Renteria Leads Cards' Hit Parade
By Dan O'Neill Post-Dispatch
September 18, 2003
The Cardinals have not been mathematically eliminated from pennant contention. If you are an especially optimistic sort, and you are using the Modified Stableford Scoring System, they still have a chance. Otherwise, given the realities of the situation, this is the time of the baseball season where pleasure must be extracted from things more subtle than postseason promise.
Several of those small teasers emerged in a large 13-0 victory Thursday over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of 29,729 at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals recovered from a particularly obnoxious defeat to the Distillers on Wednesday to get a third victory of the four-game set before welcoming the National League Central-leading Houston Astros to town today.
"Are we realistically done?" Scott Rolen asked. "Maybe. But you sweep the Astros and maybe you raise some eyebrows."
Barring that, one of the developments to savor on Thursday was a 16th victory for Woody Williams. Making his 31st start of the season, Williams also became a 20-game winner, of sorts. He hasn't personally been credited with 20 wins - something he had his sights on at one point - but the club is now 20-11 in Williams' starts.
Williams, however, isn't interested in claiming consolation prizes. "Personal achievement to me is really nothing," Williams said. "We're battling in a situation we shouldn't be in (five games behind Houston). If I had been pitching better, we might not be in this situation."
Williams was 12-3 at the break and represented the National League in the All-Star Game. But he endured an eight-game winless streak between his 14th and 15th win. He was first-half Woody again on this night, striking out six and limiting the hapless Hopsmen to two hits over seven innings. Steve Kline and Josh Pearce pitched an inning each to finish.
Another feel-good feature to the night's events was Edgar Renteria's four hits and five runs batted in. Before the game, it seemed impossible for Renteria to reach the 100-RBI mark by season end. But five RBIs - the second time he has had as many in a game this season - boosted his count to 96 with eight games remaining. Much stranger things have happened.
Scott Rolen also reached a plateau. The slick-fielding third baseman's 28th home run in the second inning opened a 1-0 lead for the Cardinals. The club's 110th solo shot of the season also swelled Rolen's RBI total to 100. Rolen had 110 RBIs overall last season - 44 as a Cardinal - and he has exceeded the century mark for three consecutive seasons.
He added another RBI later in the game to go with several outstanding fielding plays. "He put on a clinic tonight," manager Tony La Russa said.
Like Williams, Rolen wanted no part of personal congrats. "It's hard not to look and say, 'You drove in 100 runs,' " Rolen said. "But how many big ones didn't I drive in? If I had drove them in, we might not be where we are."
The Cardinals made it 2-0 one out later in the second. Eduardo Perez walked and headed for third on Mike Matheny's single. Right fielder Pete Zoccolillo's throw caromed off third baseman Wes Helm's glove and into the seats. Perez trotted home to make it 2-0 as Matheny went to second. Moments later, Matheny was tagged out at home as he attempted to score on a single by Williams.
After spectacular defensive plays by center fielder J.D. Drew and Rolen allowed Williams to skirt problems in the top half of the fifth, the Cardinals erupted in the bottom half of the inning. Albert Pujols singled with one out and Drew walked. Rolen then drove home his 101st run with a single, making it 3-0. The run scored was No. 130 for Pujols, which ties Mark McGwire's total for 1998. One has to go back to Stan Musial's 135 runs in 1948 for the next highest total.
Renteria drove home another with a single and it was 4-0. Perez then launched a 2-0 pitch from Brewers starter Matt Kinney into the left-field bullpen for a three-run homer and it was 7-0. Because of injury issues with Eli Marrero, Drew and Jim Edmonds, Perez has been used more often than anticipated this season, but he has responded most ably. The homer was his 10th, matching last year's take. The three RBIs boosted his total to 38, his best output since he had 16 homers and 52 RBIs for the Cincinnati Reds in 1997.
The Cardinals did more offensive damage in the seventh off power-hitting reliever Brooks Kieschnick, who slammed a pinch homer off Jason Isringhausen to tie Wednesday's game in the ninth. Rolen, who was nine for 15 in the series, doubled for his third hit of the game. Renteria followed with a double over center fielder Scott Podsednik's head for his second RBI of the evening. Perez reached on an error before Matheny singled home a run to stretch the margin to 9-0.
Things got silly in the bottom of the eighth as the Cardinals gorged themselves with four more runs. A pinch, run-scoring single by Marrero and a bases-loaded double by Renteria were the highlights.
"It seems like in games we didn't need to score a lot of runs, we scored a lot of runs," Williams said. "And in games where we needed to score some runs, it seems like we didn't score enough."
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