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Recently in Chicago Cubs CategoryHappy FlightPosted on September 26, 2011 at 6:29 AM
I probably should give up on the whole making proclamations thing. Every time I go to write the Cardinals off, they (and the Braves) give us a new reason to believe.Let's talk about Saturday's wild game first. Watching that ninth inning, it reminded me of something I said at Social Media Night last month, when the players were answering who had the most underrated pitch. Daniel Descalso answered with Carlos Marmol's slider, because "you never know exactly where it's going." I responded under my breath that neither does he, and that was borne out. Winning a game because the closer walked three guys with two out, forcing in a run, then letting the winning run score on a wild pitch? That starts to look a bit like destiny, doesn't it? The Hero of that game, as much as Matt Holliday's single was big and Ryan Theriot had a great eye to tie up the game, had to be Kyle Lohse. Lohse allowed a first-inning run, but that was it, going seven innings and striking out eight. In his four September starts, Lohse is 2-0 with a 1.37 ERA, meaning the fact that he will start the tiebreaker game if one is necessary doesn't scare Cardinal fans at all. You have to give the bullpen some credit too. Just two days after the biggest meltdown in years, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski, and Jason Motte combined for two hitless innings with three strikeouts. It's a good thing the pitching was so solid, because the offense sure wasn't going to keep them in the ballgame. A grand total of five hits, so Rafael Furcal gets the Goat for going 0-4 in the leadoff role. It's a good thing Albert Pujols pushed his batting average so far over .300, because after Saturday and Sunday, he needed all that he could get. Sunday's game again was an offensive struggle, as Randy Wells kept the Cardinals mainly in check. When your only run before the seventh comes on a sacrifice fly by the pitcher, it's not a hot day for the bats. However, if Rafael Furcal got to be the Goat on Saturday, there's no doubt he was a Hero on Sunday. His eighth-inning blast ignited the crowd, tightened up a Braves team that had already lost, and after Motte slammed the door hard on the Cubbies, put St. Louis one game behind the Braves with three games left to play. When John Mozeliak made the deal for Furcal, I don't think anyone expected six home runs out of him in the short time he was in St. Louis. (No one expected 10 errors, either, but that's a discussion we've already had.) If the Cardinals do go on to the postseason, that jolt will be one that is remembered for a long time to come. Of course, you don't get to that moment without Yadier Molina hitting his own home run in the seventh or Edwin Jackson continuing to dodge trouble through seven innings. Jackson continued to get fly ball after fly ball that continued to get deeper and deeper, but they stayed in the park and were usually caught, so he only gave up two runs over seven. The same bullpen guys from Saturday were used Sunday with the same results and the Cardinals were staying alive. Sadly, in what could have been his last home game in the Cardinal whites, Albert Pujols probably gets the Goat. His 0-4 dropped his average to right at .300 and he hit into another double play, though granted it was a ball that looked like a hit and Furcal got doubled off of second. Still, that wasn't want the fans were hoping for, but it didn't matter. They gave him standing ovations every time he came to the plate, encouraging him to stay in St. Louis. I'll write a post soon about why I think he will keep wearing the birds on the bat, if only so I can refer to it and not continue to outline it all winter long. So the Cards had a "happy flight", as their terminology has evolved this year, down to Houston after the game. The team was wearing Hawaiian shirts and staying pretty loose. Still, while many fans are excited about the Cards playing the worst team in baseball while the Braves are playing the best, there are reasons to be guarded. First off, though the Cardinals are doing better this month against teams that are sub-.500, they've struggled with them in the past. Couple that with Houston playing better ball recently and it's a trap series waiting to happen. The pitching matchups are as definitively in St. Louis's favor, either. The Cardinals face Wandy Rodriguez tonight, who has been a Cardinal killer in the past. If the good Jaime Garcia shows up, the Cards probably can hang in there, but it's a battle. Then, Tuesday night it's Jake Westbrook, who has been very frustrating down the stretch, against Henry Sosa, who is