--Tuesday night's game with the Phillies will be the last one of this series and also the last time the World Series champions will be in St. Louis this season. The Cardinals will have three games in Philadelphia in July.
--When rookie LF Colby Rasmus homered on Saturday, it marked the second straight day that a Cardinals rookie had hit his first big-league home run. 3B Joe Thurston had homered on Friday for the first time in 124 at-bats. Rasmus, who needed 62 at-bats, was using a Brendan Ryan model for his first homer. Ryan is on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. --The Cardinals lost 31 games out of the bullpen and also blew 31 saves last season. Through 25 games this year, they had blown five saves and suffered five bullpen losses, but they also have recorded nine saves, and veteran RHP Ryan Franklin is seven for seven in save opportunities. "It's something I know I can do," said Franklin. "It's just a matter of if they thought I was the best fit for the role."
BY THE NUMBERS: 1 -- Number of extra-base hits (a double by SS Brendan Ryan) out of the 20 hits the Cardinals had in Atlanta, where they won two of three games.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "He was always the guy. These guys we're developing as closers... they weren't there yet." -- Manager Tony La Russa on his preference for veteran RHP Ryan Franklin as his closer rather emerging young RHPs Jason Motte and Chris Perez.
