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Time For A Shakeup?Posted on July 21, 2011 at 6:49 AM I was admittedly not terribly concerned after the Cardinals dropped two of three in Cincinnati to start off the All-Star Break. Now that they've dropped four of five, though, it's a bit more disconcerting.Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | New York Mets | St. Louis Cardinals After losing a game where they could get nothing going against a pitcher they'd not seen before, the Cardinals went out and built a 4-0 lead, but Kyle McClellan again couldn't hold it. McClellan went six innings, but he gave up a two-run home run to Carlos Beltran to leave with the game tied. (Granted, he's not the first Cardinal pitcher to give up a big hit to Beltran. It's likely this is the only time he didn't come through.) Having a six-inning pitcher in your #5 slot is fine when you are getting good innings out of the rest of the staff, but Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse aren't necessarily holding up that end of the bargain. That said, I don't really hold McClellan responsible for last night. Four runs in six is about what you should expect from him and the team should be able to win a good number of those kind of games. Indeed, it looked good for them when Hero Gerald Laird dropped down that bunt which completely caught everyone in the park and watching the game by surprise, driving in the fifth run in amazing fashion. Had the Cardinals gone on to win, it might have gone into Cardinal lore right next to Glenn Brummer's steal of home in catcher-related excitement, trailing only Yadier Molina's NLCS home run. However, the Cardinals couldn't hold the lead even one inning. I'm not quite sure why, when Lance Lynn was pitching the way he was, you swap him out for another righty in the middle of an inning. Lynn hadn't allowed a hit, though he had walked two, and the only reason he was in trouble in that inning was Daniel Descalso had made an error that allowed Angel Pagan to get on base to start the inning. Pagan was on third, but there were two outs, so it's not that you needed a strikeout. Tony La Russa said that he thought Lynn's stuff was changing, which is a manager's call. Most of the time, you want to get a pitcher out a batter too soon than a pitcher too late. Still, Lynn's gone two innings a number of times and, with a guy like Josh Thole who, while no push over, isn't the heart of the lineup, I think I'd have stuck with Lynn. If nothing else, swap out for a lefty (even though that's problematic enough) since Thole has issues with hitting them. Instead, Jason Motte got the call and allowed a single to tie the game, getting the Goat for the night. Fernando Salas might have gotten the Goat, seeing that he gave up a home run to lose the game in the bottom of the 10th, but he pitched a solid inning before that and when you get into extra innings on the road, you walk a fine line. However, the Cards never should have been there for him to lose it. Are two game-winning home runs enough to worry about the end of games? I don't know. Again, Salas has had some good innings as well, getting a save in the second Cincinnati game while pitching a solid ninth last night. Then again, June was a pretty rough month for him and if he slides back into those kind of results, a change might have to be made. Don't know who it'd be, though, as Eduardo Sanchez is likely out for the year and all of the rest of the pen has had their hit-and-miss times as well. Right now, the team seems to be in the dog days doldrums. Not a lot of the excitement and good baseball that we saw right before the break. That's why, if John Mozeliak is going to make a deal in the next week-plus, I'd recommend that he does it earlier rather than later. This team could use a bit of a shakeup, and even if he doesn't bring in a hitter, it might be enough to get them going before they blow more opportunities. Skip Schumaker did a good job in the leadoff slot last night, getting two hits, and it's possible we'll see him up there more with Ryan Theriot having issues getting on base. When the offense was going, Theriot and company were getting on for the middle of the lineup. That has to happen again. Albert Pujols is now 0 for his last 11. Not a major slump, obviously, but he can't afford really any of these if he's going to get his average to .300. We're also not used to seeing Pujols do this when it looks like he's heating up, as he usually goes on a tear and stays hitting. If he's sliding back into April form, the Cards are going to have a lot of issues. Jake Westbrook tries to build on his last outing and to get his ERA under 5.00 for the second time this season. Here's what he's done against the current Met squad:
The Mets counter with Jonathon Niese. He's a lefty that's faced the Cards once. This isn't likely a positive thing. Numbers:
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 HeroesMatt 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) GoatsMatt 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 FlightsHappy 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% 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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