos to Dustin Hermanson for a job well done, and to Tony La Russa, who decided to let Suppan pitch to Bonds in the seventh inning. After the game, he remarked:
"We should have walked him."

Kudos Mr. La Russa. The world needs straight shooters like you. So, indeed, do the Giants.