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Launching The Series

Posted on June 8, 2011 at 9:18 AM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Houston Astros | St. Louis Cardinals
The score might indicate that the Cardinals had little problem with the Houston Astros last night, as befitting a first place team playing a last place one.  However, as we all know, scores only tell part of the story.

Fernando Salas was the Hero of the piece, even if some of the problems were of his own making.  Coming into the game in the eighth with the Cards up 6-3 and Eduardo Sanchez had just walked the two batters he faced, Salas continued that trend, walking his first batter, creating a bases-loaded, no-out situation.  Apparently, he just wanted to make things harder on himself, as he then struck out two of the next three to get out unscathed.  He allowed a run in the ninth, but completed his second inning of work and locked down the win.  

Tony La Russa (when he could tear himself away from watching the NBA Finals after the ballgame) said that Salas was done for the series, which is not surprising given that Salas threw 44 pitches.  You can't get more of a pressure situation than that and Salas came through with flying colors.

If it hadn't been for that, though, the hero might have gone to Jason Motte.  After Ryan Theriot had booted a sure double play ball, Motte came in to relieve Jake Westbrook with the bases loaded.  Motte wound up hitting the first batter to force in a run and make it 5-3, but then was able to get a strikeout and a groundout to hold the line.

Goat will go to Jon Jay.  Jay didn't start the game, coming in when Allen Craig left in the first after running into a wall (sounds like he'll be OK--some stitches and a bruise, so I bet he could pinch hit as early as tonight) but got three at-bats and no hits, plus only saw four pitches all night.  Patience is a virtue.

The ball was flying out of the park last night.  Lance Berkman hit another one in his old park, putting the Cards up early.  Carlos Lee tied the game with a long ball.  Albert Pujols topped them both, though, when he crushed one to the train tracks, similar to the one off of Brad Lidge.  A mammoth blast and Albert did a little skip when he hit it--he's definitely having fun again.

While Westbrook might have had a better game at the plate, clearing the bases with a double that broke the 2-2 tie, he pitched fairly well also.  Theriot's error kept him from going six innings and Motte's errant fastball plated one of his runners, so the line looks a little worse than it could.  Eight hits is a good number, though, and it took a couple of nice plays, including a double play started by Daniel Descalso, to keep the runs off the board.

The second day of the MLB Draft was yesterday, and again the strategy of the Cardinals got some mixed reviews.  On the whole, it appeared that they were drafting fairly raw guys with some speed and some upside, which is a high-risk/high-reward type of attack.  Future Redbirds has a writeup on each of the first ten players taken and I'd suggest checking those out to see what might be coming through the system in the next few years, assuming they can get them signed.

I mentioned yesterday that I was looking for someone to fill in and do the Kansas City preview while I was gone.  My search is over, as Nick of Broken Bat Single will be here next Friday afternoon to give you a look at that series.  

Speaking of that series, there will be a press conference in Joplin today with representatives from both teams and the governor's office.  "Teams United For Joplin" will be announced, as there will be activities and fundraisers tied to that I-70 Series to help raise money for the tornado victims.  Expect to hear more about that this afternoon.

Fox Sports Midwest has narrowed down the finalists of their "Name Our Twitter Segment" contest.  One of mine (and, as I understand it, a couple of others suggested it) has made the cut.  So, if you are on Twitter, send a Tweet to FSMidwest with the hashtag #cardstweets and say you want "That's A Twitter".  I'm not above campaigning for this, my friends!

Cards try to keep the winning streak going and turning the ball over to Jaime Garcia is a good way to do that.  Here are his numbers vs. Houston:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Carlos Lee 6 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Hunter Pence 6 6 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 .167 .167 .667 .833 0 0 0
Angel Sanchez 6 6 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 .500 .500 .667 1.167 0 0 0
Chris Johnson 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 .500 .400 .500 .900 0 0 0
Bud Norris 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Clint Barmes 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Jason Bourgeois 3 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333 .667 1.000 0 0 0
Michael Bourn 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Matt Downs 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .500 .667 .500 1.167 0 0 0
Jeff Keppinger 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Brett Wallace 3 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .667 .667 .667 1.333 0 0 0
Jason Michaels 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 0 0 0
Total 46 43 16 2 0 1 6 1 8 .372 .378 .488 .866 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/8/2011.

Not a real big sample, of course.  Houston actually has hit him pretty well, so we'll see if that continues tonight.

Noted nemesis Bud Norris goes against the Cardinals tonight.  His numbers:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Albert Pujols 22 20 5 2 0 0 2 2 3 .250 .318 .350 .668 1 0 0
Yadier Molina 21 18 6 0 0 0 0 2 3 .333 .429 .333 .762 0 1 1
Colby Rasmus 21 19 4 2 0 1 1 2 6 .211 .286 .474 .759 0 0 0
Skip Schumaker 19 16 3 0 0 0 2 3 3 .188 .316 .188 .503 0 0 0
Jon Jay 10 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 .222 .222 .222 .444 0 0 0
Ryan Theriot 10 10 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .400 .400 .400 .800 0 0 0
Tyler Greene 7 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 .333 .429 .500 .929 0 1 0
Allen Craig 6 5 2 0 0 0 2 1 2 .400 .500 .400 .900 0 0 0
Lance Berkman 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .250 .400 .250 .650 1 0 0
Daniel Descalso 5 3 3 2 1 0 2 2 0 1.000 1.000 2.333 3.333 1 0 0
Jaime Garcia 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Kyle Lohse 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .333 .333 .667 1.000 0 0 0
Chris Carpenter 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Mark Hamilton 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 138 121 33 8 1 1 11 13 25 .273 .353 .380 .733 3 2 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/8/2011.

His hold on the Cardinals is starting to weaken.  They've scored 8 runs (5 earned) against him in the two times they've seen him this year and, if Mitchell Boggs doesn't melt down in the first one, they'd have won both games.  Perhaps that demon is subsiding.  Find out tonight!

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1 Comments

1 Comment | Leave a comment

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WilliaminMaine | June 8, 2011 10:48 AM | Reply

Another excellent post, which is all an expectation when reading here every day.

Can't Theriot DH? Oh yeah, there' no DH in the NL.

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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (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)
Jason Motte (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (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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