last two in St. Louis

Craig Biggio sat around and watched the Astros beat the Cardinals 6-3 last night, and he might take today's game off too. Brad Thompson is pitching for the Cardinals today, but he's never plunked Biggio, not has any other pitcher named Brad. Thompson has hit 11 batters this year, which leads all guys named Brad, but that only brings him to 20 in his career - 4th among Brads all time behind Radke (62), Penny (35) and Lidge (25). The entire list of guys named Brad ever to pitch in the Majors has only accumulated 251 hit-batters, which of course is 34 less plunks than Biggio has received.

Gabe White plunked Biggio on September 22, 1997 - 10 years ago today.

Todd Wellemeyer is pitching for the Cardinals tomorrow, and Biggio is planning to play in that one. He's never plunked Biggio, and only hit 3 batters this year and 7 in his career. Pitchers named Todd have only hit 238 batters ever, but at least they've plunked Biggio 3 times.

If Biggio wanted to do something he's never done before on September 23rd, he could get hit by a pitch. He's never had a sacrifice fly or a sacrifice bunt on September 23rd, or reached base on an error or on catchers interference, but I'd still vote for the getting hit by a pitch option.