We're still a month away from Opening Day. These games are meaningful in that they give young players a chance to make a name for themselves, injured players the time to get back on the horse, veterans the chance to round into shape, and local sports personalities the opportunity to eat stone crab on the company dime and sleep on Phil Mackey's futon (unconfirmed). Attaching importance to these games is ill-advised at best. HOWEVER:
The offense scored two runs. Both runs scored on bases-loaded walks. They have not had an extra-base hit since Sunday.
The Cardinals scored their first run by running on Ben Revere's arm.
The game was tied until Matt Capps entered the game and immediately served up a home run to Rafael Furcal.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka got creamed while turning a double play. Per Joe C., he looks "more frazzled" this spring than last.
The winning run scored on a Bad News Bears-level s---show. Read LaVelle's description of the play here and here.
It's too early to freak out. It's not too early to be wary of a team that lost 99 games last year playing a lot of games like this playing another one.
Positives:
- By all accounts, Jason Marquis worked quickly and surrendered just one run in three innings.
- Glen Perkins, who can now afford a fancy new racquetball racquet, pitched a 1-2-3 inning in relief.
- Joe Benson came back from an 0-2 count to draw the walk that scored the first run.
- J.R. Towles did not play, so my man-crush on him rages unabated.
Enjoy your weekend, everybody. Saturday's game is on MLB.TV. Sunday's game is on FSN. Those are good things.