Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome.

The Cardinal pitching staff started the year at a blistering pace, going 14-8 with a 2.66 ERA –

Jake Westbrook pitched just five innings on Tuesday, giving up five runs to the Braves in a 5-4 Cardinals loss.

second best in all of baseball — in April. The month of May has told a wildly different story. Perhaps no individual story has been more dramatic than that of Jake Westbrook.

Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves simply highlighted the problems — namely, Jake Westbrook is a sinker-baller without much sink to be had right now.

That’s trouble.

Individually in May, he earned three wins in four starts, posting a 1.30 ERA after surrendering just four earned runs in 27.2 innings of work. He did not give up a single home run, but instead notched 44 ground outs (as opposed to just 14 strikeouts).

That was the Jake Westbrook we saw coming out of spring training: fit, confident, and most of all, consistent.

That’s the funny thing about consistency — sometimes it just disappears. What seems natural and easy one day is suddenly labored and frustrating the next. Of course, that contradicts the very definition of consistency, no? But it is what it is.

For Westbrook, it’s a stellar April turning into a nightmarish May. » Continue reading “Cards’ Comeback Can’t Save Wild Westbrook”

So, remember that time St. Louis Cardinal Lance Berkman tore his ACL?

Yeah, it was in a game against the Dodgers on a Saturday night. Routine play, he stretched for the ball at first, fell into a sitting position and then had to be helped off the field. The team knew right away Berkman would be out for a little bit — Matt Adams was pulled from the Memphis Redbirds game that night and made his way to Los Angeles. An MRI wasn’t going to be done until Berkman and the team were back in St. Louis. And then, when it was done … it must have shown the ACL was torn, right? Wasn’t that how it went?

Because that’s certainly what Twitter told us last Sunday and Monday.

Perhaps I’m the only one who remembers reading this, but before all hell broke loose last Sunday night, this was posted during the afternoon — on May 20 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, by Jenifer Langosch on the Cardinals website. (I added the bold.)

“It doesn’t feel right. I wish I knew more than that.” Berkman did differentiate between the feeling of his knee on Saturday compared to previous knee ailments. He has had four knee surgeries already — two on each knee. Asked if he feared this to be a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament, Berkman said he was optimistic that that isn’t the case.

“There is definitely a little bit of instability that is mildly concerning, but it definitely wasn’t the same kind of injury,” Berkman sad. “When I did it before, it was a hyperextension. This time, my knee was bent. I’d be surprised if it is anything that major. My guess is that I have a little meniscus ding. How bad? I don’t know. It’s just a wait and see.”

Not good news, but not necessarily dire either. (And also not published in the Post-Dispatch, at least as far as I could find today.)

» Continue reading “Hey, Didn’t Lance Berkman Tear His ACL?”

Lance Lynn and the Cardinals made it look easy as they defeated the Braves 8-2 on Memorial Day.

Let’s discuss a few things!

* Lance Lynn. Wolf Pup is now 8-1 on the season. Wow. In today’s game he pitched seven innings, giving up five hits and two runs. Lynn struck out 8 … that’s right EIGHT batters.

* Matt Adams. He is pretty good at baseball. He was 3 for 5 today with three RBI. In the fourth inning, he singled to score Skip Schumaker. In the sixth, he smacked a double to score Schumaker, again, and Rafael Furcal.

* Daniel Descalso. Dirty Dan had a two run homer. It was his second homer of the season. Descalso got some playing time at third today as David Freese was nursing a sore hand.

* Rafael Furcal. He hit his fourth homer of the season.

* Tyler Greene. Tyler’s one hit for the day was a triple. He was left on base but it was nonetheless impressive.  He also had some spectacular plays on defense at second base – the guy executed the shift quite well.

* The Bullpen. They worked two innings of solid relief. Finally! Marc Rzepczynski and Eduardo Sanchez pitched an inning each. Both struck out batters and gave up zero runs. Like I said… Finally!

Next up. Jake Westbrook takes the mound for the Cardinals against the Braves and Randall Delgado. The start time is 6:10 p.m. CT at Turner Field.

Miranda Remaklus is lead St. Louis Cardinals contributor to Aaron Miles’ Fastball. She’s also lead writer for Aerys Offsides in the NFL section. Follow her on Twitter, @missmiranda.

On Memorial Day 2012, a quick update on the St. Louis Cardinals before today’s early game against the Atlanta Braves.

