Two quick notes from the Cardinals' demolition of the Padres:
One, someone ought to remind the Padres that getting hits with men on base is generally a good idea. The final tally was something like 2 -for-33 with men in scoring position, which generally leads to the sort of scoring percentage you normally associate with an Anthony Michael Hall character in a John Hughes movie. And no, that bit at the end of Sixteen Candles where there's some hypothetical canoodlery doesn't count. They had plenty of opportunities against a Cardinals staff that's really a one-man band, and utterly failed to take advantage. Some teams simply have the air of being doomed about them - see Phillies, comma, Philadelphia and Card, comma, Wild - and this year's Padres were one of them. Watching the last game, I was literally counting down pitches until Piazza's inevitable double play ball in the eighth.
Two, all that being said, the Cardinals aren't going to last very long at the Mets if they keep swinging at the first pitch. A team that gives Woody Williams single-digit pitch count innings is doing him a favor, and the Mets' thin pitching staff will take all the favors it can get. If the Cardinals don't exercise patience against what looks to be a very beatable Mets rotation, they're simply going to give away outs and get bludgeoned in short order.
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