an unknown that could bedevil the Cards. If you get to Wednesday needing a win, though, you've got Chris Carpenter vs. Brett Myers, which does seem to tip in the Cardinals' direction. Secondly, while Philadelphia is not going to lay down for the Braves and they are obviously going to try to win this series, it's not going to hurt their feelings if they lose. They aren't going to send Cliff Lee out there for a complete game and they may try a couple of relievers in later innings as they try to decide on their postseason roster. Plus, if they lose the series and the Braves get in, Philadelphia starts off with either Milwaukee or Arizona. If they win the series and the Cardinals make it to the postseason, the Phillies host the only team that's beaten them in a season series this year and a team that just took three of four from them a couple of weeks ago. Who would you rather face? Just for reference, the pitching matchups in that series are Lee vs. Randall Delgado, Roy Oswalt vs. Derek Lowe, and Cole Hamels vs. Tim Hudson. If the Philadelphia offense can get going, the Phillies should be able to take that series and a sweep is even possible. While the Cards would rather be one up with three to play, they are in a solid position and the fact that the tiebreaker game is at Busch also helps them quite a bit. It's been a long time since the last series of the year meant much of anything to the Cards (2006, I'd say, and I don't know when before that) and it'll be fun to see how it comes out. Jaime Garcia, as noted, throws tonight in Houston. Here's what he's done against the 'Stros:
Wandy Rodriguez's numbers against the Cardinals:
The team that averaged over six runs a game against the Mets only scored a total of six runs against the Cubs, but they won both series. Hopefully the former team will show up the next three days. If nothing else, there's still meaningful baseball!  Filed Under: Atlanta Braves
| Chicago Cubs
| Heroes and Goats
| Houston Astros
| St. Louis Cardinals
Comments (2)
Requiem For A SeasonPosted on September 24, 2011 at 9:18 AM
If the Cards were going to lose, it almost seems fitting that they put all of the tropes of this season into one package.You want a good starting performance backed up by a sputtering offense? Chris Carpenter went out and threw seven one-run innings, but left the game unable to get a win. Carpenter again proved that, when it's a big game, you want him on the mound, but the offense just gave him no support, especially against a guy they had hit well in the past. Getting the Hero tag won't make up for anything, but it's the best I can do. What about iffy defense? There was an error by David Freese, though it didn't turn out to hurt the Cardinals in this case. Need double plays? The Cards hit into three of them, most notably a bases-loaded, one-out version by Ryan Theriot that ended a threat in the sixth after the Cubs had come back to tie it. Most crushing, though, was for the second straight night, the bullpen issues reared their heads again. Our Goat, Kyle McClellan, allowed a leadoff triple in the eighth and, after an intentional walk, grooved a strike to Alfonso Soriano to put a lot of nails in the coffin of the Cardinals' season. Since McClellan moved into the bullpen, he only has one blown save and last night's game was his first loss, but he's not been the shutdown guy we saw last year. A 4.50 ERA and having opponents slug almost .500 against you will do that. The question of what to do with McClellan might come up this offseason, as there's no room to move him into the rotation again. Really the only bright spot out of last night's game besides Carpenter was Yadier Molina getting three hits. Otherwise, it was a game that should have been familiar to Cardinal fans, though not one we've seen much of in the last few weeks. So now the Cardinals, courtesy of the Braves getting to Stephen Strasburg and beating the Nationals, find themselves three games behind in the wild card standings. If the Cards go 5-0, the Braves can go 2-3 and still tie for the wild card. The odds are not at all in St. Louis's favor here. Can it be done? Sure it can. But it seems like that blown save from Thursday may reverberate throughout the whole offseason. So any chance the Redbirds may have could rest on Kyle Lohse. Lohse goes today and has had some trouble with the Cubs in the past. (It seems he always pitches--and loses--to them on UCB Progressive Game Blog Day.) Here are his numbers:
He's opposed by Rodrigo Lopez. Lopez gave up five runs to St. Louis in 5.1 innings last time he faced them, so perhaps the offense can get on track. If nothing else, maybe Albert Pujols can get to his 100 RBI mark and we can keep vigil on his batting average these last few days. The numbers:
