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ST. LOUIS -- On paper, the Oakland Athletics are the kind of team the St. Louis Cardinals should beat.At 55-72, Oakland is 19 1/2 games out of first place in the American League West and going nowhere fast.However, the games arent played on 8 1/2-by-11 sheets of paper, and the way St. Louis continues to struggle at Busch Stadium, the Athletics look like a threat to play a spoilers role in a three-game weekend series that starts Friday night at Busch Stadium.Fresh off an off day Thursday, Oakland arrived in town after drumming the American League Central-leader Indians two out of three at home, holding Cleveland to a single run in each game. The As also dumped the Baltimore Orioles, an AL East contender, three out of four games at home earlier this month.This has been kind of a theme for us this year, Oakland manager Bob Melvin said after his teams 5-1 win over Cleveland on Wednesday. Weve played well at times against good teams, then not so well against teams that arent as good. I cant figure us out.On the other hand, the Cardinals (67-59) are as easy to read as a rookie quarterbacks eyes. They are the majors best team on the road at 38-24, yet they cant consistently win at home, where their 10-6 loss to the New York Mets on Thursday night dropped them to 29-35.Two frequent bugaboos -- sketchy starting pitching and defense -- hampered them in the latest loss. Adam Wainwright didnt throw well but wasnt helped by a pair of key errors that led to five unearned runs.I wouldnt say thats the whole story, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said of his teams leaky defense. We had a guy throw a good game against us. And thats a lot of runs that youre giving up.The Cardinals are guilty of 88 errors this year, the fourth-highest total in the majors. They also havent made several plays that werent counted as errors yet still extended innings and led to runs.Even so, St. Louis remains 1 1/2 games ahead of the Miami Marlins for the National Leagues second wild-card spot. And with two more long road trips coming up down the stretch, the Cardinals can be excused for liking their chances at notching a sixth consecutive postseason berth.St. Louis will send rookie right-hander Luke Weaver to the mound for his third major league start Friday. The hard-throwing Weaver (0-1, 5.00 ERA) is coming off a 4-2 loss Saturday night in Philadelphia, which nicked him for nine hits and three runs over five innings.He will be facing the As for the first time.The Athletics counter with left-hander Ross Detwiler (1-2, 5.91 ERA overall). He will be making his fourth start with Oakland since he was acquired from the Indians for cash last month, and he is 1-2 with a 5.94 ERA for the As.A product of Wentzville, Mo., about 30 miles west of St. Louis, Detwiler is coming off a 6-2 loss Sunday at the Chicago White Sox, which racked him for 10 hits and six runs over four innings.In five career games (two starts) against the Cardinals, Detwiler is 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA. 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Kimi Raikkonen believes there was a lot more to come from his Ferrari after qualifying in sixth -- which becomes fourth with penalties -- for the Austrian Grand Prix.Gearbox penalties for Nico Rosberg and Raikkonens teammate Sebastian Vettel ahead of qualifying seemed to give the Finn a clear shot at the front row of the grid. However a rain-affected Q3 led to a chaotic finish and Raikkonen had to settle for the final spot on the second row behind McLarens Jenson Button.I think the car has been working really well all weekend, especially this morning and in qualifying but conditions changed in the last qualifying, Raikkonen said. In Q2 we had a very good feeling, we also went out with the super-soft tyres also, just to make sure we could easily go through to Q3. The feeling is good with the car, even in the wet it worked pretty well.In the end its disappointing to finish ibecause I felt there was a lot more to come, but for a lot of little issues, or a lot of little reasonss we didnt go faster.dddddddddddd We need to look at ourselves and that that place but its not too bad, as other guys are getting penalised so well see what we can do.Raikkonen admits the drying track made it difficult to extract the full potential of his car, though he says the penalties ahead mean the end result is not a disaster.?I feel I could have pushed a lot harder, but it was hard to know where the grip was or wasnt. The timing could always be better, if youre the last to start the last laseball Jerseys[/url] ' ' '