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Frustration, Then Vindication

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Filed Under: Chicago Cubs | Cincinnati Reds | Heroes and Goats | St. Louis Cardinals
A terribly frustrating weekend book-ended by wins both satisfying and encouraging.  Let's take a look at the last few days.

Thursday (9-1 win at Chicago)

Perhaps it was because the game started with Kyle Lohse as Tony La Russa.  More likely it was because the Cards jumped on the Cubs early and didn't let up.  Whatever the reason, this was a fun game for the Redbirds.

As we've seen this week, positions are not something that are set in stone, but more a state of mind.  Acting manager Joe Pettini slipped Allen Craig into the lineup at second base, a place he'd never played in the bigs and just rarely in the minors.  Craig did a serviceable job there, though obviously by the defensive standards of the season that's a low bar to clear.  While this was a move that was cleared with Tony La Russa while he was away from the team, it might be worth noting that the first time TLR has a chance to do this, he changes his mind soon afterwards.  However, I think we'll likely see Craig get a shot there every once in a while when they are trying to load the lineup.

Another stellar outing by Jaime Garcia.  Not perfect and finally gave up a run, but an ace-like performance nonetheless.  He continues to show that last year wasn't a fluke, that he can be a productive top-of-the-rotation starter for some time to come.

The offense has a great day as well.  Home run for Matt Holliday, and Colby Rasmus went 3-5 with two runs.  However, the Hero tag goes to Yadier Molina, who also went 3-5 with two runs, but drove in one as well.

You also had to appreciate the bullpen work of Mitchell Boggs and Fernando Salas, especially in retrospect after knowing what was to come on Friday night.

On the down side, Goat Daniel Descalso went 0-5 and Albert Pujols continued to be very mortal, going 1-5 with an infield single as his only hit.  Even so, it was a pretty notable series for Pujols in Chicago, as Bernie Miklasz wrote about.

Friday (6-5 loss in 10 at Cincinnati)

Hero: Matt Holliday.  Three for five with a double, two RBI and a run scored, which would make you think this was a better game for the Cardinals than it was.

Goat: Miguel Batista.  Eduardo Sanchez may have blown the save, but it was only a save situation because Batista gave up two runs without getting anyone out.  Trever Miller again came in and walked the only guy that he faced and Sanchez and Jason Motte both allowed runs in their innings.  Basically, it was a complete bullpen failure, save for the excellent two innings turned in by Fernando Salas.

Notes: All of the bullpen shenanigans overshadowed the fact that Lohse had another strong outing.  He limited damage, allowed only two runs, and left with a nice lead.  It did take him almost 100 pitches to get through six innings, not the most efficient work we've seen out of him, but if the bullpen had been rolling along like it was earlier in the month, he'd have come out of it with another win.

Pujols was 2-4 with a walk, giving a little hope, and Descalso had two hits.  All in all, everything worked well in this game, save the bullpen.

Saturday (7-3 loss at Cincinnati)

This had to be the most frustrating game in a while, no matter if it ranked on the Frustrating Game methodology or not.  While I'm not a Reds-hater, in large part due to the fact that my father-in-law is a big fan, there would have been something very satisfying about beating Johnny Cueto.  Last year's brawl did not bring out the best in Cueto and, being that he ended Jason LaRue's career and really missed, what, maybe one start, he is never going to be a person most Cardinal fans care for, even if he somehow wound up on the St. Louis roster.

However, Cueto can be a very good pitcher and he was on his game Saturday.  Jon Jay was the Hero of the piece, providing the only bit of Cardinal satisfaction with his three-run shot off of Cueto, but other than that the Reds pitcher really did whatever he wanted to.

For the fact that he allowed three home runs in his outing, Kyle McClellan's line really wasn't that bad.  Four runs in six innings will usually keep you in the ballgame and, if the pen had held it there, perhaps things would have been different.  You wonder how much of that was a little fatigue from his over-100 pitch outing the time before.  I think that he did a superb job for those conditions.

Ryan Franklin continues to struggle, but his line is a bit inflated by the fact that Motte was unable to strand his runners.  If Motte comes in and locks down the rally, it's a 5-3 game going to the ninth.  Likely the outcome doesn't change, but there's a better chance of tying it up at a two-run deficit than a four-run one, especially since Francisco Cordero is anything but automatic.  For that, we'll slap the Goat tag on Jason Motte.

Sunday (9-7 loss in Cincinnati)

They talk about games that weren't as close as the score indicated.  This is one of those games.

The late inning rally was nice, don't get me wrong.  However, when the offense is predicated on Aroldis Chapman being unable to find the plate, that's not necessarily a long-term plan.  (Mainly because the team doesn't play Cincy every day.)  The Cards got some opportunities due to the wildness of the Cincinnati relievers and they took advantage, which is what they are supposed to do.  It just doesn't make me feel much better about the game.

Hero again for Yadier Molina with his 2-3, HR day.  Lance Berkman was right there with him, but did strike out with two runners on to end the game.  Still, good to see him get a long ball as well and start to come out of his recent tailspin. Ryan Theriot also had a couple of hits in the leadoff role.