Afternoon start, while Atlanta is going at the same time and sending Brandon Beachy against Chein-Ming Wang for the Nationals. We'll see how we're feeling come early evening!  Hello, String? It's the Cardinals. Let's Play.Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:48 AM
You know, as Bill and I talked about last night on Gateway To Baseball Heaven, even if the Cards had a good month, say 19-6 in their last 25, they'd still be three games behind the Brewers. What Milwaukee is doing is amazing and will be part of the lore for their fans for many years to come, especially if they wind up doing damage in the postseason. So let there be no mistake, Milwaukee won this division.That said, the Cards didn't have a good month. They are 10-9 in August and over their last 25 games, they are 13-12. So you can easily see why they (along with the rest of the division, which didn't play much better) got buried so quickly. This road trip was a symbol of that and of the frustration that this team can cause. Already hanging on the fringes of the race due to their middling play and Milwaukee's run, a successful team would have gone through these two opponents, a Pittsburgh team that's come back to earth and a Chicago team that hasn't done anything all year (but has played better recently) and at least done some damage. I said I thought they needed to go 5-1 in that stretch and a contending team could have easily done that. Instead, they dropped the first two games to Pittsburgh and won the last, then did the same thing in Wrigley Field (which means it was doubly aggravating). We're five and a half weeks from October and while Milwaukee's magic number is not yet in the single digits, it really looks like the Cards are playing out the string. Let's take a quick look at Saturday's game. It can be quick because the Cards put up absolutely no offense in the game. Five hits, two from Jon Jay and two from Skip Schumaker, is all the team could muster against Matt Garza. (We'll give Skip the Hero because he had one less at bat, though it's good to see Jay hit that well.) Edwin Jackson pitched a very solid game, allowing only the three runs in seven innings and two of those came on a home run by noted Cardinal killer Aramis Ramirez. If he pitches that well every time out, he'll win a number of games. On the downside, well, you could pick any number of batters who went 0 for the day. I guess we'll go and give it to Allen Craig, because with Jay getting two hits ahead of him, a hit here or there might have at least helped break the seal on the scoring and who knows how that could have affected the rest of the game. As for last night's game, as Bill said on the show, it just shows how frustrating this team can be because we see what they can do when all the pieces click. The power was there--Hero Yadier Molina capped a big weekend for himself by hitting two homers, Albert Pujols hit one among his four hits and Jay also got one--plus the pitching showed up as well. Jake Westbrook wasn't dominant, allowing nine runners in seven innings, but he was effective, allowing only two runs. That'll do most nights and it was nice to see that as well. (BTW, we'll go with Schumaker as the Goat this time out since he went 0-4 in the leadoff role, even though he did drive in a run.) For the most part, this turn through the rotation was very nice for the starting pitchers, even if they didn't get the results they wanted. Seeing some good pitching down the stretch would perhaps ease the sting of a season that didn't quite turn out the way we drew it up back in spring training. As we saw the good and the bad from Schumaker this weekend, it's interesting to note the article that came out talking about his contract status. Will the Cardinals offer him arbitration or non-tender him? It seems impossible to think that Schumaker won't be back on this team next year, but what if Tony La Russa decides to hang them up? Would a new manager want Skip on the team? Can the Cardinals afford what his market rate might be? It's obviously not the biggest issue facing the Cards this offseason, but one I hadn't really thought much about. With all the shuffling that could happen this winter, Skip might be somewhere else in 2012. Rafael Furcal sprained his thumb this weekend, tripping over some rope before the game on Saturday. Because that's exactly what the team needed, another injury. It's unknown if he'll be able to play in this series against his most recent former team that starts tonight. It doesn't sound like it is serious, though since Ryan Theriot has also aggravated his hamstring, Daniel Descalso might get a little extra playing time in the next couple of days. Cards and Dodgers tonight at Busch. Chris Carpenter goes for the Cardinals, which is always a good thing. Here are the numbers:
