West Coast games are brutal. I find myself hoping the games are over before midnight my time, but more often than not falling asleep no matter how invested I am in the game.

Last night was similar, except for the fact that I did stay awake. And, I much prefer listening to a game like that than the one the night before (… of which I only heard about six innings!).

Still, the hour the game finished and the hour I needed to be up this morning didn’t agree much with one another, so we’re going to make this a very visual recap. Here, in .gif-form, is how I made my way through last night’s game.

This is me, trying to watch West Coast games. So … sleepy … must … cheer … on … Cards …

» Continue reading “Cards Bounce Back In Late-Night Winner Over Padres”

Expectations — we all have them, especially when it comes to St. Louis Cardinals baseball. An Adam Wainwright start? A rematch of the two starters from April 13 (which was one mighty impressive performance by Waino)? Yovani Gallardo and his 1-11 record/6.86 career ERA against the Cards?

The expectation was that our first inning for the United Cardinal Bloggers progressive game blog was going to be very simple to write.

The Cards would come out slugging against Gallardo, because that’s what they do. The Brewers would go down one-two-three against Wainwright because that’s what they do.

Baseball. You never can predict it, damn it. (Except when it comes to the Cubs — but that’s for another day.)

Matt Carpenter and his 3-for-7-.429 batting average against Gallardo stepped in to lead off as FOX’s scouting report told us Yovani just needed to forget what team he was pitching against. And, for this inning, he did. Carpenter hit the third pitch directly to center fielder Carlos Gomez — so straight at him that Gomez didn’t even have to move.

» Continue reading “Hey, That’s Not An Adam Wainwright First Inning”

Even with the ups and downs, the St. Louis Cardinals finished April in first place. One big reason why? Our first BAMFs for 2013: the starting rotation.

April has traditionally been a very good month for the Cardinals, as they’ve had winning records each year since 2008 and have been in first place in the National League Central on May 1 for each of those years as well. That’s a nice streak that, more often than not, also leads to a post-season trip.

Back to our five starters, it would have been easy to choose Adam Wainwright as our sole BAMF for April. He more than earned that honor, with his walkless streak (and still only three walks allowed for the season) and 4-2 record and 2.03 ERA and — oh yeah — that brilliant complete game shutout of the Brewers on April 13 and masterful performance against the Nationals on April 23.

But how do you overlook the guy who currently leads the majors with a 0.98 ERA in Jake Westbrook — especially when he had a five-hit complete game shutout on April 10?

And how can we not recognize a streak of 39 1/3 innings without allowing a run from April 9 through the 14 — a streak which, coincidentally, included those two shutouts?

Plus how can we overlook the rotation that’s leading the league in starters ERA? Ending April it was 2.15 — a full run better than the American League’s top rotation, the Red Sox, at 3.15. The second-best National League starters were the Reds at 2.95. (Following yesterday’s Reds-Cardinals game, the starter ERAs are now 2.11 for the Cards and 3.07 for the Reds — though of course those are May stats.)

In addition, as Tara mentioned yesterday, they’ve allowed the fewest home runs of any team with seven, are second in WHIP at 1.15, are the only team with two shutouts and opponents were hitting .229 against them. (It’s now .228.)

» Continue reading “Cardinals Starters Were Definitely BAMFs In April”

It’s amazing what nine innings of stellar pitching can do, when combined with a timely hit or two.

Jaime Garcia was back to his brilliant self, tossing eight innings (on 92 pitches) and allowing only one run. His teammates were struggling against Bronson Arroyo for much of the night, but Garcia did enough that one swing of the bat could change the whole story.

Matt Holliday apparently liked that idea. After Carlos Beltran singled, Holliday blasted a critical (some would say “clutch!”) home run to give the Cardinals their first lead in a game since Saturday. Only those two runs would score for the Redbirds, but with Jaime going strong, and Edward Mujica ready for the save, that would be enough. The Cardinals picked up win No. 15 on the season, and snapped a three-game losing streak.

I guess one way to keep the struggling bullpen from wasting quality starts and late-game leads is to pitch well enough to not need them! (Also, as a side note, look at Garcia, fielding his position! He was all over the place yesterday, chasing down slow rolling balls and firing down to first for the outs. Well done, sir!)

No, this win didn’t solve all the problems the Cards have had lately. The offense didn’t come bursting out of its funk with double digit runs. But, a win’s a win. And a win is just what the Cardinals needed to end the first month of baseball on a good note.

Let’s look at that note, shall we? » Continue reading “Holliday Helps Jaime And The Cardinals Finish April Right”

Even though the St. Louis Cardinals lost their season-high third straight game — this time to the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 — there were a few positives if you put on your glittery rose-colored glasses.

The Cardinals did score a run, which was something they hadn’t done in 16 innings. Yadier Molina had three hits, the only RBI and stole a base. The bullpen was terrific, pitching two scoreless innings allowing only one hit (by Randy Choate) and striking out two (by Trevor Rosenthal). And Adam Wainwright pitched very well for seven innings, giving up five hits and striking out six along with the two runs.

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Of course, the continued lack of hitting, or timely hitting, by everyone but Yadi is the real story of the game.

And no pom-poms or sparkly glasses can hide that fact.

The Cardinals did have seven hits last night, one more than the Reds, and benefited from three walks by Mat Latos and one by Logan Ondrusek. But, of course, 10 of those 11 runners were left on base.

