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Cardinal Offense Still Sputtering

Posted on May 20, 2010 at 11:30 AM
Filed Under: Florida Marlins | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals
Even though they've split the last couple of games and won two of three since the lineup swap, the offense still isn't a well-tuned machine.  Save for that first inning against the Nationals on Monday, it's still been a struggle to score runs.

Tuesday, they were able to scratch enough to take out the Nationals 3-2.  Give Hero status to Ryan Ludwick, who bailed out/rewarded a ton of people with one big swing.  Chris Carpenter pitched well enough to win, so Ludwick's big fly allowed that to happen.  Carp threw quite a few pitches (118) but still only allowed one earned run.  Skip Schumaker had two errors, including one that led to the tying run, so Ludwick took the focus off of him.

Then there is Brendan Ryan.  As soon as I saw that he was the pinch-runner, I mentally said, "Please don't get picked off."  Of course, because this is The Lost Season (not to be confused with LOST's Final Season) for Ryan, he was, unsurprisingly, picked off.  Cole and I discussed this some during last night's UCB Radio Hour, and I make the point that he's probably trying to do too much right now.  He's got to want to make something positive happen, helping the team and hopefully jumpstarting his season and confidence.  However, by pressing that much, it becomes even less likely that the positive moment, that spark, is going to happen.

You wonder if they won't suggest that the wrist is bothering him more and wind up putting him on the DL so they can get him some rehab/reps in the minors.  He's out of options, so that's the only way the team can do it.  We'll see if that happens in the near future, especially if Aaron Miles is still hitting in the minors.  Should Miles be a candidate?  No, probably not, but that doesn't mean he won't get a shot at it.

Wednesday, the offense again just couldn't get anything going.  Anibal Sanchez is a very good pitcher, of course, with no-hit stuff.  However, that's not necessarily a requirement for the opposition right now to hold down the Cardinal lineup.  Then, when Sanchez was removed and the first two men in the eighth walked in front of Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, did it pan out?  Were they able to take advantage?  No, Holliday struck out and Pujols grounded into a double play, a very similar result to a recent game where Pujols grounded out and Holliday then hit into a double play.  Flipping the slots didn't flip the results.

Jaime Garcia again pitched a wonderful game.  The only knock on Garcia is that he's not as able to get deep into games as some of the other pitchers.  Last night, that wasn't completely his fault, as there were grounders in the first and other innings that should have been turned into outs but weren't, forcing Garcia to see more batters.  Still, four walks didn't help his cause much.

Being that he didn't get to go deep meant that the Cardinals had to go into the soft underbelly of their bullpen.  Right now, that means Blake Hawksworth, who gave up two in his first inning of work, then put the game out of reach by allowing two home runs in his second.  With the offense struggling, there probably is some pressure on the pitchers, especially the relievers, to make perfect pitches knowing that a run may be more than the offense can overcome.  Hawksworth didn't make perfect pitches at all, though.

Today, if the weather allows it, Nate Robertson goes for the Marlins while Adam Wainwright, who is the focus of my segment on Redbirds of a Feather's Sunday podcast, goes for St. Louis.  Which should mean that, if the Cardinals can squeeze out a couple of runs, they can split this short series.  Here's Robertson's numbers against the Cards:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP
Ryan Ludwick 11 10 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .200 .273 .200 .473 0 0 0 0 0
Jason LaRue 9 9 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 .111 .111 .222 .333 0 0 0 0 0
Albert Pujols 7 4 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 0 0 1 0 0
Felipe Lopez 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 .000 .500 .000 .500 0 0 0 0 0
Yadier Molina 4 3 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 .667 .750 1.000 1.750 0 0 0 0 0
Brendan Ryan 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .500 .667 .500 1.167 0 0 0 0 0
Total 38 30 10 2 0 0 2 8 6 .333 .474 .400 .874 0 0 1 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/20/2010.

Not a lot of exposure, though Pujols is perfect against him.  Hey, Ryan's hitting .500 against him (SSS), so maybe he'll get a chance to start!  (I haven't seen the lineup yet, but I wouldn't be shocked if that happened.  Tony LaRussa has to take whatever he can grasp to get Ryan rolling.)

