Middle Relievers Let Down Cardinals
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Suddenly, it's the St. Louis Cardinals questioning the quality of their middle relief in the NL championship series.
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Relying on his deceptive delivery and the overnight discovery of a split-changeup, Hideki Okajima has produced the lowest earned run average among qualifying major league relievers.
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Dodgers are on the verge of being swept again, and this time it&#39;s the bottom of the Cardinal order that does much of the damage.
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Poor relief pitching plagued the Yankees Friday, as the bullpen gave up three runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth.
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Another meltdown by the Cincinnati Reds' bullpen led to Jerry Narron's firing as manager. The Reds dumped their low-key manager a few hours after the St. Louis Cardinals rolled to an 11-7 victory Sunday behind Ryan Ludwick's two homers.
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A nightmarish performance from Yankees reliever Scott Proctor and another lackluster performance from the offense led to another loss and capped a three-game sweep for the Angels.
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This isn&#39;t good news for the Phillies, who thought they had beefed up their pitching staff, or for the Marlins, who felt their offense gave them an edge.
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Ninth-inning leads weren't safe in the National League, as some of baseball's best closers found out. New York's Billy Wagner, Arizona's Jose Valverde and Houston's Dan Wheeler blew saves Thursday, and Jonathan Broxton of the Dodgers coughed up a four-run lead in the ninth on a day of wild finishes.
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The back end of the Angels bullpen is a very nasty place, with not one but two menacing closers poised daily to sweep away anyone's hopes of snatching the bread away from the starters.
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Scott Rolen swung feebly at a ball that bounced in the dirt, missing for the final out. A few more losses and the St. Louis Cardinals might miss the playoffs, too.
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These aren&#39;t meaningful games the Mets are playing. But at least yesterday&#39;s 11-9 loss in 13 innings to the Phillies was entertaining.
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He had anticipated being at the starting line of tonight's fourth game of the American League Championship Series. Instead, Tim Wakefield found himself in the middle of a pitching meltdown last night, called upon to try and lend soothing relief in a sorry excuse for playoff baseball.
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Unlike their red-stockinged rivals, the Yankees weren't going to use their next scheduled starter -- Mike Mussina -- to relieve if things went bad early last night.
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The St. Louis Cardinals lost their game &#151; and hardly cared. They won the NL Central, which was much more important.
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The Mets squandered the lead again on Thursday, this time two leads, en route to their sixth defeat in their last seven games.
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Having accomplished so much with what generally was thought to be the NL Central's third-best roster entering the season, the St. Louis Cardinals were not satisfied with clinching their third division title in five years while sitting in their living rooms.
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Matt Morris left his fortunes in the hands of the bullpen after six innings, then watched four relievers finish the job with some flair.