Baseball By Paul

After a giant collapse last night in Chicago that included a Michael Barrett grand-slam, the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen is at it again. With two-out and nobody on, Braden Looper and Jason Isringhausen allowed a double and two-RBI singles, drawing the Brewers to within two runs, 6-4. Now, Gabe Gross bats with Prince Fielder on second and Corey Koskie on first.

Update: Gross hit a slow grounder down the first base line that was fielded by Pujols, who applied the tag and ended the game.   So they hold on, but it was far from pretty.  If the bullpen continues to struggle, rest assured that general manager Walt Jocketty will make the necessary moves.

Sunday was for streak snapping:

-So my beloved Tigers weren't able to put together an undefeated week as Kenny Rogers gave up five in 5 1/3 innings of work against his former team giving Detroit their first loss, 5-3 in Texas. They are the talk of the town for now and hopefully they are able to continue their success. To suggest they will outlast their division, a tall order for any of its members let alone the youthful Tigers, is a bit overboard based on one week's worth of play. Their long-term success will be critically tied to their ability to stay healthy. Namely, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, and Ivan Rodriguez. Hopefully they are conservative in their usage of young studs like Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya as well seeing the big picture instead and not burning out either arm. This isn't to say that the Tigers can't make things happen in big way this season, just that it is highly unlikely barring a move or two and piles of luck.  The team plays their home opener on Monday afternoon against the World Champion Chicago White Sox.  

-The Seattle Mariners snapped a 27 2/3 innings scoreless streak in the eighth inning against the Oakland Athletics on Sunday, but their comeback fell short and they took the loss, 6-4. Had they topped the 29 inning mark, they would have set a new team record for futility. During the rally, Ichiro pushed Nick Swisher:

Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports 

–Travis Hafner extended his streak of reaching on consecutive plate appearances to 11 when he drew a walk off of Johan Santana in the first inning, but a sharp lineout to Torii Hunter in the fourth inning ended the run.