The Dodgers send rookie Nathan Eovaldi to the hill tonight. I like to think that I've at least heard the name of a lot of the current major leaguers, but I'd never heard this one. Looks like he's making his fourth career start, which bodes ill for a Cardinal team that tends to not like seeing unfamiliar pitchers. Obviously (and ominously), no one on the Cardinals has faced him before. Episode 2 of Conversations With C70 went up this weekend. If you've not seen that in your iTunes subscription (and if you are using iTunes, please consider submitting a review!) you can find it online as well. My thanks to Dathan Brooks for sitting in the hot seat!  Filed Under: Chicago Cubs
| Heroes and Goats
| Los Angeles Dodgers
| St. Louis Cardinals
Comments (3)
Why Do We Bother?Posted on August 20, 2011 at 9:19 AM
We get excited (at least mildly) when the Cards win two of three against a Rockies team and look forward to the upcoming road trip, only to see them drop three of the first four.We get excited (at least mildly) about a solid win in Pittsburgh and an off-day gain of 1/2 game on the Brewers, only to see the Cards come out and give away a win against their long-time rivals. We get excited (at least mildly) to see the offense put up four runs, including two big homers, in the first couple of innings, only to see them pack the bats away for the rest of the game. Not only did they not score, but they only got one hit the rest of the way, and that was lost on a botched hit and run. We get excited (at least mildly) about an Albert Pujols tear and start to think that he's going to hit that .300 plateau that we all want to see him hit, only to see him go 3-15 in a Pittsburgh park that he usually dominates and 0-2 in the first game at Wrigley. We get excited (more than mildly, I think, in the context of the game) about Jason Motte coming out of the bullpen and bailing Jaime Garcia out by getting a strikeout and a ground ball and keeping the score at 4-3, only to see the rest of the bullpen allow the game to be tied and then lost. We get excited (really mildly) about seeing if a different LOOGY will make a difference, only to see Arthur Rhodes do what Trever Miller and Brian Tallet often did before him, being unable to get out the one left-handed batter that he's come in to face. We get excited (at least mildly) to see Kyle McClellan move back into the bullpen and shore that weak spot up, only to see him allow his inherited runner to score and tie up the ballgame. (To be fair, I thought when I started the comment that McClellan had been weaker in the pen than the numbers seem to bear out. Batters do have an .815 OPS against him in relief, though that may be skewed one way or another by that rain-delayed Cincinnati game that he "relieved" in the first inning.) We get excited (at least mildly) about Octavio Dotel's performance since becoming a Redbird, only to see him come out and see him lose the game for the team by allowing two hits in the tenth. To be fair, though, Dotel's been pretty strong since he was acquired. He had the game in Milwaukee that he lost, of course, and this one, but other than that he's pretty much put up scoreless outings. You can't forget his great performance against Colorado when you start thinking about running him down. Anyway, Hero goes to Garcia because, if it wasn't for two outfield misplays that led to back-to-back triples, he probably wins that game by only allowing two runs. Motte's performance saved him from having both of those misplays bite the Cards. Goat goes to McClellan for giving up the lead before even getting an out. The question now isn't whether the Cards will win the division. That question's been answered, barring some sort of miraculous turnaround that would come out of nowhere. The question is, will the Cards be able to hang on to second place? Right now they are closer to the Pirates in fourth than they are the Brewers in first. They've got a nice five game lead on the Reds, but that's something to keep an eye on. I know that many people would say "second or last, no playoffs, no difference" but I disagree. I want to see the Cards do as well as possible, even though I wonder if the team did sink in the standings, whether some more radical changes would be made this offseason. I really don't figure that'd play into it, so let's see them as high in the standings as possible. Interesting article about this year's team MVP in the Post-Dispatch today. Lance Berkman is saying that he's gotten to the point in his career where he just wants to play for a contender and is happy with a one-year deal, and if