I Hate West Coast Swings

Really, doesn't the title say it all? Oh, elaborate a bit? Alright then...

No offense California friends. I just don't like your time zone.

When I was little, road trips to the West coast were the worst. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego games didn't start until almost bedtime, which means I could listen to or (on one of those rare occasions when the game was on TV) watch, at most, around 3 innings of baseball. Trust me, my parents knew when I'd try to stay up for the later innings (they're smart like that). The local paper never had the late game scores in (not even for the playoffs!), and, before the days of internet fast enough that I could check scores online, I often went to school without knowing who won the night before. Frustrating for a die-hard little kid.

Now that I'm an adult, I still hate games on the coast. 9:15 starts are just too late, especially after a full day of work. Times like these I act like an absolute baseball purist and wish that all games were day games. But I digress...

To sum up the trip... our starting rotation is something fierce. Right now the only one I'm not impressed with is Kyle Lohse. Jaime Garcia and Adam Wainwright deserved better fates in their starts on the trip. In fact, Chris mentioned to me during Saturday night's game that these were the kind of tough luck losses I had alluded to in our Cy Young post, and she wasn't wrong. Our rock solid defense had a couple of rough patches as well in those two games. Over the course of the season, these games happen. Trips like this one happen as well.

Believe it or not, we actually pulled three wins out of these two series, even though (to me at least) it didn't feel like the Cardinals were playing all that well in a couple of the games. As in, they're a really good club that just wasn't getting the job done. Part of that might be because of the fact that they're west coast games too, and my brain scrambles the details. To be fair, the pitching duels were amazing in the San Francisco series, and seeing a little small ball on Sunday was a welcome sight as well. My dad likes to remind me that winning half your games on the road and taking two of three from every home series will probably get you to the playoffs, so we're on our way!

Albert does not look like he is at all comfortable at the plate, which means by the time you read this he will have hit 3 home runs and told the media that everybody has rough stretches, but he's been swinging the bat well and just not getting anything out of it. That's what usually seems to happen when we the fans start talking about Albert in a slump. (Case in point - I wrote this paragraph Saturday night, then watched - amused - as Albert went 3-4 on Sunday with a home run and several well hit balls.) So here's the plan, whenever Albert looks bad, just talk about it all the time (as the media is wont to do), make him mad, and watch the results. It seems to work every time.

The whole team is striking out at a rate I don't want to teach my math students about - especially since they're all Brewer fans, with one random Cub fan thrown in just to irritate me. It's not a great stretch... we have yet to 'miss an ace' in any series we've been in (unless you count Houston... do they even have an ace?), and we've faced several tough lefties (plus Chuck Bud Norris) that the team hasn't been able to figure out in years.

Rest easy Cardinal fans. No more late night games for awhile. The boys are heading back to St. Louis, where the Braves await...