Canadia

Anything Halladay can do Carpenter can do better. Carpenter's start (and finish) last night is challenging Mulder's 10 inning gem for the best Cards start this season. By the end of the season Carpenter should once again prove himself to be the club's best starter. If he is healthy this year the smart money is on Chris starting game one of the playoffs. Carpenter is quietly turning in to one of the best pitchers in the league. He has a great mix of power pitching and finesse. Unless Morris regains his old power, Carpenter is going to have twice as many strikeouts as any other Cardinal. At the same time he can get groundballs like the rest of the rotation. Last night was a perfect example as he had 10 ks, 12 groundballs and only four flyballs. He started off with pure power striking out five of six. Then, as power pitchers do, he walked a man. Immediately, he took a little off and got a ground ball for the double play. After that he had a mix of groundballs and strikeouts that ended in him only throwing 95 pitches for the CG and about two feet away from a no hitter.

As much as the out of town media like to talk about the power of the Cards lineup, it is the pitching staff that makes them the best team in the league. Along with Morris and Mulder the Cards top three will take the Pepsi challenge with any other rotation in baseball. Marquis is posed to a have a better year than his breakout season last year and Suppan is good enough to be the third starter on 20 teams. Combine that with the NL's best healthy closer and at least four solid middle relievers (Tavarez, King, Reyes, Thompson, Eldred?, Flores?) and the Cardinals pitching is at least as dominant as the lineup.

But the lineup still is great. A couple days ago Larry Walker told us that his tank is just about empty and that he won't be wearing red in 2006. Apparently, the low gas indicator light came on a little early as Walker hit two monster dingers, which lifted his OPS up over 800. Pujols hit another dinger and went 3 for 4 to keep chasing Derrick Lee in the triple crown stats, but Lee went 4 for 5 with a dinger of his own.

The batter I enjoyed the most last night may have been Yadier Molina. He was only one for four, but could have easily been four for four. He worked the count in every at bat, fouled off several pitches and hit line drives. The first three were shallow line drives that could have fallen for hits, but two of them were right at charging outfielders. The last line drive was a rocket that Vernon wells caught on a jog at the track in the deepest part of the park.

If Molina and Larry Walker start hitting well things should get even better. Then in a week when Rolen gets back the Cards can forget about only taking two out of three games each series and start sweeping everybody.