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The San Diego Padres have released struggling center fielder Jim Edmonds.

The 37-year-old former Cardinal was struggling at the plate, hitting just .174 for a Pads ballclub that's batting an aggregate .232 as a team and languishing in last place in the NL West.

Dude looked good in the Birds on the Bat, though.

And didn't he ramble!

-Tom Finkel

Yesterday afternoon, right about 3 p.m. St. Louis time, a tremendous explosion was heard in downtown Denver, Colorado. Local officials, fearing the worst, visions of a terrorist attack in their heads, responded to the apparent source of the sound, Coors Field. Upon reaching the stadium, they were shocked to find a smoking, dust-filled crater where the pitcher's mound had previously stood. On further inspection, they found a single Cardinal player at the bottom of the new depression, one Kyle Lohse.

That's right, folks. Yesterday we saw Kyle Lohse come crashing down to Earth.

He had been roughed up in his previous outing, against the Cubs, but it was brushed aside as one bad day, particularly since the Cardinals were able to maintain and emerge victorious. This time, though, not so much.

I had actually had plans of writing up a post-game article yesterday, but found myself without a single idea of anything I could actually write about. It was an ugly game, and there aren't really even any positives to take from it, except for the fact that Ryan Ludwick may, in fact, destroy us all with his insane powers.

So, I didn't write a post-gamer. Then, I turn on the television this morning, and I see that, apparently, no one else could find anything interesting either, because all of the coverage is of Albert Pujols getting pissed and mouthing off to Tony La Russa when Tony pulled him from the game.

I was listening to Kevin Wheeler on KMOX last night on the drive home and caught his conversation with first-year Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. After some chitchat about the team's early-season run of great play -- and great plays, like Pujols' Monday-night mad dash and Ankiel's phenomenal-cannon heroics on Tuesday -- Wheeler asked Mozeliak to comment on the latest news about Mark Mulder, the oft-injured lefty whose recovery from recent shoulder surgery took a detour yesterday after he was examined by team doctor George Paletta.

I wasn't recording or taking notes -- I was driving -- so I didn't get it down verbatim, but the gist of Mozeliak's response was this: The decision to sideline Mulder for at least a week owing to what was described as a mild strain of the rotator cuff was the right thing to do for the team and, Mozeliak stressed several times, for Mulder.

So far this year, we've seen the Cardinals win games in a lot of different ways. We've seen great starting performances carry the day, despite little offense. We've seen mediocre starting performances get bailed out by solid offensive contributions. We've even seen games in which the bullpen, coming into the game much earlier than you would hope, has held the opponent's offense down, while the Cards' bats creep slowly back into it.

On the other hand, we've really only seen one type of loss. It's a pretty recognizable -- and frustrating -- pattern.

Often when the Cardinals lose, it goes occurs like this:

Remember yesterday, when I said we may have seen the best play of our lifetimes? Well, it turns out I was wrong, and it only took one night for me to be proven so. Last night we saw not just one of the greatest throws I've ever witnessed, but two of them, both made by the same man.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Rick Ankiel. The Natural.

But more on that later. I come to you today with a much more pressing issue, one that I believe will prove to be the defining moment of our time. And how we deal with it will, in large part, determine how future generations view us and our legacy.

I speak, of course, of Dinger.

Oh, what ill-formed notion first spawned such an abomination? What impulse gave rise to this hideous affront to nature and man? The name itself calls forth images of crying children, dead batteries, war orphans and losing lottery tickets.

Dinger.

Who, you ask, is Dinger? Only the most foul, loathsome creation of the mascot world. Only the harbinger of black days for us all, a purple Star Wormwood hanging in the sky above Coors Field.

While the hometown heroes the St. Louis Cardinals opened their 162-game season weeks ago, last night a slightly lesser-known local squad took the field for the first time all year. And to Unreal, "local" means that the players sit in adjacent cubicles. That's right, yesterday was opening day for the RFT's slow-pitch softball team.

But while the Redbirds were able to dispatch the defending National League champs last night thanks to some heads-up hustle from their MVP slugger, the RFTers were not so fortunate, falling to U. City rec league titans BS Bar by a score that was tallied at "At least 16-0." The box score reveals the impressive magnitude of the defeat, as BS Bar led in such categories as home runs, hits, fielding percentage, total bases, and, perhaps most frustrating for the alt-weekly lineup fresh off a Cinco de Drinko bender, alcohol consumed. After watching the game, a representative from Chico's Bail Bonds immediately offered to sponsor the RFT squad.

