Break It Down! April 7th Edition

The Pitchers:
- Cardinals: Last season Kyle Lohse anchored our rotation. People tend to forget that. Wainwright was great, but an injured finger limited his innings. Lohse, on the other hand, had 15 wins and 200+ innings. Some of his good work was against the Pirates. Lohse was 1 - 0 against the Pirates in 2 starts with a 2.57 ERA. Lohse also pitched better at home last season, and at night. All things considered, I'd bet you a sawbuck Lohse is going to have a quality start tonight. 7 innings, 2 or 3 runs allowed. As for the bullpen, Bernie has convinced me to not get all panicky about our closer, for now, but I would like a bigger lead anyway, just to be sure.
- Pirates: Ian Snell was 1 and 1 against the Cardinals last season in six starts, with a 7.20 ERA, with an average of 5 IP per start. I kind of love it when the Cardinals face this guy, but after Monday's game, I feel less confident that the Cardinals' bats are alive. Still, Snell's stats against the Cardinals in '08 tell me one thing: he's not going to shut us out. Right? *GULP*

The Lineups:
- Cardinals: Colby Rasmus will make his major league debut tonight and the ballpark should be all abuzz. Pujols (surprise!) and Molina have both had success against Snell, as has Shumaker who should get his first start of the season at second. Ludwick and Ankiel have been, for lack of a better word, shit against Snell (both are 1-for-11, .091 AVG), so I expect Duncan will get the start even though Snell isn't a lefty (.973 OPS against Snell).
- Pirates: No one on the Pirates has had a lot of success against Lohse, but I wouldn't be surprised if Craig Monroe got a start in light of his .966 OPS and 2 dingers in 22 ABs against Lohse, more than any other Pirate. Him aside, the Cardinals need to figure out how to keep Nyjer Morgan off base, and need to keep McLouth and the other bats from making too much noise.

UPDATE: Tonight's lineup:
1. 2B Skip Schumaker
2. RF Colby Rasmus
3. 1B Albert Pujols
4. LF Chris Duncan
5. SS Khalil Greene
6. CF Rick Ankiel
7. C Yadier Molina
8. 3B Joe Thurston
9. SP Kyle Lohse

Russ likes.

Well that's it in the way of analysis(?). Wish I were in St. Louis. GO CARDS!!