Expectations — we all have them, especially when it comes to St. Louis Cardinals baseball. An Adam Wainwright start? A rematch of the two starters from April 13 (which was one mighty impressive performance by Waino)? Yovani Gallardo and his 1-11 record/6.86 career ERA against the Cards?

The expectation was that our first inning for the United Cardinal Bloggers progressive game blog was going to be very simple to write.

The Cards would come out slugging against Gallardo, because that’s what they do. The Brewers would go down one-two-three against Wainwright because that’s what they do.

Baseball. You never can predict it, damn it. (Except when it comes to the Cubs — but that’s for another day.)

Matt Carpenter and his 3-for-7-.429 batting average against Gallardo stepped in to lead off as FOX’s scouting report told us Yovani just needed to forget what team he was pitching against. And, for this inning, he did. Carpenter hit the third pitch directly to center fielder Carlos Gomez — so straight at him that Gomez didn’t even have to move.

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