Baseball neepery.

Some screwy stats from the Cards game the other night, which featured zero starting pitchers and a bunch of relievers. Courtesy of my St. Louis son.

I always get a little kick out of reading the box scores when Jason Marquis pitches, because he usually has a pretty awesome night hitting. However, last night's game was kinda odd.

First, Carpenter missing a start, which sucks.

Second, that they didn't adjust the rotation, and instead went with nothing but relievers for the entire game.

Third, those pitchers, combined, were a single short of the cycle...

Fourth, Marquis, as a pitcher, was called upon to pinch-hit for another pitcher (not so odd, La Russa actually does that all the time with Marquis), but never actually threw a pitch (he was removed for another reliever after his triple).

Fifth, the home run in the near-cycle was provided by a reliever in his first at-bat of his career (relievers, even in the NL, get an at-bat about once every 5 blue moons), and on the first pitch that he ever saw at the major league level...

And, said reliever, Adam Wainwright, was the winning pitcher.

Who knew that trade with Atlanta would bring so much offense? (Both Marquis and Wainwright were part of the same trade...)

La Russa the Mad Genius at his best.