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Cards Win, Come Tantalizingly Close To Sweep

Posted on April 25, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds | Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals
It was a wet weekend in St. Louis, but they got all the games in.  After Friday's sleight-of-hand, as it were, with the start times and starting pitchers (the details of which can be found here), the Cards and Reds hooked up for two more games.  Both of them should have been Cardinal wins, but they wound up splitting the set.  Let's take a look.

Saturday (5-3 loss)
Hero: Lance Berkman kept the fan club happy with two hits and a walk, being one of the more productive Cardinals.  While it's true Berkman's splits are a bit one-sided, his production has been a welcome jolt to an offense that could stagnate last year.

Goat: Trever Miller.  We'll get into the rest of the bullpen issues later, but what it boils down to is that Miller, for the second time this week, was asked to come in and get one batter out and he was unable to do it.  If he gets Jay Bruce, the inning is over and the Cards still have a lead.  Instead, the game was tied and Ryan Franklin got the call to try to finish it off.

Notes: You know that old saw in baseball, that a pitcher "just knows how to win"?  While many have tossed that out of consideration anyway, there needs to be a complete moratorium on using it.  If there's any pitcher on this staff that knows how to win, it is Chris Carpenter, yet now Carp sits 0-2 on the season.

Take out that off-game against Arizona in a series where a lot of pitchers got battered, and Carpenter has a 1.73 ERA.  If he'd gotten some bullpen support, he'd have at least two wins and there wouldn't be anybody saying, "What's wrong with Carpenter?"  (Not many are saying that anyway, but I did see someone ask that question in the most recent chat with Matthew Leach over at MLB.com.)

Before we move on to the downside of this game, do want to note that it was nice to see Albert Pujols get not only a home run, but one that was in a crucial situation.  It didn't hold up, but it was a good answer to Joey Votto's shot the inning before.  Also, another fine outing by Fernando Salas. 

It seems like the young guns in the pen are getting the job done--something that was on display on Sunday--while the old guard is struggling.  There was a lot of talk after the game about Ryan Franklin and how he had failed again, and that's a legitimate point.  Franklin came into a situation that was more pressure-filled than a lot of his save opportunities and allowed a two-run single that put the Reds on top and created the final margin.  There's no doubt that Franklin needs to be kept away from high-leverage situations until (and, honestly, if) he can get some sort of successful run going.  Franklin shaved his chin this weekend, so we'll see if the non-chinchilla era is a success.

However, let's talk about some of the other issues in that inning, issues that, if they had been dealt with appropriately, would mean that Franklin never would have gotten in the game.  First, you have to consider the error by David Freese.  The two-base throwing error with one out turned out to be a very costly thing.  However, Miguel Batista gets the next guy and, after a perfectly reasonable intentional walk to Votto, has Jonny Gomes 0-2.  If he gets Gomes, the Cards are out of the inning still clinging to a one run lead.

Instead, Batista hits Gomes to load the bases, which brings in Miller and starts the dominoes falling.  So many chances in that eighth inning for the Cardinals to get out of it unscathed, even as the trouble started to mount.  It's just interesting that the old guys couldn't do it, whereas so far the young guys seem to be able to answer the challenge.

Hero: Yadier Molina.  I'm pretty sure that three-run home run felt really good to Yadi.

Goat: Colby Rasmus.  Rough night for Rasmus with three strikeouts during his 0-4.  If it wasn't for the off-day today, I might suggest that he get a night off, since he's one of only two players that have played every game for the Cards so far.

Notes: Is that what the problem has been?  Jake Westbrook has been TOO rested?  Coming back on three days' rest after his disastrous start against the Nationals, Westbrook looked more like the guy we thought the Cardinals were signing.  Six innings, only three walks and three hits, plus being more efficient with his pitches.  Hopefully he'll take this into his next start as well, even as it'll be on the regular schedule (plus a day, really, since there's the off day today).  

The young guns of Salas, Eduardo Sanchez, and Mitchell Boggs closed it out in fine fashion, showing that having power arms in the pen is a wonderful thing.  The three combined to allow no runs and six strikeouts against the 10 batters they faced.  There's a lot to be excited about with this team, but the young guys in the late innings is one of them.  I hope that it won't be broken up when Brian Tallet or Bryan Augenstein are ready to return.

Not everything was rosy for the Cardinals last night, though, as Pujols left with a hamstring injury.  It sounds like it was more precautionary than anything and those some think Pujols should rest through the Houston series, you know that if he can go, he'll be out there.  It is nice to know that Berkman can slide to first and Jon Jay can move into the outfield and there's not a huge dropoff, at least not like there would have been in the past.

As most everyone knows, ESPN was at the game last night as part of Sunday Night Baseball, with the whole road crew and everything.  It's nice to see the whole team out at the ballpark and I'd have probably appreciated it more if I'd gotten to watch more of it instead of monitoring the weather for a good portion of the evening.

A couple of articles on the Post-Dispatch site.  First off, while they may not list him as the "c" word, even Dave Duncan is admitting that Boggs is the closer.  Will he come in for every save opportunity?  Possibly not.  It's just worth noting that he has in every case since Franklin's loss against the Dodgers.  I could see a day where Boggs needs rest or they want to give someone else a chance in a lower-pressure (say, three-run lead) situation, but for the most part, the ninth is his.

Also, a good story on how Kyle Lohse is making the most of his second chance.  We all were on Lohse because he wasn't producing, and that's fair, but it is interesting to read how much pain and discomfort he was in, how he couldn't make it through the third before being in excruciating pain, but yet he kept trying to go out there, seeing if he could do something to help.  We dog on ballplayers that don't play through injuries and then we dog on those that do when they don't produce.  Just glad that Lohse's surgery seems to have corrected the problem and look forward to more of these results as the season goes along.

Off day today, so we'll talk about that Houston pitching matchup, with a familiar name haunting it, in tomorrow's entry. 


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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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