We’ve seen this before from the St. Louis Cardinals, haven’t we?

The National League’s top offense shut down by a kid just back from Triple A who’d given up 35 runs in his last 10 major league starts.

The bullpen making another kid with 18 total games of major league experience continue to look like Babe Ruth.

Tyler Colvin doing what Tyler Colvin does against the Cardinals.

Yep. Last night’s 8-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies was something familiar.

Alex White and his 6.45 ERA shut down the Cardinals, retiring 10 in a row at one point. Hot Matt Holliday? He was 0 for three. David Freese and his 12-game hitting streak? Also 0 for three. The Cardinals only had five hits total, two by Jon Jay, and the Colorado bullpen allowed no hits. Zero. The Colorado bullpen.

Then there’s Josh Rutledge. He homered in his fourth straight game — third consecutive against the Cardinals, obivously — with a blast off Fernando Salas in the seventh. Not Salas’s night. He gave up three runs, two on that homer and the other of course on an RBI double by Tyler Colvin. Because Colvin is hitting approximately .856 against the Cardinals for his career. (Or something like that.)

The only plus about Colvin doing well is how much it ticks off Cub fans. How’s Ian Stewart?

Brian Fuentes gave up a homer as well, a two-run pinch-hit one in the eighth. But things seemed out of control before that anyway, honestly.

Barret Browning pitched a full inning, relieving Salas in the seventh and retiring two without incident. Then he gave up a double, then a ground-rule double, so even he couldn’t escape the bullpen’s awfulness last night. And, since I exhausted all my creativity in my poetic work yesterday, today’s poem for Barret: free verse.

Poem for the New Poet — Aug. 2

I was hoping for more on my birthday.
A Cardinals win at the very least.
Or maybe just scoreless pitching.
Life lesson learned: you don’t always get what you hope for.
Even on your birthday.

Even more cheerful news from the game was the injury situation. Yadier Molina didn’t play, after he sprained his thumb in Wednesday’s game. He’ll have X-rays today. Rafael Furcal sat out again with a sore back, although he’d been cleared by the medical staff to play. And Lance Berkman again aggravated his right knee, this time after hitting a ground ball in the ninth inning.

Oh, and of course the Reds won again.

The Cardinals are back at Busch Stadium tonight to begin a three-game series against the Brewers that’s also a commemoration of the 1982 World Series Championship. Tonight’s game features Joe Kelly, who wasn’t even born until 1988, taking on Randy Wolf, who was 6 years old in 1982. Game time is 7:15 p.m. on Fox Sports Midwest. And Dan McLaughlin will be back.


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.