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”

With so many problems facing the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen, the team finally decided to do something about it.

It may not be what the fans really want, but maybe it will make a difference in the long run. Let’s discuss what’s going to happen!

Seth Maness will be added to the roster prior to the start of the series tonight with the Cincinnati Reds. Marc “Scrabble” Rzepczynski is being sent to Memphis to make room for Maness.

According to Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com:

[Scrabble] allowed two earned runs and another two inherited runners to score in one-third of an inning on Sunday. The lefty has now allowed six of seven inherited runners to score in his eight relief innings this season. That’s in addition to the seven runs and 13 hits he’s allowed.

Acquired by the Cardinals in a midseason trade with the Blue Jays in 2011, Rzepczynski is making $1.1 million this season, a figure agreed upon by the pitcher and the club in his first offseason of arbitration eligibility.

…

Maness, who was the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2012, will have to be added to the 40-man roster, which currently has an opening. It is unknown who the Cardinals will remove from their 25-man roster to make space for Maness on it. Five of the team’s seven relievers currently have an ERA higher than 4.00.

After finishing 14-4 with a 2.97 ERA in 2012 (with high-A Palm Beach and double-A Springfield, Maness opened the 2013 season with Triple-A Memphis. He’s pitched 25 innings this month, allowing 12 earned runs on 34 hits. Maness has struck out 18 while walking three.

Maness was scheduled to start for Memphis on Monday, which means he’ll be immediately available to help in the Cardinals’ bullpen, which enters Monday with a 5.93 ERA.

Should be interesting to see how all of this plays out! Hopefully this will revitalize the pitcher’s in question and most importantly the bullpen. Because this bullpen needs serious help. Seriously.

It was a forgettable night for the St. Louis Cardinals all the way around.

Now, granted, you might have been like me and were switching back and forth between the game and the live news coverage from Boston. (And, if you were really like me, just finding the Cardinals game was a challenge on DirecTV since Fox Sports Midwest was tweeting out the wrong channel number for its Plus channel. Perhaps that should have been the first sign …)

The curiosity began when the lineup to face the Philadelphia Phillies was announced. Well, sure, Yadier Molina needs a game off — fine. We all know he’s played every inning of every game so far. Interesting decision by Mike Matheny, though, to give him his first break on a night when Jaime Garcia was pitching and start Tony Cruz. Then again, we didn’t know if On-The-Road-Bad-Jaime was a bad memory from last year since Jaime was good in his only road appearance this season. So maybe it would all work well.

But then there was Matheny’s choice to play third base: none other than Most Hated Cardinal Ty Wigginton. (Seriously, I almost feel sorry for him. But only almost.)

So, with all of that in place, what could go wrong?

Everything.

Well, OK, Jaime started out fine — retiring Jimmy Rollins and Freddy Galvis in the bottom of the first.

» Continue reading “Rain, The Cardinals Needed You Earlier”

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”

Cards versus D-backs
Winner takes the first series.
Do red hats bring luck?

Not to the pitchers,
Or not tonight anyway.
Lose the red hats, please.

Lance Lynn was in first
And he threw many pitches.
Ninety-four in all.

Only four innings.
Four earned runs allowed — oh ouch.
ERA is 9.

Yet the offense struck
And scored four runs in the third.
Not enough, of course.

Three more in the sixth
From Matt A, Koz and Dan D.
Matt H drove in two.

Yet no lead was safe.
Joe Kelly gave up three runs.
And two were homers.

» Continue reading “Cardinals Lose In 16: A Haiku Review”

The start of daylight saving time — yet another step closer to real baseball. That makes the loss of an hour’s sleep worth it, right? Only 22 days!

Although there has been plenty of baseball going on, with not just spring training games but the World Baseball Classic as well.

The Cardinals participating in the WBC have all gotten into the action. Both Mitchell Boggs and Fernando Salas pitched an inning each in Mexico’s win over Team USA Friday night, with Boggs allowing only a hit and Salas two hits and a run. Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina have contributed to Puerto Rico’s two wins. Beltran is hitting .429 with an RBI and Yadi’s hitting .286 and has thrown out a baserunner. Those two and all of Team Puerto Rico are moving on to the second round — will Boggs and Team USA join them? That will be determined at 3 p.m. Central Time today when USA takes on Canada — winner moves on.

