Let’s start with the best news of all: the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals today, 10-7. They’ve now won three of their last four and six of their last 10.

The game had a lot of good things happen, along with quite a bit of bad and ugly. Let’s take a look chronologically.

Top of the 1st — Bad

Really, this should have been listed as good … or great. Here’s a description of the play:

With runners on first and second, Eric Hosmer hit a line drive that St. Louis pitcher Joe Kelly snared near the ground and threw to first. After first baseman Allen Craig tossed the ball back to Kelly, the pitcher then threw to second for the apparent third out.

Home plate umpire Kerwin Danley did signal an out when Kelly caught Hosmer’s liner.

Triple play! The Cardinals went into the dugout. But not so fast …

Royals manager Ned Yost came out to argue. All four umps conferred, and did spend some time talking it over. And then they reversed the call. Which, of course, sent Mike Matheny out of the Cards dugout — and he argued and argued for a very long time. (Not that anyone — or at least any females — was complaining. Check out Laura’s photo above, and thank you, Laura!) Matheny eventually was ejected and the Cardinals headed back to the field.

Royals were at second and third with only one out. And Kelly maintained his composure, but gave up a run. That’s what happens when you have to get five outs in an inning.

Bottom of 1st — Good

After Carlos Beltran singled, Matt Holliday figuratively flipped off the umpires in launching a homer into to Big Mac Land to give the Cards a 2-1 lead. David Freese joined the hit parade with a double before Yadi, going with the high socks again today, also homered.

Nice way to pick up the rookie, guys.

Bottom of second — Good

More hitting off Bruce Chen! Tyler Greene led off with a single, then advanced to second on Kelly’s sacrifice. Beltran singled for the second time in two innings, this time driving in Greene. And Holliday doubled to score Beltran. So, if you’re keeping track, that would be two innings, two hits and three RBI for Matt Holliday.

Top of fifth — Bad

After allowing a fourth inning homer to Mike Moustakas to made the score 6-2, Joe Kelly just needed to get through this fifth inning and have the Cards hang on to get his first major league win. With one out, Tyler Greene made a nice stop on a grounder hit to him … but then made a bad throw and the runner was on his error. A single by Eric Hosmer was followed by a hit-by-pitch to Jeff Francoeur. Eek. Bases loaded.

And with Moustakas coming up again — and with him being two for two — that was it for Joe. In came Victor Marte, yet he couldn’t really stop Moustakas either. He drove in another Royals run on a ground out to make it 6-3.

Top of 6th — Bad

Lead-off walks usually come back to bite you, right? That’s exactly what happened to Sam Freeman when he walked Jarrod Dyson. After Dyson stole second, he scored the Royals fourth run on a single by Alex Gordon.

Top of the 7th — Ugly

So what does Freeman do to start the next inning? Walk Eric Hosmer. That was it for him, although Eduardo Sanchez didn’t do much better: he gave up a single to Jeff Francoeur, the only batter he faced.

A double switch brought in Daniel Descalso at second and Marc Rzepczynski to face Mike Moustakas. No surprise that Moustakas won that battle as he singled — and so did the next two batters. Three runs scored in the inning, giving the Royals a 7-6 lead.

Bottom of the 7th — Good

Remember what happens when you walk the guy leading off the inning? Daniel Descalso was walked, and he scored the tying run when — surprise — Matt Holliday singled. More good news: Rafael Furcal had a bunt single in between. Another walk, this time to Allen Craig, loaded the bases for David Freese.

Bad: he struck out.

Good: Yadi was next. He and his high socks came through yet again — a single up the middle to score Ralphie (as Al was calling him) Furcal and Holliday.

Top of 8th — Good

After the bullpen adventures the inning before, Mitchell Boggs (who actually got the third out in the seventh) had an uneventful inning.

Bottom of 8th — Good

Adron Chambers pinch-hit for Boggs and singled. (Pinch-hits are always good.) He scored when — does this sound familiar? — Matt Holliday doubled. Ten runs for the Cardinals, five RBI for Holliday and four for Yadi. Good day? Good day.

Top of 9th — Good

More than 3 1/2 hours after the game started on a 90+ degree day, Jason Motte closed out win No. 34 to earn save No. 14.

It was a game that definitely had a little bit of everything, that’s for sure. Next time, though, a little better umpiring would definitely help.

For the Royals side of things, check out Drinking the Royals Blue-Aid.


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.