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JUPITER, Fla — This was officially another “shellacking/clobbering”, wasn’t it Mike? We lost this one 5-17. Ouch!

“That’s ugly no matter wherever it is (losing two in a row like we have),” skipper Mike Matheny said. “The backyard with your kid, you don’t like to have games like that. I’d like to say you get them out of your system, but there’s nothing saying that they’re gone after you have a couple of them. To have two of them in a row like that is not acceptable, and these guys know that.”

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In Monday’s loss Shelby Miller started and allowed five hits and two earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four and threw 42 of his pitches for strikes. Not bad, Shelby! Third inning Miller allowed Cabrera’s first homer of the day (yeah he hit two) and was taken out. The Twins did their big damage on our bullpen.

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“We were really trying to get the ball off the plate and not give [Cabrera] anything to hit, and I just threw it right on the corner,” Miller said after the loss. “It wasn’t the pitch I wanted to throw right there, but it wasn’t necessarily a terrible miss. He’s obviously a good hitter and did what he did with it.”

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After that, the Tigers scored mucho (cardinals.com said the game “unraveled”). Yeah, five more – totaling seven in that third inning and eight more in the fourth. There were two more in the in the seventh. Mucho city!

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All the Tigers’ run support came behind a PDP (pretty darn good) pitcher, the 2013 AL Cy Young Award winner & St. Louis native, Max Scherzer. Growing up @ Parkway North, he said playing for the Cards were his dream. Scherzer pitched 4 2/3 innings in his longest start this spring. Our Cardinals only had two hits off Scherzer, singles from Gorgeous B (Bourjos) and Double D (Descalso). OMG! Scherzer threw 56 pitches, 37 for strikes. Big Ouch!

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Pretty Boy Pete (Kozma) got our Cards on the board with his RBI single in a four-run seventh that was capped by Stephen Piscotty’s three-run blast. Piscotty is MLB.com’s No. 7 prospect that wears the Birds on the Bat. Woo hoo!

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Pitching on three days’ rest, ace RHP Adam Wainwright will make his second start of the spring Tuesday against the PS Mets at 12:05 p.m. RHP Trevor Rosenthal is also scheduled to make his second relief appearance of the spring.

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And. . .we have things like. . . .Newguy Cuban Coo Aledmys Diaz to look forward to! I hear he can’t play in a game till his work visa comes through — details! 1) Diaz reported to camp on Monday – he can practice right? 2) Manager Mike talks about Big A 3) Mo tells you what he thinks.

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Yes Scarlett,”tomorrow is another day.”

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VIERA, Fla. — Everybody in baseball’s been talking about our top prospect, Oscar Taveras. Where was he? Why haven’t we seen him yet in Spring Training — we’ve sure been hearing about him. How’s the ankle?

Friday Taveras finally made his Spring Training debut. He looked good.

Saturday he alerted the club of some right hamstring tightness (he was DH in the game). So-o-o-o ankle’s good. Now…..it’s his hammy!

Sunday Manager Mike had Tavy bus with the team to Viera and only participate in pregame batting practice. MM kept him out of Sunday’s roster.

“He measured out strength-wise fine again, but it’s time to slow things down again unfortunately,” Matheny said. “We’re going to hold him back for a little while.”

Yes, we gots to be careful with those precious goods, don’t we Manager Mike? Before getting clearance to return to the field, MM now wants to see Taveras prove his health to the Cardinals again — yes another setback! He doubled in his first at-bat of the spring and Taveras has gone hitless in his five at-bats since. MM wonders why?

“Even the balls he was missing, he was just missing,” Matheny said. “He has that knack and that ability to find a good part of the bat on the ball. He’s rare in that regard. But we need to have him healthy to really see what he can do.” Things are complicated…again!  Taveras is MLB’s third-best prospect. Cardinal Nation still wonders when (okay not if) we will we see Oscar Taveras in STL (. Guess we gotta be patient, fans! I know I do. I, for one, am really ready to see what this guy can do!

3/11/14 – Reports today says he probably won’t be ready for Opening Day

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www.cardinals.com

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Viera, Fla. – RHP Bazooka Joe Joe Kelly started this contest in Jupiter that saw Peter Boujos (hamstring) return to action.

This one was all Nats from the get go.  It was a 1-1 tie score early on and then the Nats went to town — four in the third, three in the fourth, two in the six and another in the eighth that took it to 11-1.  Mike Shannon called it “a shellacking.” He also said “we got clobbered.”

Joe Joe had a rough start allowing five and it didn’t get any better as our Cards sent seven more pitchers to the mound. The Nats started their ace, Stephen Strasburgh, and he gave them three excellent innings. As you could tell, that trend continued.

A happy, sold out crowd for the home team.

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Oh well, we got our butts beat, but our Cards had other big baseball news that made quite a splash (get it – by the ocean, in Florida! lol).

We picked up Cuban shortstop, Aledmys Diaz. Diaz had almost ten MLB teams courting him, so it was quite a coo to sign him. Woo hoo! We must keep a good eye on him in the Minors! Hope to see you soon Big A!

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JUPITER, Fla. — RHP Michael Wacha! looked strong as he hurled three innings, allowing one run. Closer RHP Trevor Rosenthal made his spring debut & tossed a scoreless inning. We had eight hits and the tomahawk-chop loving Braves had six (can’t you just hear the crowd? not good but it gets the crowd going – click it out & close your eyes, if you dare!).

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JUPITER, Fla. –Spring debut of RHP Adam Wainwright. Waino did a fine job pitching two scoreless frames. RHP Lance Lynn did not fare as well, allowing five runs. Big Hitter (Adams) hit a long, long, long home run.

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