I do, I do!


After last night's rather embarrassing 7-4 loss to the hated (albeit lovingly, of course) Cubbies -- maybe it's time for LaRussa to bench Stephenson again because he's really sucked the last two outings -- we redeemed ourselves in a classic display of Cardinal heart and Cubbie incompetence. Down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 8th, thanks to Kerry Wood's 11 strikeouts over seven innings, the Redbirds had Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen coming up against the Blue Bears' disaster of a bullpen. 4 runs and 5 -- count 'em -- 5 relief pitchers later, the Busch Stadium faithful are going nuts, and Izzy's walking in to shut down a 4-2 Cards win that puts us back in second and a half game out of first.

This was a crucial win. We have 8 more games against the Cubs, and another series against Houston before the end of the season, and with things as close as they are (the Cubs are only 1/2 a game behind us), dropping two straight to them in St. Louis would have been a serious momentum buster. The fact that we did rally -- and despite our big bats, did it with singles and baserunning instead of HRs -- was encouraging. A tight pennant race and a whole month of the regular season left ... I love it!