First, on this holiday, a remembrance and gratitude to all those who have given their lives to serve and protect the United States.

Now, back to baseball.

Yes, today is the real holiday — so Ricky Horton’s “Holliday getting a hit off Halladay on a holiday” quip yesterday that was much repeated on Twitter was a little premature. Ah well, that Holliday hit — and Yadi’s grand slam — off Roy Halladay sent Doc out of the game after two innings.

The Cards hits didn’t stop, though, as Matt Adams hit his first big-league homer to lead off the sixth. (Just like all of us River Bandits fans saw him do only two years ago here in the Quad Cities!) Read more about Adams and his big day here.

Carlos Beltran hit his NL-leading 15th homer in the fifth as the Cards pounded the Phillies 8-3. It also was another very good outing for Adam Wainwright as well, as he pitched six innings and allowed one earned run on seven hits.

» Continue reading “Catching Up With The Cardinals: Memorial Day Edition”

The Cardinals lost Friday in extra innings to the Phillies, 5-3.

Jason Motte, the Closer, served up a nice pitch, ripe for the swing of Hunter Pence, who unloaded his 11th homer of the season to right field.

Prior to the Mot-tay incident, Kyle Lohse pitched six and one-third of an inning. He gave up six hits and three runs, two of which were earned. Mitchell Boggs was credited with his second blown save of the season after pitching an inning and two-thirds. He gave up a hit and a walk. Motte pitched two innings, gave up two hits and was credited with giving up two earned runs after Hunter Pence’s two-run homer. The is Motte’s second loss of the season.

OK, OK … let’s just go ahead and let out a collective sigh. Whew. Better? No! Well… I tried.

It does appear the Cardinals are trying a little hard to do something, though. After the game, the Twitterverse exploded with this news:

Cardinals have called up pitcher Chuckie Fick, whose dad, scout Chuck Fick, played the Angels catcher in the film “Naked Gun”

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) May 26, 2012

Chuckie Fick, son of scout Chuck Fick, is 1-0, 3.86 ERA at Memphis. No word on corresponding move. Several options including Salas #stlcards

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) May 26, 2012

Woo! A new pitcher! And here’s some information about Fick. But! Who is he replacing? Mitchell Boggs? Fernando Salas? Eduardo Sanchez? SOMEONE ELSE? Should be interesting as there are at least two members of our bullpen that could use an extensive break to work on a view things to better themselves.

UPDATE: It’s Salas.

#STLCards recall RH reliever Chuckie Fick, option Fernando Salas.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 26, 2012

And

#Cardinals confirm Fick call up and Salas option to Memphis. #stlcards

— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) May 26, 2012

Happy with the move? Comment below!


Miranda Remaklus is lead St. Louis Cardinals contributor to Aaron Miles’ Fastball. She’s also senior reporter at Aerys Offsides in the NFL section. Follow her on Twitter, @missmiranda.

Lots of news from the St. Louis Cardinals 10-9 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Like the Cardinals now being in second place in the NL Central, looking up at the Cincinnati Reds. An 11-12 May thus far combined with a 14-8 month for the Reds (and a current six-game winning streak) means that 4 1/2 game lead the Cards had on May 2 is now gone.

Granted, it’s May 25. Still, not a good trend.

And the reason for the Cards mediocre May was on full display last night — the decline of the pitching after a great April, both starting and relieving.

Oh, and speaking of full display, there also was a streaker. Unlike the Rally Squirrel, however, the Rally Streaker didn’t actually motivate the Cardinals to victory.

Too bad he didn’t pitch — the Cards could have used some help. Scoring nine runs on 15 hits doesn’t usually result in a loss … except when you give up 10 runs and 18 hits.

» Continue reading “Maybe The Rally Streaker Should Have Tried Pitching”

Sweeping is much better than getting swept.

After the lost weekend in Los Angeles against the NL West’s first place Dodgers, facing the last place San Diego Padres was a nice way for the St. Louis Cardinals to get back on the winning track. The Cardinals completed the sweep with a 6-3 victory.

This was the fourth sweep the Cards were involved in this month — and now the second positive one, after sweeping the Diamondbacks May 7-9. Following that, the Braves swept the Cards.

Last night’s game also helped several players get back on a good track as well.

After beginning the season with a 6-0 record, Lance Lynn stumbled a bit during his last two starts. And while he wasn’t at his best last night either — he gave up three runs in the first inning, including a lead-off homer to Will Venable — he settled in after that and pitched five scoreless innings.

