At some point, Kyle Lohse was going to have a bad game. He did last night, and it led to the Cardinals losing to the Marlins 6-5.

His night didn’t start out that way, as he pitched extremely well for two innings — throwing only 17 pitches, with 15 of them strikes, and extending his scoreless-innings streak to 22. He even had a two-run lead, as Lance Berkman and Yadi had back-to-back RBI singles in the first. Then came the third inning.

Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad singled, then Lohse uncharacteristically walked both Chris Coghlan and Hanley Ramirez. In came Gaby Sanchez, and out went the ball thrown by Lohse. Ouch. The next batter, Mike Stanton, then singled and the ball hit Lohse in the shin. Double ouch. K-Lo stayed in the game.

(As an aside, has anyone else noticed that it says “K-Lo” on his glove? Not being a fan of nicknames like that, it seems kind of silly.)

But, never fear — LB to the rescue! In the bottom of the third, with Colby Rasmus and Matt Holliday on base, LB did what he does: launched a homer into the Cards bullpen to put the Cards back on top 5-4. He was just named National League Player of the Week for the second time yesterday afternoon, then just goes out and drives in four of the Cards five runs. Seriously, have we ever mentioned how much we love this guy? Yet today, anyway?

(Some day, he will do enough to get stubborn Ann to join the LB Fan Club.)

Since LB is so good at what he does, we’ll let him talk about the rest of the game too:

“This was one of those games where you just kind of look at it and say they beat us and try to come back tomorrow and win,” right fielder Lance Berkman said. “I don’t think there’s too much analysis that needs to take place. There wasn’t necessarily a turning point. They swung the bats pretty well and so did we, and they just got one more run than we did.”

OK, then. That one run, by the way, came on a sac fly by Greg Dobbs in the eighth after Stanton led off with a Colby-aided triple — he dove for the ball, missed and it rolled to the wall.

And it must be mentioned that, with one out in the top of the ninth, The Poet Miguel Batista entered the game.

Poem for The Poet — May 2
The crowd is quiet, the crowd is small,
Making me wonder if anyone cares at all.

A hit gets past Descalso, and Ryan Theriot too,
When kids start chanting “Let’s go Cardinals,” apparently just for you.

You return the favor by throwing a wild pitch into the dirt.
Yet Hanley Ramirez grounds to Theriot, so no crisis to avert.

Al talks on the TV about how you’re a poet.
It really took until this game for him to know it?

Now there are two on with Mike Stanton at the plate.
While on TV, he’s named player of the game for this date.

But you strike him out and end the threat.
And end the inning too — that felt good, I’ll bet.

One final note from the game worth mentioning: Ryan Theriot had an error in the first inning (and this time, it didn’t cost the Cards anything). After the play, though, Dan McLaughlin mentioned that when the Cards make an error in a game, their record this season is 3-10 (now 3-11). When they are error-free, they are 13-2.

Also, one plus for Theriot: I did notice that, after the error, he had a lot of grounders his way and did a good job with everything else. And he was busy: one put-out and seven assists.

The Cards attempt to get back on the winning track tonight, with Kyle McClellan taking on Anibal Sanchez. Game time is 7:15 p.m.

Do you live in the St. Louis area (or can you get there for a game)? Do you want free tickets to the Philles-Cards game two weeks from tonight? Find out more here.


Christine Coleman is the senior St. Louis Cardinals reporter for Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @CColeman802, or email aaronmilesfastball@gmail.com. Also follow @AMilesFastball for the latest updates.