The award for player of the game goes to staff writer/pitcher Chad Garrison, who, flush with confidence after conquering the St. Louis real estate market, struck out three while walking just one in four innings of work. While his ERA is inflated after allowing sixteen runs, including an emblematic home run on the first pitch of the season, the blogosphere is already touting his low WHIP and xFIP numbers as more telling of his abilities. If you're in a deep fantasy league, he could be a good waiver pickup.

Check back every Tuesday this summer to see if the RFT will be able to improve on its opening-day showing. Next week's goal: advancing a runner past first base.

-Unreal

We may have seen the single greatest play of any of our lifetimes last night. I don't know about all of you, but that's definitely the first time I've ever seen a run score from second base on a ground out to the second baseman. (See video here.) Also, I don't really expect to see it again. Ever.

But enough about that. We'll see plenty of that; every news station in town, and maybe even some of the national people, will be running the replay of that one ad nauseam for quite a while. Lost in all of the late-game running heroics by Albert the Great was the debut of a young right-hander for the Cardinals by the name of Mike Parisi.

Welcome to town, Mike. And while I'm at it, nice job last night. So where, exactly, did Mr. Parisi come from, and what should we fans expect from him?

On Friday, I said this was the series that would really start to give us an idea about exactly who and what the Cardinals really are this year.

So, what did we learn?

My picks for the 134th Kentucky Derby:

1. Pyro
2. Colonel John
3. Eight Belles

First off, here is a link to former Riverfront Times staff writer Mike Seely's picks for tomorrow afternoon's 134th running of the Kentucky Derby.

I haven't peeked at Seely's picks yet, because I have struggled to come up with my own. I am, however, certain that Seely did not pick the morning-line favorite, Big Brown.

I know this because Seely assiduously avoids playing favorites.

If you're in search for another reason to look elsewhere for a Derby play, I recommend this blog:

"Fran Jurga's 'HoofBlog': Up-to-the Minute News from Hoofcare & Lameness Journal"

Beyond that most excellent title, Fran Jurga offers a bottom-up perspective on Thoroughbred racing. And I do mean bottom up. Here's a link to Jurga's posts about Big Brown, posts that are informatively written and that feature photos like this one (after the jump):

Tonight, it begins.

The annual revival of the Cardinal-Cubs rivalry starts again tonight at Busch Stadium, right around seven o'clock.

What makes this particular series even more intriguing than the usual Cards-Cubs drama is the fact that this series will determine, for a day or two at least, first place in the National League Central.

Well, technically, the Brewers could always win a couple and get in there too, but it sort of ruins the epic quality of my analysis.

This is a very good Cubs team. I don't necessarily see them as a title contender; they're not the caliber of Arizona or the New York, at least not to my eyes. They are, however, probably the best team in the Central Division, at least on paper. Thankfully, that's not where the game is played, but there's still an awful lot to look out for with this year's Cubs team.

Sparks flew when three sports mavens with St. Louis connections got together the other night. Bob Costas convened a panel of experts on his show Costas Now to discuss "Internet Media" -- or, more specifically, this newfangled thang we call blogging.

One guest was Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards. I forget whether Edwards said anything at all during the segment; it was Costas' other guests, Deadspin.com blogger (and diehard Cardinals fan) Will Leitch and 3 Nights in August author Buzz Bissinger, who chewed up the airtime.

Lately, one of the hot topics around the various Internet message boards, talk radio and, I'm sure, the good old-fashioned water cooler, is Skip Schumaker.

More specifically, the fact that Schumaker played shortstop in school. Given the Cardinals' weakness in the middle infield, why not just move Skip on in there? Stick him at short or second base, and watch the offense just take off. Seems like a good idea, right?

Well, I'm here to rain on everybody's parade. There's very, very little chance (and by that I mean pretty much zero) that's ever going to happen.

SS won't be at SS.

Last night was Todd Wellemeyer's best start of the year. That's right, you heard me. Four runs, high pitch counts, getting knocked around all over the park. Best start of the year.

Let me explain. Up to this point in the season, Wellemeyer has had excellent command of his full arsenal of pitches. Each time he's taken the mound, we've all been impressed with how much better his control is this year than in the past. He's been able to spot his pitches for strikes, and he's had the movement and velocity to get plenty of swings and misses, even with just his fastball.

Last night, he didn't have any of that.

You know, the Cards-Cubs rivalry tends to get all of the press around these here parts, but I much prefer the rivalry with the Astros.

Over the weekend, we saw again a prime example of why this is one of the truly great, and truly underappreciated, rivalries in all of baseball. You put Houston and St. Louis on the field, and no matter what time of the year it is, no matter where the teams stand relative to each other and the division, you have Instant October. I suppose the rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals may very well get back to being a truly great one, if the little bears' success proves to be less fleeting than that of 2003, but for now, I'll take Cards-'Stros any day.