Carpenter takes hill for opener

[StlCards4ever515]

St. Louis (0-0) at Houston (0-0), 6:05 p.m. CT

The final home opener at the current Busch Stadium will have to wait a little while, as the Cardinals start the season on the road for the first time since 2001. Instead of the celebration of 40 years that will soon follow, the Redbirds' 2005 debut hearkens to very recent history.
St. Louis and Houston start the season against each other in a rematch of the thrilling 2004 National League Championship Series. The Cards won that series in seven games, with the home team taking every contest. But during the regular season in '04, both the Cardinals and Astros swept a series on the other club's turf.

In a turn from '04, expectations are much higher for the Cardinals than for the 'Stros. Coming off a 105-win season, St. Louis added Mark Mulder to its rotation, though the team turned over the majority of its up-the-middle defense. Houston, however, lost Carlos Beltran, Jeff Kent and Wade Miller, and will do without Lance Berkman for quite some time as he recovers from knee surgery.

Chris Carpenter takes the mound for St. Louis, opposed by Roy Oswalt. In 2004, Carpenter emerged as the ace of a consistently steady staff. Now that Mulder is on board, Carpenter again might not grab many headlines. But even with Mulder, he could still be the team's best starter. Either way, it's a deep rotation, with five pitchers who won 15-plus games last year.

"I just love the fact there's five guys," said Mulder. "There's no question marks in our starting rotation. In Oakland, we had one year like that, when we had Ted Lilly and Cory Lidle and then the three of us (Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito). And it's a comfortable feeling, coming in for each guy, knowing that it's us and that's it."

The greatest questions about the '05 Cardinals center around the bullpen and that reconfigured middle. Gone are Gold Glovers Mike Matheny and Edgar Renteria, as well as rejuvenated leadoff man Tony Womack. In their place are rookie Yadier Molina, David Eckstein and Mark Grudzielanek. How they perform both offensively and defensively will largely tell the tale of the defending league champions.

"I think that the middle of our defense, which includes the catcher, second base, shortstop and center field, will be just as much a strong point, asset, as it was last year," said manager Tony La Russa.

"I'm really impressed with our catching. You know how good Mike was, you know what Edgar hit for us and how Tony sparked us, but I don't think we're gonna have a dropoff. And we're talking about a dropoff from a high level of competency here. I believe they're gonna play as well as that group did last year."

If that's the case, and if the bullpen returns as a major strength and the starting pitchers stay healthy, St. Louis will once again be one of the league's elite teams. Houston always provides a challenge for the Cards, so they'll start to get an idea of what they have from the beginning of the season.


Pitching matchup
STL: RHP Chris Carpenter
• 15-5, 3.46 ERA in 2004
• 0-1, 2.77 in 2004 vs. HOU
• 0-1, 2.77 lifetime vs. HOU

HOU: RHP Roy Oswalt
• 20-10, 3.49 ERA in 2004
• 2-0, 2.25 in 2004 vs. STL
• 4-2, 3.24 lifetime vs. STL

On television
• STL: KPLR TV-11
• HOU: KNWS TV-51

On radio
• STL: KMOX AM-1120
• HOU: KTRH AM-740, KLAT AM-1010 (Español)

Roof
The potential for thunderstorms means it could be closed.

On deck
• Wednesday: Cardinals at Astros, 4:05 p.m. CT
• Friday: Phillies at Cardinals, 3:15 p.m. CT
• Saturday: Phillies at Cardinals, 1:15 p.m. CT
• Sunday: Phillies at Cardinals, 1:15 p.m. CT

[CrazyEights]

I didn't realize Carpenter had a better ERA than Oswalt last season. This will be a tough game for the Cardinals to win though. Oswalt is one of the best.