contenders don't call he'll retire. He says he's loved St. Louis and would love to return, but realizes that there are a lot of things going on this offseason. For his part, John Mozeliak says that he plans to engage Berkman and his agent in talks before October. Could we see Berkman return? Most of us have pretty much ruled him out of the 2012 Cardinal discussion, figuring that he's played well enough to earn a big money multi-year deal somewhere. However, if all he says is true--and Berkman's comes across as the type that really means it--I could see the Cards bringing him back on a similar deal to what he got this year even if Albert Pujols returns. I hope they are able to--Berkman's been a joy to watch this year and has quickly become a favorite in St. Louis. Some other general links for you: --The Cardinals are assisting with a local group that helps veterans with some dementia problems. That's an incredibly wonderful way to use baseball, it would seem to me. The Cards have allowed the members to tour the stadium and see memorabilia from the past, hoping to help provoke past memories. That's the wonderful thing about baseball, how much the present ties in with the past. Kudos to the organization for doing something like this. --I've linked to articles by Chris Jaffe before and they are always quite enjoyable. This time, Chris has written about the 60th anniversary of Eddie Gaedel's famous walk. You'll also get to see what happened on August 19th in other years, including a strong game by former Cardinal Jim Edmonds. --You've seen reviews from Stadium Journey (or at least the links) in this space before. This time, instead of the minor league ones that we've seen before, they have a new review of Busch Stadium up. Head on over and check it out. --If you've not seen, the podcast is on iTunes now. If you still want to listen on line, bookmark cardinal70.podomatic.com. I recorded an interview with Dathan of Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Goodnight on Thursday and I hope to get everything edited this weekend and get it up. Cards have another afternoon game today before playing for the third week out of four on Sunday Night Baseball. Edwin Jackson, who until recently was pitching on the other side of the Second City, takes the ball. Here's what the little bears have done against him:
Matt Garza is on the other side. What the Cards have done against him:
All we can hope for the rest of the way is good baseball. Let go of the frustrations (easier said than done) and realize that there's only five and a half weeks left before the Cards go away for the winter, so we have to enjoy what we have.  New Faces, Same ResultsPosted on August 1, 2011 at 6:42 AM
Remember last year, when the Cardinals struggled to do anything against weaker teams? They could dominate the big boys, but were unable to take care of the Pirates and Cubs of the world. While the 2011 version of the Redbirds isn't quite to that extent, they still show a frustrating inability to put the bad teams away, as proven last night when they were unable to get a much-needed sweep and fell to 4-3 on a homestand that was made up of the worst two team in the NL Central.The sixth and seventh innings provided most of the relevant action and they were innings filled with enough strange, non-La Russa-like decisions that you wondered if Tony had taken an little time off to hit the concession stand. Start with the top of the inning. Jake Westbrook is rolling along with a perfect game and, while you knew it couldn't last, it was enjoyable to see that anyway. He got through the fifth on only four pitches, I believe, so there was no reason to think that he was wearing down. Yet whether it was the heat and humidity or just results catching up to him, the sixth got ugly. To be fair, it wasn't all his fault. There were at least two pitches on Carlos Pena that should have been called strikes, which should have ended the inning with the Cards just down 1-0. After that, though, Kevin from Cards 'N Stuff was screaming on Twitter that Westbrook looked gassed and TLR should make a move to the pen. It did seem to make some sense. On the one hand, Tony may have been trying to save some arms for the upcoming Milwaukee series and also thought that Westbrook was pitching OK, just unable to get any help from the man behind the plate. On the flip side, there are a lot of new arms down there that haven't been used in a while. Octavio Dotel was unavailable, I'm sure, after three days of work, but other than that most everyone should have been fresh. Tony doesn't make the move, though, and Marlon Byrd drives in two more to make in 4-0. That became really big in the bottom of the sixth, when Hero Lance Berkman