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Starting To RollPosted on August 7, 2012 at 7:00 AM "If they hang on here, the Cards will have won--is it ten of their last eleven, John?"Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | San Francisco Giants | St. Louis Cardinals "Ten of their last eleven, Mike." When I heard that on the radio last night in the ninth, it took me by surprise. The Cards had really been that good lately? I mean, I know they'd been winning, but like the players, I'd kinda focused on the game at hand instead of the big picture. Only a rough bullpen outing in Colorado is keeping this team from a double-digit win streak, which is pretty amazing given what we'd seen out of this team for most of the year. And while a bulk of this run was built on the backs of weaker teams, the latest win came against a divisional leader. When the Cards start beating even the good teams, you know that this season isn't quite done yet. Last night's win was a team effort, as so many of them have been lately. I'll give the Hero tag to Matt Carpenter, though, because his pinch-hit, two-run single gave the Cardinals the breathing room they needed and got a tough starting pitcher out of the game. The Cardinals showed some resiliency--something we don't always see from this group--by coming back right after Buster Posey had homered to tie the game and getting three more runs to take the lead back. Give a lot of credit to Jon Jay as well. A four hit night and he's hitting .412/.500/.706 in five August games. It's good to get him back on track and I'm not sure it's a coincidence that we are seeing better offensive performances with him clicking. It seems like the play of the game was in the sixth when Matt Holliday tagged up on a fly ball and went from second to third, barely making it but putting himself in a position to score on David Freese's sacrifice fly and break the 2-2 deadlock. That opened the floodgates and the Cardinals would never look back. You hate to point out a Goat in a game like this, but as well as Daniel Descalso has played recently, I think Mike Matheny has to be careful about exposing him too much. Descalso led off--which probably says something about how Rafael Furcal is going, though Furcal will probably be back in the top slot tonight--and went 0-5, leaving five men on base. That's a tough night. Jake Westbrook rebounded from Colorado, allowing only two runs in six innings and could have easily gone longer save Matheny rolling the dice and letting Carpenter bat to try to get some insurance. There's no doubt that the starting pitching has been fairly incredible for an extended period of time. If I'm reading this right, since the end of May Cardinal starters are 26-18 with an ERA of 3.53. It's been even better if you just look at July and August, with ERAs of 2.70 and 3.03 respectively. That's the way to keep teams in the ballgame. (The bullpen ERA has improved as well--in July it was just 2.18, though it's ballooned in August due to that game in Colorado.) Right now, we are seeing the team that we thought we'd see most of the year. They've also cut two games off of the Cincinnati lead in the last two nights, pulling to within six of the divisional leaders. While getting the wild-card is much more feasible, a little but of stumbling by the Reds and the Cards could put some pressure on them. They have six more games with the Reds, including the last three of the season, so they still make their own noise in the race. Kyle Lohse isn't requesting a contract extension, but he'd listen if it came up. Lohse has definitely earned that consideration, finally rebounding from his injuries to put up two solid years in St. Louis. With a rotation that has three signed locks, two guys that have contributed this year and at least two other prospects in the mix for the other spots, it may boil down to whether the Cards would rather a veteran presence in that rotation instead of two youngsters. If they are going to retain Lohse, they'll do it before he hits the market like they did last time, but I have a feeling that they'd probably let him go. Westbrook would come at a cheaper price and be more likely to do a one-year deal, in my mind, which would help the Cardinals. Speaking of one of those prospects, Shelby Miller is getting right. He was the Pacific Coast League's Pitcher of the Week and has had four good starts out of five. John Sickles, one of the more prominent minor league gurus, wrote about him yesterday and indicated that there's little to worry about. It would seem possible that a strong August could get him a September callup, but if nothing else he's reestablishing himself as a contender for the 2013 rotation. When you talk about the rotation for next year, even though he's not necessarily locked into a long-term contract, you can't leave out Lance Lynn. With 13 wins and an ERA under three and a half, Lynn's been a revelation this year and making all of us (and my hand is firmly raised) that thought the transition to the rotation would be a mistake eat a lot of crow. Lynn goes tonight against the Giants, who have barely ever seen him.