Wainwright against the current Marlin squad:
  
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP
Ronny Paulino 18 16 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 .313 .389 .313 .701 0 0 0 0 1
Hanley Ramirez 17 16 2 0 0 0 1 1 4 .125 .176 .125 .301 0 0 0 0 1
Dan Uggla 15 15 2 0 0 1 2 0 6 .133 .133 .333 .467 0 0 0 0 0
Jorge Cantu 11 10 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 .300 .364 .300 .664 0 0 0 0 0
Cody Ross 10 10 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 .300 .300 .400 .700 0 0 0 0 0
Chris Coghlan 8 7 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 .286 .375 .286 .661 0 0 0 0 0
Wes Helms 3 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 1.000 1.667 0 0 0 0 0
Cameron Maybin 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0 0 0
Josh Johnson 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0
Chris Volstad 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 1
Total 89 84 20 2 0 1 4 5 17 .238 .281 .298 .579 0 0 0 0 3
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/20/2010.

Pretty good success for the Wagonmaker.  Dan Uggla's taken him deep, but that's not surprising, since Uggla's done that to a lot of pitchers (ask Hawksworth about that).  Interesting that Wainwright has had a little trouble with Paulino, so if he can navigate that trouble and he's got a feel for his curveball, it could be a good day in Cardinal Nation.

Be sure to head over to Fox Sports Midwest for their live chat during the game.  Always fun to interact over there during the day games!


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Heroes
Lance Berkman (24)
Albert Pujols (19)
Matt Holliday (15)
Chris Carpenter (10)
Kyle Lohse (9)
Yadier Molina (9)
Ryan Theriot (8)
David Freese (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Jon Jay (7)
Jake Westbrook (6)
Allen Craig (5)
Kyle McClellan (5)
Colby Rasmus (5)
Edwin Jackson (4)
Skip Schumaker (4)
Daniel Descalso (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Gerald Laird (2)
Nick Punto (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Lance Lynn (1)

2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Ryan Theriot (12)
Albert Pujols (11)
Jake Westbrook (10)
David Freese (8)
Ryan Franklin (7)
Jaime Garcia (7)
Fernando Salas (7)
Kyle Lohse (6)
Kyle McClellan (6)
Colby Rasmus (6)
Skip Schumaker (6)
Miguel Batista (5)
Chris Carpenter (5)
Daniel Descalso (5)
Matt Holliday (5)
Jon Jay (5)
Jason Motte (5)
Allen Craig (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Tyler Greene (4)
Yadier Molina (4)
Lance Berkman (3)
Mitchell Boggs (3)
Gerald Laird (3)
Edwin Jackson (2)
Trever Miller (2)
Corey Patterson (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Maikel Cleto (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Octavio Dotel (1)
Mark Hamilton (1)
Lance Lynn (1)
Nick Punto (1)
Arthur Rhodes (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Raul Valdes (1)
PJ Walters (1)

2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2011)
    Adam Wainwright 94.7% (down 0.9%)
    Matt Holliday 91.1% (up 6.6%)
    Albert Pujols 90.4% (down 8.3%)
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Derrick Goold 87.8%
    Chris Carpenter 86.9% (down 6.7%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Mike Shannon 84.9% (down 4.6%)
    John Rooney 84.3% (up 8.1%)
    Yadier Molina 83.7% (down 8.3%)
    Colby Rasmus 81.8% (up 5.0%)
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Jim Hayes 76.1%
    John Mozeliak 74.1% (down 12.0%)
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    Bill Dewitt 71.0% (down 12.0%)
    Tony La Russa 70.8% (down 10.2%)
    BJ Rains 70.4%
    Ricky Horton 69.1%
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Skip Schumaker 64.1% (down 17.0%)
    Al Hrabosky 63.2% (up 19.0%)
    Mark McGwire 62.5% (down 10.7%)
    Dan Lozano 58.7%
    Joe Strauss 57.5%
    Kyle Lohse 55.1% (down 11.7%)

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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