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McClellan Starts, Cardinals Win

Posted on April 6, 2011 at 9:31 AM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Pittsburgh Pirates | St. Louis Cardinals
JE Powell may have said it best on Twitter: Three is a half-serious number.

The Cardinals have not scored more than three runs in any of their games so far, a stretch that is historical according to Fox Sports Midwest.  Only twice before has that happened for the team, back in the dead ball era.  Yet, somehow, the team is still 2-3, a pitch away from being over .500, and not completely hopeless.

The reason for that is starting pitching.  Last night's Hero, Kyle McClellan, did a great job in his first-ever regular-season start.  Besides his early jitters, including the home run to Lyle Overbay, he really had few problems.  Went six innings (which, while not alleviating my concern about how deep he can go, was a good outing) and struck out seven, which ran his pitch count up to just shy of 100.  Really, all in all he looked like a starting pitcher last night, and that's the key.  Too bad he wasn't able to get the win.

Nice to see some good results out of Albert Pujols last night, with the sacrifice fly and the RBI single to put the Cardinals in front.  A lot of talk afterwards, including by the manager, about Albert not being completely right yet, but he's tough enough to grind through some of these things.  If he wasn't so dag-blasted good, he'd be able to buy one of those Matt Sebek-designed "Scrappy" shirts.  Also good to see Ryan Franklin have a relatively uneventful ninth, if seeing the tying run at the plate can be called uneventful.

On the down side, remember when the Cardinals talked about getting more offense out of the backup catcher role?  That was before they settled on Gerald Laird.  One of the goals every year is to give Yadier Molina more rest, but if Laird is going to have many 0-4, two strikeout games, it's going to be difficult to justify him in there on a more regular basis than the Molina caddies in the past.

So after all the fuss and worry, it looks like there will be no DL for Matt Holliday. He was cleared for baseball activities yesterday, something that he was hoping for in his interview on Monday with the always entertaining Jim Hayes.  While not having him in the lineup has definitely been an issue, not having 25 bodies on the roster hasn't seemed to bite them yet.  Holliday could be available for pinch hitting this weekend in San Francisco.  He's also apparently a trendsetter--word just over Twitter is that Adam Dunn is having one today.

Before looking at today's starting matchup, wanted to mention that Garlic Fries and Baseball has a post up about the Giants fan that was beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.  They also have a link up to the fund for the Giants fan that was beaten, if you are interested in making a contribution.

Nothing makes you feel better about taking the rubber game of a series than having Chris Carpenter on the mound.  Here's what he's done vs. the current Pirate squad.

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Ronny Cedeno 21 20 3 1 0 1 1 1 2 .150 .190 .350 .540 0 0 1
Ryan Doumit 20 19 6 3 0 2 3 1 3 .316 .350 .789 1.139 0 0 0
Lyle Overbay 13 12 5 3 0 0 2 1 1 .417 .462 .667 1.128 0 0 0
Andrew McCutchen 11 11 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 .182 .182 .273 .455 0 0 0
Garrett Jones 10 9 3 1 0 1 1 1 1 .333 .400 .778 1.178 0 0 0
Steven Pearce 4 4 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Jose Tabata 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Neil Walker 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Pedro Alvarez 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Matt Diaz 3 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 .500 .667 .500 1.167 0 1 0
Jeff Karstens 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Paul Maholm 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Ross Ohlendorf 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Kevin Correia 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 100 94 23 9 0 4 10 4 14 .245 .283 .468 .751 0 1 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/6/2011.

Doumit and Overbay have had some success against him in the past, so he'll probably have to navigate them carefully.  It's not necessarily going to be a walk in the park for Carp, especially since there's no telling what kind of support he is going to get.

Speaking of that support, here's Kevin Correia vs. the Cardinals:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Matt Holliday 29 27 7 2 1 1 6 1 3 .259 .310 .519 .829 0 1 0
Albert Pujols 17 12 4 1 0 0 2 5 3 .333 .529 .417 .946 1 0 0
Yadier Molina 12 10 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 .200 .273 .200 .473 1 0 0
Skip Schumaker 12 10 4 2 0 0 1 2 1 .400 .500 .600 1.100 0 0 0
Ryan Theriot 11 9 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 .556 .636 .556 1.192 0 0 0
Lance Berkman 10 6 2 2 0 0 1 4 1 .333 .600 .667 1.267 0 0 0
Colby Rasmus 6 4 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 .250 .500 1.000 1.500 0 0 0
Jon Jay 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Chris Carpenter 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
David Freese 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Jaime Garcia 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 0 0 0
Tyler Greene 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 0 0 0
Kyle Lohse 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 111 92 30 8 1 2 13 17 11 .326 .436 .500 .936 2 1 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/6/2011.

Holliday's seen him the most, but obviously won't be in there today.  Interesting that Colby Rasmus is the only other person to have gone yard off of him, though the middle infielders have had good success at getting on base.

Probably another interesting one this afternoon, so turn on Fox Sports Midwest or Mike and John over at KMOX and enjoy the afternoon baseball!  Also, remember UCB Radio Hour tonight, hosted by Dathan from Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Goodnight.  Join him on the air or us in the chat room!


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2 Comments

2 Comments | Leave a comment

user-pic
WilliaminMaine | April 6, 2011 10:07 AM | Reply

It was a nice gutty win for the Cards last night. Nice to see Albert come through too. Good news about Holliday.

Laird is a non-entity. Why do these value-less catchers have such long careers?

user-pic
Author Profile Page Cardinal70 replied to comment from WilliaminMaine | April 6, 2011 8:25 PM | Reply

That brotherhood of backup catchers is strong. People want to have that presence back there to soothe pitchers, I guess. I'm with you, though, I'd just as soon have a youngster there if they could hit.

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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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