The bulk of Major League Baseball hasn’t seemed all that bamboozled by Houston Astros right-hander Matt Albers. When not facing the Cardinals, Albers is 2-5 with a 6.29 earned-run average.
But when facing the Cardinals, Albers is 2-0 with an ERA of 0.63 in two starts, including a crippling 2-1 win over St. Louis on Thursday at Minute Maid Park. Like his first game against the Cardinals on June 5 — a 13-0 Houston win — Albers gave up only three hits in seven innings.
Albers falls into a line of less-than-storied starting pitchers who have beaten the Cardinals this season — Justin Germano, Kyle Lohse (twice), Rick VandenHurk (twice), Yusmeiro Petit, Joel Hanrahan and Micah Bowie.
Aaron Miles, 0-for-6 against the 24-year-old Albers in two games, had grudging praise. “You don’t look at him, especially with his ERA, as a guy who should shut us down like that,” Miles said. “He’s a big-league pitcher, and obviously his stuff was there today. He had a pretty good curveball and a pretty good idea how to use it.
“The guy had a good game. And our bats were pretty much quiet. Tip your cap to him, I guess. He had two good games against us. I hope we have a chance to play him again.”
All that energy the Cardinals had exerted in reaching the .500 mark Tuesday night for the first time in more than four months seems to have been wasted as the Cardinals again sank two games under at 64-66. But the players, seeing themselves still in contention, don’t seem that bent out of shape about not being at break-even.
Injured third baseman Scott Rolen said he preferred to look at the standings, which show the Cardinals three games out of first place behind the Cubs. “We just need to play better baseball than those other two teams (the Cubs and Milwaukee),” he said.