The fat lady, who had started to warm up, has sat down to have another helping of whatever she was eating. Or if my analogy is too dumb to comprehend – the season’s not over.
Happy Monday to you, and happy off day. It was quite a week last week for the St. Louis Cardinals. Winning back to back series was nice to see. It would have been nice to see more offense but that’s about my only complaint as the Cards went 6-1 to right the ship – for now at least.
When you think back to last Sunday evening when the Cardinals got swept by the NY Yankees things seemed pretty bleak. The 3-9 start was the Cardinals worst since 1988. The Cardinals got bashed around by the Bronx Bombers and in the eyes of some it seemed like “the season’s over”. I’m quite sure I read that on Twitter, Facebook, and my text messages (sent and received). What made things even worse, was the Pittsburgh Pirates were red hot after sweeping the World Champion Chicago Cubs in Chicago. It wasn’t like the Cardinals were coming home to face an easy opponent. What a difference a week makes! The Cardinals swept Pittsburgh, and then went on the road to take 3 of 4 from Milwaukee. With the Cardinals record now standing at 9-10. Imagine if Pittsburgh had kept up their winning ways and the Cards had only salvaged one game in Milwaukee. Their record could have been 4-15 – talk about a serious cause for panic.
The Cardinals beat the Pirates 3 times by the score of 2-1 each game. This sums up the 2017 Cardinals so far. They are getting just enough offense to go with their generally good pitching. If their pitching falters though – don’t expect the offense to bail them out. The Cardinals scored less than 4 runs a game (on average) this week and went 7-0. This is not a stat I expect to hold up as the season continues. If you’re a glass half empty person you don’t expect the Cardinals to win so many close games, you don’t expect the pitching to keep limiting the other team’s offense, and you think this team is still doomed because they only handled Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. If you’re a glass half full person you see the type of starting pitchers the Cardinals have and know they’re capable of stringing together good starts, you know some of the “big names” on the Cardinals offense will increase toward their “norm”, and you know beating up on division opponents is a key to the Cardinals success.
A few standout batters that made a 6-1 week possible:
Kolten Wong batted .333 with 5 runs scored, 4 extra base hits, 5 RBI, 3 BB, and raised his batting average 58 points over the long weekend in Milwaukee.
Randal Grichuk batted .333 with 6 runs scored, 4 2B, and raised his batting average 35 points over the long weekend in Milwaukee.
Jedd Gyorko batted .429 with 4 runs scored, 4 extra base hits, and raised his batting average 84 points over the long weekend in Milwaukee.
Adam Wainwright (pitcher) went 2 for 3 with a bomb and 4 RBI.
Mike Leake (pitcher) went just 1 for 4 but his one hit was a huge 2 run single which gave the Cardinals the lead for good on Sunday.
When Wong, Grichuk, & Gyorko are the offensive stars from a winning series you know things can become much better. Piscotty batted .127 over the last 7 games, Fowler had 2 big home runs which helped the Cardinals win Wednesday but hit just .150 in his other 20 at bats. Guys like Carpenter, Diaz, & Molina hit a combined .274 which might be around an average week, but none of them stood out (Molina did have a 3 hit game Saturday which helped). If I told you Mike Leake and Adam Wainwright would have more RBI in a week (6) than Adams, Carpenter, Jose Martinez, Grichuk, Piscotty, & Molina (5 combined RBI) and the Cardinals went 6-1, you’d want to know what I was taking.
A few prominent pitchers from the Cards 6-1 week:
Lance Lynn – 2 starts, 2 wins, 13 IP, just 1 earned run (0.69 ERA), while striking out 12 and walking just 3
Mike Leake – 2 starts, 2 wins, 12 ⅓ IP, just 3 earned runs (2.19 ERA), while striking out 7 and walking just 3
Michael Wacha – 1 start, 1 win, 6 ⅔ IP, just 1 earned run (1.35 ERA)
Adam Wainwright – 1 start, 1 win, just 5 IP (still hasn’t pitched more than 5
innings this year), 2 earned runs, 9 strikeouts and 0 walks
Matt Bowman – 4 games, 3 ⅓ IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 3K (continues to impress)
Brett Cecil – 3 games, 2 ⅔ IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 3K, 2BB (gave us all a few scares but is starting to give the Cards what they expected)
Seung-Hwan Oh – 5 games, 5 IP, 5 saves, 7 hits, just 1 run, 6K, 1BB (the opposition hit .318 against him and he pitched to a 1.60 WHIP – getting the job done but hanging on for dear life)
Trevor Rosenthal – 4 games, 4 IP, 1 save, 4 H, 1 R, 7 K – getting healthy and looking impressive
It’s rare to look at a list of pitchers who pitched well and not see the name Carlos Martinez. Martinez, who was so dominating on Opening Night hasn’t looked the same since. If you read social media his pitching, or lack thereof, is based on his hair – while I don’t think the “locks” have anything to do with his results – Carlos limiting his walks (10 in his last 2 starts) and home runs (2 in his last start) in his next start Wednesday will help. Carlos has 18 strikeouts in his last 10 ⅓ IP, but maybe like Nuke LaLoosh once learned – strikeouts are fascist.
In other pitcher news Jonathan Broxton is continuing to pitch like the worst arm in the Cardinals bullpen, oh wait, he is the worst arm in their bullpen. Just because a guy pitches in the mop up role doesn’t mean he has to give up runs.
So what does this all mean? It means nothing if the Cardinals go out and lose 4 of 6 this week to Toronto 5-13 (worst record in the A.L.), and Cincinnati 10-9 (losers of 4 out of 5). The Cardinals need to continue pitching like they’ve been pitching, while getting some of “big names” in the lineup to start producing. This week presents a great chance to get over .500 for the first time since the Cardinals started the season by winning their first game. I hope the Cardinals don’t overlook Toronto has they’ve won 3 of 5 and are trying to turn their season around. More importantly the Cardinals have to play better at Busch Stadium. After going 38-43 a year ago at home, the Cardinals are 5-4 this year, but need to stockpile wins at home, as going on the road is never easy.
