The Cardinals are coming off a very busy weekend to say the least.

After holding a lead in the National Central since day one of the season, the streaking Cincinnati Reds took over the top spot from the Cardinals. The two seesawed back and forth all week and are now deadlocked with each other atop the division to begin this week.

The Cardinals have a tough road ahead this week and next, though. After a much needed day off on Monday, they’ll head out west for three games against the NL West leading Padres, then to Chicago for three games against the Cubs, which are always tough games. After that, they’ll head back to St. Louis for a much awaited series against the Reds.

But they won’t be making the tough stretch any easier for themselves after what transpired this past weekend.

Brad Penny was the hero offensively in Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels with his grand slam, but it came at a cost. Penny injured his back on the hit and had to come out of the game, forcing the bullpen to throw six innings. Penny disclosed after the game that he had injured his back while pitching a side session in Cincinnati the week prior, but didn’t notify anyone, which more than annoyed manager Tony La Russa. He was placed on the 15-day DL, but insists that it’s a minor injury that won’t sideline him for long.

La Russa’s anger carried over in to the post-game press conference. It wasn’t immediately obvious as to why he was so upset, mainly because the Cardinals had just won. But a mixture of the Penny injury news and an apparent scuffle between he and Albert Pujols appear to have been the source of it.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Pujols and La Russa had a heated exchange in the dugout in the eighth inning of Friday’s game against the Angels.

The source of the dispute: With Pujols up to bat with a runner on second base, outfielder Ryan Ludwick was thrown out trying to steal third. Pujols returned to the dugout and knocked two trays of gum off a bench. La Russa reprimanded Pujols by saying, “That’s enough.” Pujols responded and, according to eyewitnesses, the exchange escalated with La Russa telling Pujols at one point, “I (expletive) know how to manage.”

Pujols didn’t deny that the incident happened, but played it down as a minor issue. La Russa insisted that it wasn’t a unique occurrence and said things like that happen in the heat of the moment.

Saturday came and it was Kyle Lohse’s turn to pitch. This start was possibly his most important start of the season. After earning his first win last Monday against the Washington Nationals, it was crucial for him to follow it up with a solid outing to keep to momentum going. He also needed to go deep in to the game to prevent the bullpen from being overworked. But he too was unable to go past the third inning and forced the bullpen to work overtime. Recently called up P.J. Walters came on to carry the load for much of the game from that point.

After the start, Lohse complained about a sore forearm that had bothered him before, so his status for his start on Saturday against the Cubs is still uncertain. MLB.com’s Matthew Leach reported that Lohse will most likely miss his next start.

Chris Carpenter went six innings on Sunday to give the Cardinals a much needed quality start. He didn’t get the win, but the Cardinals won in extra innings to propel themselves in to the west coast road trip.

With Penny unavailable this week, and possibly even Lohse, the pitching staff will see some changes. Adam Wainwright will get two starts, one against Jon Garland of San Diego and one against Ryan Dempster and the Cubs. Penny and Lohse’s spots remain open this week, but P.J. Walters is a candidate to start the third game in San Diego. Minor leaguers Lance Lynn and Adam Ottavino are also candidates to fill in for the other pitching vacancy.

Lynn is 3-2 with a 3.31 earned run average and 44 strike outs and Ottavino is 4-3 with a 4.17 ERA and 37 strike outs. Rich Hill, who was a candidate for the fifth starter spot in Spring Training, could also be considered. Hill is 3-2 with a 4.41 ERA and 33 strike outs.

The key to getting through this week, as always, will be quality starts from the pitchers. With an already depleted rotation, it’ll be essential for the Cardinals to keep the bullpen fresh during the tough division series’ against the Cubs and Reds.

Although it’s still fairly early, the next week to week and a half could play a huge part in the big picture of the NL Central Race.

I made my first appearance on the United Cardinal Blogger Radio Hour this week. Here it is:

I apologize for the long drought in between posts, but finals and getting settled back home will do that to you.

But thanks to $5 ticket promotion for this week’s games, I was able to get tickets to the two home games against the Nationals. I figured there was no better time to pick up the pace again on Redbird Report.

The lineup for Monday night’s game was a little different than normal, but that proved to be a good thing.

The first notable change was Felipe Lopez coming off the disabled list to replace the struggling Brendan Ryan at shortstop. Ryan is hitting just .162 with no home runs and only six runs batted in. Lopez has also been struggling and isn’t as strong defensively as Ryan, but La Russa was willing to take the offensive upgrade in Lopez to help provide some pop to a lineup that lost was swept by the Astros and lost two out of three and the division lead to the Reds.

The other change was the switch at the 3 and 4 spots. Albert Pujols batted cleanup for the first time since 2003 while Matt Holliday hit in the three hole, perhaps in an attempt to get more at-bats and have the protection of Ryan Ludwick in front of him and Pujols behind him.

The interesting thing about this move though is that La Russa said nearly a week ago that he couldn’t see a scenario in which Holliday and Pujols would flip-flop in the lineup. But since the Cardinals’ recent skid, La Russa couldn’t help but make the change.

“Matt is doing OK, but he’s a major-impact guy for us and we’ve really got to get him going where he he’s feeling more like himself,” La Russa told the media before Monday’s game. “Getting him in front of Albert should be a plus. Hitting him second, I didn’t like that too much. Albert actually said ‘Hey, I have no problem hitting fourth,’ which I use as an example. One of the things that separates Albert as a great superstar for me over the years is his team qualities. He said, ‘Hey let’s get Matt going. I’ll hit fourth.’”

The move didn’t necessarily help Holliday, though, as he went 0-3. But Pujols went 3-3 and was part of a four run first inning that proved to be all the Cardinals would need against starting pitcher Craig Stammen and the Nationals as they went on to win 6-2 and give Kyle Lohse his first win of the season.

La Russa said the lineup switch had nothing to do with Holliday’s struggles, even though it was in an effort to kick start his bat.

“Fans have a good time with it, but it’s who plays, not really where they hit,” he said. “There’s a little something to pick up an edge here and there but in the end, its who plays. The lineup wasn’t anything magical or special. Its who plays and how they executed.”

However, if this new lineup does in fact catch on and ignite Holliday’s bat, it could be a very dangerous thing for opposing pitchers. Pujols has limited experience at the fourth spot compared to his usual third, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had success. He’s a career .323 hitter with a .406 on-base percentage at the fourth spot, compared to a .335 average with a .431 OBP at the third spot.

In Holliday’s time at the third spot, he’s a career .325 hitter with 63 home runs, 230 runs batted in, and a .399 OBP.

“We need to be more productive,” La Russa said. “There’s things we can work on, there’s things we can improve, which we will work to improve. But there’s other things like this that maybe there’s a spark there for us. Getting Matt going would be a spark. Doing it gives us a chance to accomplish one of the major things, which is to spark our offense and get Matt in the game.