NOTE: Five years ago was a much better time baseball-wise, wasn’t it? We weren’t subjected to daily gushings by the national sports media over THE CUBS!!!!! and so many of those friends and coworkers who now claim to be die-hard lifelong CUBS!!!!! fans were … well, just not paying attention to baseball, I guess. And Joe Maddon was the guy who managed the Rays. Oh, and the Cardinals were doing things like sweeping the CUBS!!!! — including two straight games, on June 4, 2011, and June 5, 2011, in Albert Pujols walk-off fashion. And Carlos Zambrano was getting mad about it. Plus Ryan Theriot — ahem, now Two-Time World Series Champion Ryan Theriot — was doing productive things as a Cardinal. Ah, those were the days … Enjoy this post from Miranda and relive the memories. To see the original post and its comments, click here. 

There is nothing better than a Cardinals win. But if there is anything better, it’s a Cardinals win over the Cubbies. The cherry on top is that Sunday’s Cardinals win over the Cubs meant that it was a SWEEP!

And how sweep it was!

The win Sunday came just as it did Saturday with a walk-off blast from Albert Pujols. Here is Sunday’s shot, if you haven’t seen it (or want to see it again).

It was Albert’s 13th homer of the season and his fourth in the past three days. The Mang enjoys playing the Cubbies, obviously! The blast Sunday was one of those in which you and he just knew it was gone once the ball left the bat and his grin and run in to the home plate area only to be mobbed by his teammates left you with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the REAL Albert Pujols is back!

Another good thing about Sunday? Ryan Theriot hit an RBI-double in the bottom of the ninth, to tie the game up.

You know what this means right?

RYAN THERIOT HAS A 19-GAME HITTING STREAK!!!!! How awesome is that!? I say, so awesome!

Lance Berkman sat out Sunday’s game after receiving a cortisone shot after Saturday’s game. Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch, discusses this and other odds and ends, including why Colby Rasmus wasn’t starting Sunday, right here.

The only really disappointing aspect of this game was Chris Carpenter not getting the win. Carp pitched nine innings, gave up seven hits, two earned runs and struck out six. Fernando Salas got his third win of the season pitching the tenth inning, where he struck out one. Check out Post-Dispatcher Jeremy Rutherford’s piece on Carp. He pitched well and deserved better! But, the Cardinals offense was facing Carlos Zambrano. And Big Z is always tough against the Cards. Thankfully, Carp is taking this rough start to the season in stride and was happy to see the team win Sunday.

He doesn’t play the blame game.

Want to know what I mean by blame game?

Check out this story from the Chicago Tribune. Zambrano ripped Carlos Marmol and other teammates after Sunday’s loss. While Zambrano has some legitimate beefs in his comments, it is interesting to see the reaction to Big Z. Even Cubs Manager Mike Quade said Z’s teammates could “deal with” what he said.

What? Aren’t you the manager … aren’t you supposed to manage the team? Prevent this sort of shenanigans?

Check out this column from the Chicago Tribune’s David Haugh saying it’s time for the Cubs and Zambrano to part ways.

The Cardinals get a day of rest Monday as they head to Houston to play the Astros Tuesday night. Maybe Albert will hit a home run off the Crawford Boxes. Remember this one?