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The Cardinals out-slugged the Pirates in the rubber match of their final series before the All Star break. The win gave St. Louis the series win, as well, in a three-game set that saw the teams combine for 46 runs. Pitching wasn’t a strong suit for either team.

Joel Pineiro was roughed up for the Cardinals yesterday, but his offense bailed him out. Not so lucky for Pittsburgh was Ian Snell, who was great until the 4-run fourth inning.

Xavier Nady and Jason Bay both continued to hit well, keeping their trade-deadline value up. Perhaps they were auditioning for their future team, as Bay has started being linked with the Cardinals in trade rumors. The Pirates better hope that’s not another Aramis Ramirez situation, should it happen.

St. Louis picked up a game on the losing Cubs to finish the traditional first half of the season 4.5 games back. Pittsburgh stumbles into the break in 5th place, but only a half game ahead of the last-place Astros.

Boxscore

Brandon Backe started for the Astros and shut out the Nationals yesterday, going 7 innings and allowing no runs and only 5 hits.

Oh yes, he also went 2 for 3, scoring 2 runs, to raise his average to .345. That’s second best for Houston, just behind Lance Berkman at .347, in case you were wondering.

Houston enters the All Star break sitting in last place in the Central. They have won two in a row, but with a banged up Roy Oswalt, the team is definitely in need of a few days off. Besides, those two wins were against Washington. If Cincinnati has shown the MLB anything, it’s that the Nationals suck.

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The Reds released their pent-up frustration at being mismanaged and being destroyed by the Cubs during the first two games of the series, exploding for 7 home runs and 12 runs.

It was a great offensive showing from Cincinnati, reminding me of years past when the offense was second to none. Back then, the team was limited by its pitching and front office more than anything. Now it’s limited by hitting and its front office. How things have changed.

The homer brigade members yesterday included Edwin Encarnacion, Brandon Phillips, Ken Griffey Jr., David Ross (who hit 2), Adam Dunn, and Joey Votto.

As for the pitching, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley. Ted Lilly sucked for the Cubs, which seems to be the case more often than not this year. Lilly never made it out of the third. Bronson Arroyo wasn’t much better, but he lasted 5 innings and had all the homers, so he got the win.

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Aaron “Lemon” Harang had another crappy start for the Reds, allowing 6 runs in 4 1/3 innings. More telling than anything, though, was his 7 walks. Ouch. He has had mainly bad outings since his relief work in the extra innings game on May 25. Perhaps a start off is in order.

The Cubs, bouyed by the announcement of the Rich Harden trade, dropped 7 runs on the Reds to cakewalk to a victory.

The loss dropped the Reds into a tie for first place of the second half of the division with the Pirates. If only that placing garnered a playoff spot.

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Ryan Dempster hasn’t won a game on the road for all of 2008. With a start where he pitched 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs, you might think he would have broken that string. Especially if you knew that the Cubs scored 6.

Alas, Carlos Marmol swooped in for the vulture win. Marmol has struggled lately, so putting him in the game in the 7th with the Cubs sporting a spiffy new 3 run lead might have seemed like a good time for him to work some things out. But it wasn’t.

Mike Fontenot gave Marmol the vulture win with his go-ahead homer, leaving Dempster to stew in the dugout, happy that the team won but wishing, just wishing, that he could finally win on the road.