Cards get to face Barry Zito. While Zito has been pretty maligned during his time in San Francisco--and rightfully so--he can still twirl a gem on occasion. He's had two outings of seven innings and no runs in his ten-game log, with some other low-run appearances as well. Of course, he's been tagged a lot as well, with an ERA over seven in his last three starts. He's not been especially dominant against this group of hitters, either.
Let's see if the Cards can't keep this roll going, because it's been a lot of fun to watch!  Leave a comment 2 Comments2 Comments | Leave a commentLeave a comment |
  SearchYou can also hear Conversations With C70, along with other great podcasts, at Baseball Podcasts.net.
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  HeroesCarlos Beltran (5) Matt Holliday (4) Jon Jay (4) Daniel Descalso (3) Matt Carpenter (3) Jaime Garcia (3) Shelby Miller (3) Yadier Molina (3) Adam Wainwright (3) Allen Craig (2) Pete Kozma (2) Lance Lynn (2) Edward Mujica (2) Jake Westbrook (2) Joe Kelly (1) Tyler Lyons (1) Seth Maness (1) Trevor Rosenthal (1) Ty Wigginton (1) 2012 Top Hero: Matt Holliday (17) 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) GoatsDavid Freese (5) Jon Jay (5) Joe Kelly (4) Mitchell Boggs (3) Matt Carpenter (3) Allen Craig (3) Daniel Descalso (3) Jaime Garcia (3) Pete Kozma (3) Yadier Molina (3) Matt Carpenter (2) Lance Lynn (2) Carlos Beltran (1) Matt Holliday (1) Seth Maness (1) Shane Robinson (1) Fernando Salas (1) Adam Wainwright (1) Jake Westbrook (1) 2012 Top Goat: Rafael Furcal (11) 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) Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2013)Yadier Molina 96.2% (up 8.8%) Chris Carpenter 89.8% (down 0.3%) Derrick Goold 89.1% (up 6.3%) Matt Holliday 88.4% (up 0.9%) Allen Craig 88.3% Adam Wainwright 88.2% (down 3.7%) Jose Oquendo 87.1% (up 2.4%) Jason Motte 86.9% John Mozeliak 86.5% (up 1.1%) United Cardinal Bloggers 85.2% (up 6.3%) Bill DeWitt 85.1% (up 5.3%) Mike Shannon 85.1% (down 0.2%) John Rooney 84.5% (up 3.0%) Mike Matheny 84.4% (up 3.3%) David Freese 82.9% (down 2.6%) Jon Jay 81.8% (up 10.7%) Lance Berkman 80.6% (down 8.0%) Jenifer Langosch 79.5% Lance Lynn 79.5% Dan McLaughlin 76.0% (up 8.0%) Jim Hayes 73.0% (up 1.1%) Ricky Horton 65.5% (down 2.0%) Jaime Garcia 64.1% Albert Pujols 59.2% (up 4.3%) Ballpark Village 58.3% Joe Strauss 54.3% (down 13.4%) 2012 Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%) Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%) Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%) B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%) Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%) Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%) 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% Looking for St. Louis Cardinals Tickets? TicketCity is your source for New York Yankees Tickets and World Series Tickets. Looking for Cardinals tickets? Stop by OnlineSeats. We’ve got Blues seats and even Rams games. Go to the coasts as well and catch a Celtics game or get Dodgers tickets. Referrals |
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Not sure if you were aware, but that 10 of 11 is at home, and not overall(if you were, I apologize). They're 7-3 in their last 10 and 13-4 since the Cubs series at home. Also, Westbrook and the team have mutual options for 2013, and he has already said he'll exercise his. Strauss seems to think the team won't reciprocate, but you never know. I don't see them signing Lohse, because DeWitt has never liked paying long-term big $$ for pitching(Carp's contract notwithstanding). It'd be a shame to let him walk, but if I was him, with this team's history of ratcheting up their pucker factor when it comes to contracts, I'd test the market, too.
Thanks--I knew that didn't seem quite right overall but I didn't check it before I posted. Appreciate the catch.
I agree, I think Lohse can do better elsewhere and I don't think he'll reup, but if he's got the idea that he'd rather stay here, he might sign for less before he hits the market. Don't know that he has that idea, though.
Westbrook probably makes the most sense because you can have him for just one year, which is important with this flood of prospects coming.