Dear Joe,

Every season, there are young guys that earn our attention, and some that win our hearts. The 2012 season was no different. In fact, there were several of you — especially pitchers! — who made us Cardinals fans stop and realize how bright the future is.

You were certainly one of those guys.

Much like Trevor Rosenthal, you have a special place in the hearts of Chris and I here at AMF. Your time in the Quad Cities gave us a glimpse of who you are, and how you could factor into this game on a major level. The simple fact that you’re a River-Bandit-Turned-Cardinal is reason enough to prompt such a letter, but after the things you accomplished at the Big-League level, you’ve earned it.

I’ll be honest, when Jaime Garcia went down in early June, there was concern throughout Cardinal Nation about a replacement. Shelby Miller hadn’t looked sharp early, and Lance Lynn was already in the rotation in place of Chris Carpenter.

Actually, now that I think of it, I may have had an early heads up on your call up.

I was at a River Bandits game with my dad, and as we talked to the season ticket holder in front of us (a Cubs fan who closely followed former Bandits throughout the Cardinals organization, simply because of his getting to know them at the single A level!) mentioned that you had been pitching quite well as of late.

He thought you’d probably get the call before Shelby did.

Looks like he knows what he’s talking about!

Needless to say, I was pretty pumped to be in St. Louis for your second MLB start. It was against the Royals. And the most memorable thing that happened that game was the triple-play-that-wasn’t.

I’m sure that’s all I need to say, as far as you’re concerned! For Cardinals fans, too. I won’t lie, I was impressed, seeing a triple play in person and all. (I was also impressed with how long it too Mike Matheny to get ejected after the umpires overturned the call … for a guy as nice as he is, it took a lot before he said enough to actually be tossed!) He had a point though. And I loved how willing he was to take a stand for a young pitcher in just his second start.

But this is about you, not him. » Continue reading “Cardinal Love Letter: Joe Kelly”

How about that offense? Thirty runs and 41 hits added up to a sweep for the St. Louis Cardinals over the Royals in Kansas City this weekend.

So the bats and the brooms were out …

This is the Cardinals third sweep of the season, with the other two coming more than a month ago: a road sweep of the Diamondbacks May 7-9 and a home sweep of the Padres May 21-23.

And, of course, this sweep was over the team that took two of three from the Cardinals last weekend in St. Louis — although the Cards added two key players in Jon Jay and Matt Carpenter on Friday. Both contributed to the weekend’s offensive outburst too.

Once again the scoring came early and often for the Cardinals today, although interestingly they ended up with 11 runs on only eight hits.

Carlos Beltran was a key contributor (not surprisingly), hitting a three-run home run in the first inning with Allen Craig and Matt Holliday on base. It’s the 20th homer of the season for Carlos, which puts him into a tie with cheater Ryan Braun for the NL lead. He also has 56 RBI, one more than Andre Ethier had before his game today.

» Continue reading “That’s A Sweep For The Cardinals!”

Last night it was 11 runs and 17 hits. Today, eights runs and 16 hits.

Who doesn’t like the resurgence by the offense? (Rhetorical question … unless you’re a Royals fan.)

Then there’s Adam Wainwright, who’s having a resurgence of his own. In seven innings today, he allowed only six hits and two earned runs, striking out four and looking much more like 2009/2010 Adam Wainwright than he did earlier in the season.

It was another good day at the ballpark — especially with all the red clothing and chants of “Let’s go, Cardinals” that could be seen and heard.

And it was another good day for Matt Holliday. After having three hits last night, he had four more today plus drove in two runs.

» Continue reading “Hits, Wins Keep Coming For The Cardinals”

Although there wasn’t a welcome mat outside Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, it certainly seemed like it for the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night.

First, Carlos Beltran returned to his rookie major league home for the first time since the Royals traded him to the Houston Astros in 2004. In addition, the Cardinals welcomed back some old friends — Jon Jay and Matt Carpenter were activated after more than a month on the disabled list. And, finally, the offense that disappeared in Detroit earlier in the week (and has done so off and on for more than a month now) was back in a big way.

And it all added up to a very welcome 11-4 Cardinals win over the Royals.

Beltran doubled with the bases loaded in the first inning and again with two on in the second, feeling right at home and comfortable in his old ballpark. Yet he was far from the only one — the Cardinals scored 10 runs in the first two innings.

» Continue reading “A Welcoming Victory For Beltran, Cardinals”

Let’s start with the best news of all: the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals today, 10-7. They’ve now won three of their last four and six of their last 10.

The game had a lot of good things happen, along with quite a bit of bad and ugly. Let’s take a look chronologically.

Top of the 1st — Bad

Really, this should have been listed as good … or great. Here’s a description of the play:

With runners on first and second, Eric Hosmer hit a line drive that St. Louis pitcher Joe Kelly snared near the ground and threw to first. After first baseman Allen Craig tossed the ball back to Kelly, the pitcher then threw to second for the apparent third out.

Home plate umpire Kerwin Danley did signal an out when Kelly caught Hosmer’s liner.

Triple play! The Cardinals went into the dugout. But not so fast …

» Continue reading “Plenty Of Good, Bad And Ugly In Cardinals Win”

A steal of second base in the second inning of last night’s game was historic for Carlos Beltran. It was his 300th career stolen base, making him the first switch-hitter in major league history to have that many stolen bases and 300 career home runs.

Here’s a clip of the milestone stolen base.

There are seven others who have reached the 300/300 level: Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonds, Andre Dawson, Steve Finley, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez and Reggie Sanders.

As Mike Still of Cardinals.com noted, it was fitting that history was made against the Royals:

It was a special moment for Beltran to achieve such a milestone against the team he began his career with.

“It is crazy, but at the same time, things happen for a reason,” Beltran said. “So I can say it was good to play them today, even though we lost. For me, personally, I started my career as a Royal, I spent 6 1/2 years there, so I have good memories there in Kansas City.”

The Cardinals lost last night’s game 3-2, and take on the Royals again this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. Joe Kelly will make his second major league start, while Bruce Chen goes for Kansas City.

Thanks to Tara for the photo!