On the down side of things, Chris Carpenter was hit around.  It wasn't entirely his fault, as the defense really let him down with some iffy plays, not all of which translated to errors in the box score.  The defense is really going to cost the Cardinals this year, I'm afraid.  I'm not sure they are good enough to outslug their errors and gaffes.  Goat Matt Holliday went 0-5, including a groundout in the ninth that helped end the rally.

Also, Francisco Cordero hits Pujols in the ninth.  Obviously, as that loaded the bases with one out for Holliday and Berkman, it wasn't intentional, but that doesn't mean it didn't get both benches and both fan bases chirping at each other.  Bernie writes about the series in this article, which is a must read.

I've got some points to make about the Reds, but this is getting long and I'm not sure I've got them all thought out.  I'll try to make a specific post about it soon.

Monday (3-1 win vs. Philadelphia)

OK, I know I said that you can't make wildness an offensive strategy.  It could be that Tony La Russa knows something I don't in this area, though, since Cliff Lee struggled with the strike zone.  Yes, Cliff Lee.  Lee had walked seven batters all season before last night's game, then he walked six in just over six innings.  Lee did seem to have a bit of an issue with the umpire's zone, which is understandable given where he's coming from, but you'd think if anyone was going to get the benefit of the doubt, it'd be a control guy like him.

That said, the Cards got 12 baserunners against Lee and only scored three runs.  There's a reason he's considered one of the many aces in Philly, because if the Phillies had scored more runs for him, this would have been one of the most frustrating losses of the season via my personal calculation.

As well as Jake Westbrook pitched, and he did pitch a very good game and seems to be getting hot just as many people predicted based on his history, I want to give the Hero tag to Fernando Salas.  Salas came in and got the save last night, which was somewhat noteworthy but not as much as this tidbit: that was the first 1-2-3 save all season long.  We are in mid-May before we have an uneventful ninth inning by a Cardinal reliever.  If that doesn't speak volumes.....

Great night for Theriot in the leadoff role with two hits and two walks.  When your leadoff hitter does that, you expect more than three runs.  Molina also had two hits and has his average knocking on the door of .300.

While he did play third for the first time in years, causing a lot of pregame discussion, Albert Pujols was the only Cardinal starter not to get a hit or a walk last night.  While we discussed him on Gateway to Baseball Heaven last Sunday night, I was inspired by Bob's mention about Albert taking off right about here in 2004 to check and, sure enough, in the month starting May 15, 2004, Albert hit something like .356 with 8 home runs.  So can he get going again?  Most likely.  That said, it was seven years ago.  Things have changed, he's gotten older.  I do hope that he can have that kind of resurgence, though, because it's much more fun watching this team when Albert Pujols is Albert Pujols.

Tony La Russa was back and managing after taking the road trip off.  Loved his quote about the shingles: "[It's] A different cat, and not one I'd like to rescue."  He seems to be doing better and just needed to be taking his medicine, something that I'm sure he'll be doing on a regular basis now and hopefully it'll clear up soon.  Sounds like there won't be any lasting damage from it, either.

Today, Jaime Garcia goes up against Roy Oswalt.  The matchups:

Garcia vs. Phillies:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Ryan Howard 8 8 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 .250 .250 .625 .875 0 0 0
Shane Victorino 7 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .286 .286 .286 .571 0 0 0
Placido Polanco 6 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .000 .167 .000 .167 0 0 0
Joe Blanton 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 1
Carlos Ruiz 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 .000 .600 .000 .600 0 0 0
Jimmy Rollins 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250 .500 0 0 0
Ben Francisco 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Raul Ibanez 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 0 0 0
Total 40 36 6 0 0 1 1 4 8 .167 .250 .250 .500 0 0 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/17/2011.

No big samples, but he's done all right in the limited time.  I expect he'll be careful with Ryan Howard, just as Westbrook was last night.  With so many out of that lineup, it is too be expected.

Oswalt vs. Cardinals:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Albert Pujols 96 89 29 6 0 7 17 7 7 .326 .375 .629 1.004 0 0 6
Ryan Theriot 31 27 8 1 0 0 2 2 1 .296 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Yadier Molina 28 28 8 2 0 0 1 0 2 .286 .286 .357 .643 0 0 0
Matt Holliday 18 18 6 2 0 0 1 0 0 .333 .333 .444 .778 0 0 1
Colby Rasmus 10 9 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .444 .500 .444 .944 0 0 0
Kyle Lohse 9 8 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .375 .375 .375 .750 0 0 0
Nick Punto 7 5 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 .400 .400 .600 1.000 0 0 0
Gerald Laird 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Chris Carpenter 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Miguel Batista 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 213 197 60 12 0 7 23 10 16 .305 .337 .472 .809 0 0 7
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/17/2011.

No problem with sample size here.  The Cards have done well against Oswalt for the most part, at least offensively.  (Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS is likely not reflected here.)  Albert's done well against him in the past so maybe that'll help him get jump started.

Of course, the most anticipated matchup is one that's not listed here.  You would forgive the good people of Houston if they tuned in to see Oswalt face Berkman for the first time.  

Should be a fun game and hopefully the Cards can sweep this short series!


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1 Comments

1 Comment | Leave a comment

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WilliaminMaine | May 17, 2011 4:35 PM | Reply

Vindication indeed. I just wrote a large piece today on the NL West. Still have the Cardinals coming out on top.

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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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