By Rick Hummel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
ST. LOUIS — Amid the vitriol of whether Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto should be on the National League All-Star team or not, National League manager Tony La Russa said that he had also given strong consideration to St. Louis Cardinals righthander Kyle Lohse, who was 7-2 with a 2.82 earned run average at the time.
Although Lohse isn’t an All-Star, he pitched at the level he had established this season Monday night when he handled the Colorado Rockies 9-3 before a paid house of 39,456 at Busch Stadium.
Traversing at least seven innings for the fifth start in succession, Lohse scattered nine hits and allowed just two runs over 7 1/3 innings, posting his eighth win.
Manager Mike Matheny said, “He easily could be sitting on 10 wins — or more. He’s been overlooked. He was overlooked all winter, all spring. Everybody talked about our club but not a lot of people talked about Kyle Lohse.”
Lohse, who was not always in La Russa’s favor, said he didn’t expect to be named to the All-Star team. Nor, he insisted, did he mind being overlooked, as it were.
“I don’t strike a lot of guys out,” said Lohse. “I don’t throw 94, 95 (miles an hour), like I used to. I just go out there and pitch. I’m kind of used to it.
“This is my 12th year and I could care less what people think about me, besides my teammates and my manager.”
Two of the Cardinals’ RBI machines kept cranking. All-Star right fielder Carlos Beltran, who leads the National League in runs batted in at 63, drove in two runs without a hit, extending his major-league high to nine consecutive games with at least one RBI.
Beltran’s forceout grounder put the Cardinals ahead 3-2 in the fifth, and that development was followed by Allen Craig walloping a 438-foot homer off Colorado’s Tyler Chatwood. Craig also hit a 416-foot homer in the eighth, likewise to deep center, giving him 13 homers and 42 RBIs in just 40 games played this year, both of those totals surpassing his figures last year of 11 and 40.
“More RBIs than games played,” said an admiring Lohse. “That’s kind of a joke. It’s unbelievable.”
Matt Holliday reached base in his first four plate appearances, and his homer and single gave him 28 hits in his last 56 at-bats (.500). “He’s as good as anybody in the game right now,” said Matheny.
And Mitchell Boggs, relieving Lohse, quickly halted a Rockies threat in the eighth. Entering with the bases loaded and one out, Boggs induced Dexter Fowler to bang a one-hopper to the mound and Boggs, making sure to get rid of the ball as quickly as he could with the speedy Fowler running, started the home-to-first double play, which ended Colorado’s faint hope.
Former Lindbergh High lefthander Josh Outman, pitching professionally in his hometown for the first time for Colorado, had some major control issues and perhaps some major stage fright, although he was not tagged with the loss.
Outman, 27, walked five and threw two wild pitches in amassing 70 pitches in just three innings, although he allowed just two runs before he was lifted for Chatwood.
Of his 70 pitches, 36 were called balls. And with the Rockies’ new four-man rotation, their starters generally have been limited to 75 or 80 pitches. Given Outman’s pitch count already, manager Jim Tracy got him a little early.
“It’s just been a comedy of mistakes on my part,” said Outman, “falling behind on counts and everything else, and you see what a good hitting team can do in that scenario.”
Outman said it had been special for him to come home and pitch. “There’s a lot of support for me here, a lot of people that are lifelong Cardinals fans that are secretly cheering for me in their Cardinals gear,” he said.
But he added, “The nerves, I don’t think that’s a factor, I don’t like saying anything that sounds like an excuse.”
Cardinals third baseman David Freese, who opposed Outman in high school at Lafayette and in junior college at Meramec (Outman was at Forest Park), said, “We go way back. He had an awkward motion back then but he was dominant then and he’s good now. It’s always weird to turn around after so many years and face a guy you used to face (Freese singled in his only at-bat against Outman).”
Tyler Colvin hit a two-run homer off a Lohse changeup in the fourth to tie the score, and the Rockies threatened to go ahead in the fifth. But second baseman Daniel Descalso made two good defensive plays to help out of a jam.
With Chatwood, who had bunted into a forceout, on first with one out, Eric Young tried to bunt for a hit. The ball had to be fielded by first baseman Craig, who threw to first where Descalso alertly had covered the bag.
Descalso then dived atop a smash by Marco Scutaro, keeping the ball in the infield and preventing Chatwood from scoring.
“(Descalso) is just a heads-up player,” said Matheny. “He’s a very, very good second baseman. Defensively, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Lohse pitched around the dangerous Carlos Gonzalez, walking him to fill the bases. He then threw a full-count slider to retire Michael Cuddyer, a former Minnesota teammate, on a fly to center.
“I know what (Cuddyer) is capable of,” said Lohse. “It’s one of those matchups where you’ve got to pick your poison, so to speak. Nothing against (Cuddyer) but I’d rather face him in that situation than Gonzalez.”
Craig’s two-run bomb to deepest center capped the three-run Cardinals’ fifth.
Matheny says Craig acts like a veteran at the plate.
“He makes adjustments well. He’s not a guy who seems to have glaring holes. He has a nice swing path and he generates a lot of power. That’s a really dangerous combination,” said Matheny.
Injured first baseman Lance Berkman, who fashions himself about 10 days from returning to the lineup, can see how well the Cardinals’ current first baseman is doing.
“I might have to come back as a pinch hitter,” Berkman had said before the game.
Craig said, “When Lance comes back, we’re going to throw some lineups out there that will be fun to watch.”