Plus the Cardinals immediately tied the game in the bottom of the first against old pal and former Cardinal Jeff Suppan — something that Lynn appreciated, according to Mike Still of Cardinals.com:

“They carried me, offensively, defensively and that’s all,” Lynn said. “I’m just trying to make pitches, and they carried me.”

(Okay, so I only included that quote because of the visual image of Cardinals like Rafael Furcal and Skip Schumaker, who combined to score the first run of the game, physically trying to carry Lance Lynn. Our Wolf Pup is obviously not a small boy.)

» Continue reading “A Better Kind Of Sweep For The Cardinals”

Matt Carpenter has been placed on the 15-day DL

The hits just keep on coming, it seems. This time, it’s Matt Carpenter who is headed to the disabled list.

Carpenter has suffered a right oblique strain and has been placed on the DL, making him the fifth Cardinal since May 16 to hit the list.

According to Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com:

Taking Carpenter’s place on the roster will be catcher Steven Hill, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Memphis on Wednesday. Hill can also play first base, as well the outfield. With a third catcher on the roster, manager Mike Matheny also has flexibility to use catcher Tony Cruz at first base, if necessary.

Matt Adams is expected to get the majority of starts at first base until Carpenter and/or Allen Craig (left hamstring strain) return from the DL.

Hill, whose has appeared in one Major League game during his career, was batting .257 with four home runs and 11 RBIs in 19 games with Memphis this season. He had to be added to both the 25- and 40-man rosters, which makes the Cardinals’ 40-man roster now full.

Hill, who will wear No. 70, will be in uniform for Wednesday’s series finale against the Padres.

Get well soon Matty Carp … and Allen Craig, Jon Jay, Kyle McClellan and Lance Berkman.

HEY! You know what, that’s a lot of players who are injured on our team. Huh?

Miranda Remaklus is lead St. Louis Cardinals contributor to Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @missmiranda. 

That, according to Jason Motte, who had it easy watching his teammate’s shutout from the bullpen Tuesday night.

As for me, can I finally say, “Welcome back Adam!?”

Happy Waino = Happy Cardinal Nation! (Click the photo to watch the full interview)

Before you jump me, I know it was the Padres. The 28th-place offense, .218-hitting Padres; the third-most, 358-strikeout Padres. That doesn’t exactly lend itself to much of a challenge for anything close to “vintage Waino.”

But … can we just for a second recognize what Wainwright did do, struggling hitters or not?

He tossed his first shutout since August 6, 2010.

He struck out nine, walked one and gave up just four hits on 111 pitches. In the process, he dropped his season ERA from 5.77 to 4.78. Plus, he saved a weary bullpen from any kind of work, which may be one of the most significant things about his night.

He got a little help from his defense on occasion. Matt Holliday (yeah, the not-so-great-fielder we’ve heard so much about lately!) made a nice sliding catch in short left field that led to doubling up the runner returning to first, for example.  » Continue reading “Waino Was Bueno In Win Over Padres”

So many good things happened in the Cardinals 4-3 victory over the Padres Monday.

Ready to discuss?

Let’s go!

* Four -game losing streak is OVER! Celebrate!

* Tyler Greene. He was three for four tonight with two RBI and  an amazing, yeah amazing,  two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth off Padre reliever Andrew Cashner, scoring Yadier Molina. Tyler looked so genuinely happy as he celebrated with Yadi, ran into the dugout for the receiving line and even more happy tipping his helmet to fans awaiting a curtain call. Tyler Greene has his ups and downs. Last night was definitely an UP and, with all of the injuries (we’ve had a few if you haven’t heard!) and inconsistencies lately, it would be refreshingly nice to see him step up and be the guy we’ve been promised.

Way to go, Tyler! Keep it up! Please.

Oh, and I just did a little stat look up! That was Tyler’s fourth homer of the season. That Guy That Used To Play First Base? He has three homers still. Understand what I am saying, friends? Tyler Greene has more homers than That Guy! Yes.

*Pitching.  Jaime Garcia pitched seven innings giving up seven hits, one walk and two earned runs. He also struck out seven batters. Mitchell Boggs thankfully shaved that hideous the beard. And guess what, guys? He pitched a good 2/3rds of an inning! He struck out one and the next pitcher up was Marc Rzepczynski.

Zep gave up a walk. » Continue reading “We All Win As Cards Defeat Padres”