Cardinals

It looks like a happy new year for the Cardinals, thanks to an unlikely bit of work from general manager John Mozeliak and owner Bill DeWitt Jr. By signing Matt Holliday to a seven-year contract after previously securing the uncertain returns of manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan - even if for only the 2010 season - the Cardinals have joined the Mariners and perhaps the Yankees and Red Sox in...

Barring another setback, it appears the Cardinals will leave Florida confident in their Adam Wainwright -less rotation. Chris Carpenter has bounced back from his hamstring problems, Kyle Lohse is throwing very well and Kyle McClellan seems capable of making the move from the bullpen. The Cardinals look a lot like the 2010 Twins, who repeated as division champs after losing Joe Nathan to surgery. Write them off at your own risk. … Ivan Nova appears to have locked up a spot in the Yankees' rotation, leaving Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Sergio Mitre competing for the No. 5 spot.

Site: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz.Time: 4 p.m.TV/Radio: Chs. 45, 5/WLIF (101.9 FM)Line: Cardinals by 2.Last week: The Redskins lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 37-34, and the Cardinals lost to the New York Giants, 27-21; both in overtime.The series: The Redskins have a 62-38-2 lead in the series that dates to 1932 when the Redskins were in Boston and the Cardinals in Chicago. The Redskins won the first game this year, 27-7, but the Cardinals have won the last three at home and swept the series the last two years.

Unranked Calvert Hall (16-10) defeated visiting No. 2 Southwestern, 58-55, yesterday in a nonleague game. Brian Taylor led the Cardinals with 22 points and Tarvar Witherspoon added 13.The Sabers (13-4) missed a chance to tie the game with six seconds left when a three-point shot rolled out of the rim, and they didn't get off another shot.Donnie Joy led Southwestern with 16 points. Haywood Eaddy finished with four and missed the fourth quarter with an ankle injury."We've been playing well the last week or so, and we knew coming into this game that we had to play well," said Calvert Hall coach Mark Amatucci, whose team led by as many as 20 points.

The game Two big innings defined the Cardinals' victory. They scored four runs off Sidney Ponson in the second and six off reliever Kris Foster in the fifth. The Cardinals pounded out 20 hits. But at least the Orioles salvaged a tie in the B game, with neither team scoring. The arms Ponson went three innings, with all the damage off him coming in the second. He gave up six hits overall, walked one and struck out one. Chris Brock shut down the Cardinals in the fourth before they ambushed Foster, collecting seven hits and turning the game into a rout.

The game Larry Bigbie and Jose Leon hit back-to-back ninth-inning doubles off St. Louis Cardinals reliever Dave Veres, giving the Orioles a 2-1 victory and their 13th win in their past 15 exhibition games. Veres, who has been mentioned in trade rumors with the Orioles but is likely out of their price range, retired the first two hitters in the ninth inning before Bigbie doubled to left field. The arms Rodrigo Lopez, a strong candidate to make the Orioles' roster as a long reliever, started the game and held the Cardinals to one run in four innings.

The Orioles are reportedly involved in trade talks with the St. Louis involving Cardinals right-handed pitcher Kyle McClellan. According to a report from Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , the Cardinals are shopping McClellan in order to alleviate payroll costs so that St. Louis can sign free-agent veteran right-hander Roy Oswalt. McClellan will make $2.5 million this season in his second season of arbitration eligibility. Strauss reports that the Cardinals have reached out to several teams, but the Orioles “have emerged as one of the more promising trade partners for McClellan.” McClellan worked as a reliever for his first three years with the Cardinals, but began the 2011 season in the starting rotation, mainly because of an injury to Adam Wainwright.

As 11 American Roman Catholic cardinals join with their colleagues in Rome to elect the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, it is interesting to note that three cardinals who visited Baltimore during the last century were eventually elected pope. The first to visit Baltimore was Cardinal Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, who was then Papal secretary of state. The future Pope Pius XII paid what The Baltimore Sun called a "fleeting visit" on Oct. 21, 1936. "The occasion marked the first time a Papal Secretary of State ever has visited the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Prime See of the United States," reported the newspaper.