smashed a three-run home run. (Good to see Berkman back, though he did strike out three times so he may have still been a bit rusty. Looks like he plans to be back for the long haul.) Instead of possibly giving the Cards the lead, it left them trailing by one. Still, it was good to see the Cards respond quickly after having been shut down by Ryan Dempster to that point. Dempster is one of those guys the Cards have hit in the past--the ESPN guys were making such a point of how Albert Pujols owns him--but he had their number last night. Pujols especially had a terrible first at-bat against Dempster and the second wasn't much better before he was more patient and then doubled in the sixth. (Side note: AP is up to .283, his highest batting average of the season.) The bottom of the seventh is the other spot where TLR got away from his normal managing style. Yadier Molina and Daniel Descalso both single to open the inning. It's a one run game late and the pitcher's spot is up. Now, Jason Motte had come in for Westbrook in the top of the inning, so I understand not sending him up to bunt. And, personally, I think teams (including the Cards) sacrifice bunt more often than they should. But late in a game, especially in a game like this, you have to get the runners over, especially with the top of the lineup coming up. This is where Tony sends up Rafael Furcal to make his St. Louis debut. OK, I can understand that. I don't know personally Furcal's bunting skills, but he's a leadoff man with some speed, so you figure he's done it enough in the past and could get the job done. Except that he doesn't bunt. Why, with the knowledge that this team is so susceptible to the double play he doesn't, I don't know. Furcal grounds into a force out, beating out the double play ball. That also proves he's a step better than the man he's replacing, as TLR sends up Ryan Theriot to pinch hit for Skip Schumaker since the Cubs have brought in lefty Sean Marshall and Theriot promptly gets that double play. Two on, nobody out and the Cards can't score. Cards threaten again in the eighth when Pujols singles, then Matt Holliday, who had the worst game out there with three strikeouts (two looking), finally hits the ball, but Kerry Wood makes a spectacular, reflex-only play and gets the double play. Kyle McClellan (who, for some reason, was going two innings) allowed a two-run homer in the ninth and that was all for the sweep chances. (Painful stat in the Post-Dispatch writeup: Cards have hit into 116 double plays. For context, they've only played 108 games and the second-most in the NL is 28 behind them. With the additions of Furcal and Corey Patterson, will we see a little more of the running game going forward?) The last time the Cards swept anyone was the last series in June when they faced the Orioles. In July, they had three (not counting the four-game Houston series where they won the first two) chance to do so and weren't able to get the last game. Finishing teams off is going to be key if this team wants to have a shot in the division. Will the moves at this deadline be meaningful or will it be shuffling deck chairs? I remember 1997, when the Cards waited until after a big series with Houston to make the Mark McGwire trade and the team continued to sink even with that move. Some of the facts put out there by people like Jayson Stark this year, about how it has been a long time since a team made a move at the deadline that pushed them over the top, makes you concerned about which direction this team is going. They've got the Brewers for a three game road set starting tonight and it is vital they win at least two of three, with a sweep a much better result. They sit 2.5 behind the Brew Crew as there has been some separation in the Central the last few days. The Pirates are now 4.5 out with the Reds a distant 6.5. Winning two of three will cut a game off of that lead while, obviously, a sweep will get them into first. If they leave Milwaukee farther behind than they arrived, though, it's not a great sign for the next two months. If the Cards are going to make a statement, at least they have the right pitchers to do it with. They run out Jaime Garcia and Edwin Jackson as well, but the opener is started by Chris Carpenter. If there is anyone who steps up in big games, it is Carp and I have no doubt that he'll be competing hard again tonight. Here are his numbers against the Brew Crew:
Unfortunately, the Brewers have some pitchers of their own. Tonight, it's their big offseason acquisition, Zack Greinke. Not a lot of exposure to him and he's pitching better now than when the Cards saw him earlier in the year, but here are the numbers:
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