When you start pointing to the dugout and saying all the things that he was saying, a guy that respects the game like I myself, I didn’t appreciate it and I had to let him know. I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant.

– Albert Pujols

I was caught up in the heat of the moment, got excited a little bit and they took offense to it. A couple of words were said back and forth, but I’m not going to be intimidated by anybody. I may have looked over there, but I didn’t look at anybody in particular.

– Carlos Villaneuva

Could be real interesting to see what happens with Pujols due up first.

– broadcaster Dan McLaughlin, in the top of the 8th

Is it deja vu all over again for the Brewers? Last year, they imploded down the stretch with their impetuousness, most memorably when they lost to the Cardinals 7-3 on Sept. 26 and reliever Seth McClung and manager Ned Yost were ejected. Perhaps Villaneuva’s shenanigans last night less directly impacted the game on the field, but they had the same result of leading to his team’s demise. Here’s hoping that the trend continues and that the Brewers gradually spiral out of control as September approaches.

Huge. It’s a huge difference. Three and a half is like a series — a series away from leading it. We’ve still got 28 games left. That’s plenty of time.

– Ryan Franklin

It’s still very much anyone’s race. Indeed, here’s what recent history reveals about playoff teams as of Aug. 27:

• 2007: Eventual wild card Rockies were 4.5 games back of the wild card leader
• 2006: Eventual division winner Padres were 2.0 games back of the division leader
• 2005: Eventual wild card Astros were 1.0 game back of the wild card leader
• 2004: Eventual wild card Astros were 6.0 games back of the wild card leader

Being "second place" in the wild card race would actually seem to be a good position for the Cardinals to be in at this point, since in three of the last four years that team has come back to "win" the wild card.

There’s days we’re not good enough, but we really try. We have more talent than people think.

– TLR

It’s important for TLR and other observers not to confuse not being "good enough" with not being "lucky" enough. We’d contend that in Tuesday’s game, the Cardinals weren’t so much outplayed by a better team (perhaps they were in the ninth inning) as simply bitten by some bad fortune. Tuesday’s loss can be attributed to the teams’ respective BABIP rates (certainly not because they came out "flat," as one ridiculous postgame allegation had it): They had a way-below-expected BABIP (.290-.300) of only .250, whereas the Brewers had an above-normal BABIP of .389. Indeed, as "unlucky" as the Cardinals were Tuesday, their "luck" turned in Wednesday’s game as their balls in play fell at a .393 rate (Milwaukee’s offensive luck continued, with a .345 BABIP). Did the Cardinals suddenly become a better team? As Kramer once said, not bloody likely.

I have no comment. Adam pitched a great game.

— Yadier Molina on Villaneuva

Yadier is perhaps the bizarro Villaneuva: He’s, in an all-to-overused modifier, classy. He’s also honest: Adam Wainwright did pitch a great — as in a 63 FIGS — game.

I like going on contact. It’s a good, aggressive play. It’s a difficult play for an infielder because it’s not something we do very often. I’ve seen it work out a lot more times than it doesn’t. I like the play.

– Troy Glaus

Indeed, it worked out for the Cardinals (in Tuesday’s game, the "luck" might’ve broken the other way). They certainly put themselves in position for it to work, with brilliant maneuvering to have Aaron Miles in to face Shouse. Though JJ Hardy threw low, Kendall seemed to misplay it. Rather than stepping forward to block the plate and "come to" the ball, he hung back, which required him to play the ball on a short hop.

Kudos also to Glaus for improving his chances to score in the first place by advancing to second on his game-tying hit prior to Molina’s at-bat. And Glaus appreciated the good baseball from Yadier: He enthusiastically applauded Yadier for his unintentional-intentional groundout to second. Normally, that kind of "productive out" is overrated (such as early in a game), it in the eighth inning of a tie game, it was a useful play (it increased their WPE from 75.0% to 75.2%), given that the Cardinals needed to play only for one run at that point.

This entry was posted by Pip on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under quotebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.