Here’s more on the harsh reality of late, courtesy of Derrick Goold:

• The Cardinals have scored four runs in three games and hit .188 as a team during that stretch.
• They entered Monday’s game as baseball’s best team with runners in scoring position, batting .335. That unrealistically high average has masked an overall lag in offense, and as it starts to settle the struggles are sharper and costlier.
• Overall averages have yet to rise. The only regular hitting better than .300 is Yadier Molina.
• Six regulars are hitting less than their career average.
• The Cardinals went two for 11 with runners in scoring position Monday, dropping to four for 24 (.167) in the past three games.

» Continue reading “Well, At Least The Cardinals Scored A Run”

Bullpen problem, you say? Adam Wainwright’s here to save the day!

No, but seriously. What more can you say? What other superlatives can be added to his already-sparkling resume? Right now, Wainwright may just be minding his own business, focused on his spring promise to be worthy of the new contract extension, but just maybe he’s not interested in letting a key win slip away by handing the game over to the, shall we say “developing” bullpen until he absolutely must.

Classic Waino. Never gets old.

“We just had a good thing going,” Wainwright said in the post game. That, my dear, is an understatement.

Last night, he was two batters away from his second complete game shutout of the year. He’s in full-on Carp-mode; he’s a man on a mission, and it’s a beautiful sight to see.

Know what else is beautiful? Waino’s new toy.

If you missed it, here’s a little taste.

High heat? From Wainwright? Well, then.

That new pitch is by design — overall, but especially against the Nationals who were a problem area for Waino last season. According to Jenifer Langosch, Yadier Molina spent a little extra time watching film from Adam’s starts in D.C. last year, just to be sure they didn’t make the same mistakes this time around. And, the film breakdown led to a decision: it was time to break out a different weapon. » Continue reading “So, Adam Wainwright. That Is All.”

It was by no means pretty but the St. Louis Cardinals won a close one Thursday evening over the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3.

I’ve got a few people I want to talk with you about! Let’s!

* Adam Wainwright.  By no means was this a classic pitching performance by Wainwright. But. He did get a win. Now 3-1, Waino pitched seven innings. He gave up nine hits and three earned runs. He struck out four. He now has an ERA of 2.48.

* Edward Mujica and the ‘Pen. They tried to make things interesting for certain. But, they did their job, held it down and saved the game for the Cardinals. Trevor Rosenthal pitched 2/3rds of an inning. He gave up two hits. He got out of the situation.

Next up? Edward Mujica. He pitched one and a one-third innings. He gave up two hits and struck out two. Not a perfect, shut down performance. But. He was effective. And more than anything, that’s what the Cardinals are needing from the Bullpen right now. Effectiveness.

Mujica and Rosenthal did their jobs tonight. Good on ‘em!  » Continue reading “Mujica, Beltran Lead Cards To Victory Over Phillies”

Yesterday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers was the debut of the new home-Saturday-only St. Louis Cardinals uniforms. I like the look a lot now that I saw the entire team in them — much more so than when they were announced in November, although I still think they were unnecessary and just created for the sales opportunity. (What about the rest of you who chimed in at the time?)

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Anyway, my guess is Adam Wainwright is a big fan of the new threads. Actually, my guess is all the Cardinals are. Hard to dislike anything when the pitchers haven’t allowed a run since the fourth inning on Tuesday and the offense has scored 25 runs in that same time frame. And it’s pretty much hard to find anything at all to dislike about Saturday’s 8-0 win.

A quick summary of the game: Wainwright did it all.

More details? A complete game shutout in which he walked none (and still hasn’t in 2013), struck out 12 (tying a career high, and getting Ryan Braun and Rickie Weeks three times each), allowed four hits, got three hits of his own (including two in the seven-run sixth inning) and drove in two runs. Similar to Shelby Miller on Friday, Wainwright threw 115 total pitches and 84 were strikes.

Oh, and this was his first home game at Busch Stadium this year — so his first game since signing his contract extension. I think he likes it in St. Louis.

» Continue reading “Adam Wainwright Really Likes The New Cardinals Uniforms”

Opening Day at Busch Stadium is, of course, a one-of-a-kind event — and yesterday was no exception.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights of Opening Day 2013 (the pre-game, mostly), which included our favorite traditions as well as a touching remembrance of the Greatest Cardinal of Them All. Photos are courtesy of Kelly and Nicole — thank you both for sharing!

It’s always that sea of red on Opening Day. (Photo by Kelly)

» Continue reading “The Best Of Cardinals Opening Day”

Nothing will make up for the San Francisco Giants beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the final three games of last year’s National League Championship Series.

However, chasing Matt Cain from today’s game with a nine-run fourth inning and beating the Giants 14-3 on the day they received their World Series rings? It definitely helps ease that pain a bit, especially after yesterday’s 6-3 victory.

And, after all the (justified) angst following last Wednesday’s 16-inning loss to the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals ended their road trip 3-3. Isn’t going .500 on the road the way to a successful season?

With a great victory like today’s, seems like the perfect opportunity for the first “Good, Better, Best” of 2013.

Good

• Adam Wainwright bouncing back from Monday night in Arizona with a very good performance. He went seven innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts. (More on a couple of those coming up …) He’s yet to walk a batter this season and lowered his ERA from 4.50 to 3.46.
• Every Cardinals starter except Wainwright had a hit today — and that includes Ty Wigginton, who actually had two and an RBI.
• » Continue reading “9-Run Innings Off Matt Cain Are Always Good”