» Continue reading “Catching Up With The Cardinals: Spring Forward Edition”

Dear guys,

Now that the Super Bowl is over, next up — finally — is baseball. It’s just over a week now until you’ll all be in Jupiter, Fla., with Yadi and Tony Cruz and the minor league catchers and the St. Louis Cardinals will finally start moving toward the 2013 season.

Ah … Last October seems like forever ago, so it’s good that our countdown is in the single digits.

As if that alone isn’t enough to get me excited, the season preview articles I’ve read in the past couple days just up my admiration for you collectively all the more. There was this in USA Today last week, “Healthy staff generates optimism in St. Louis,” and a Yahoo Sports preview too. And Jenifer Langosch wrote the “Cardinals boast remarkable depth in rotation,” which of course doesn’t mention all of you in the bullpen who also are a strength of the team.

Pitching, and pitchers, have fascinated me for years, going back to my own very brief and ill-fated softball pitching career. Because you don’t realize, or at least I didn’t, the power the pitcher has over controlling the game. The pace, the momentum, the outcome — it’s all right there, resting on you and when you decide to throw that ball and set the next play in motion.

(And when you walk batter after batter after batter, and your coach ignores your frantic glances to the dugout as you internally plead for him to take you out of the game, so you keep walking batter after batter … well, it stays with you for a very long time. Obviously. Plus, way back in 2000, my own experience made me want to hug Rick Ankiel. And, more recently, made me feel sorry for Ryan Franklin. But enough of that …)

» Continue reading “Cardinal Love Letter: The Pitching Staff”

The St. Louis Cardinals announced the schedule for the team’s 2013 Cardinals Caravan, which will make stops in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee.

The Cardinals will embark on five separate caravans scheduled around the Winter Warm-Up weekend, Jan. 18-21. Three caravans will depart on Friday, Jan. 18, through Saturday, Jan. 19, and two caravan trips are slated for Sunday and Monday, Jan. 20-21.

The Caravans are scheduled to visit 18 total cities throughout Cardinal Nation, including the respective cities of local minor league affiliates Memphis, Tenn.; Springfield, Mo.; and Peoria, Ill.

Several current Cardinals players such as Jon Jay, Marc Rzepczynski, Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Kelly, Pete Kozma and Shelby Miller will take part in the promotional caravans. Numerous other veterans and future stars such as Tony Cruz, Shane Robinson, Adron Chambers and others are also participating. Minor-league future stars involved include 2012 Organizational Player of the Year Oscar Taveras, 2012 Minor League Pitcher of the Year Seth Maness and 2012 first round draft pick Michael Wacha.

» Continue reading “Cardinals Caravan Dates And Lineups Announced”

The Cardinals headed to Nashville with a short check list. The 2013 squad needs middle infield help and left-handed relief. Adding bench depth wouldn’t hurt, either. Other, less likely moves could be made, but that would be out of character for John Mozeliak and company. They generally opt to only make blockbuster moves when it’s absolutely necessary.

Thus far, they’ve kept to that M.O.

After falling out of the hunt for significant upgrades at short or second base (including Marco Scutaro and Yunel Escobar), the focus shifted to solving the lefty relief problem. Sure, we all saw what Marc Rzepczynski can do. But we also saw what happens when the expectations are too high … or the left side of the ‘pen gets lonely. Or something like that.  Sean Burnett seemed to be in play, until he got too expensive.

Still the Cardinals ended the day with a friend for Scrabble: Randy Choate.

He definitely fits the “LOOGY” role. Last season, he pitched in 80 games (44 for the Marlins, 36 for the Dodgers), and just 38.2 innings between the two. In 25.1 innings with Miami, he 7 earned runs on 16 hits, none of them, however, of the home run variety. After being traded to the Dodgers in the front-page Hanely Ramirez trade, he surrendered just one run in his last 13 appearances. For the 2012 season, he held a 3.03 ERA. » Continue reading “Quiet Cards Check One Off The “To-Do” List”

We asked for your votes on the 2012 Cardinal Blogger Awards a couple weeks ago — now it’s our turn to weigh in.

Player of the Year

Chris: No thought required on this one: Yadier Molina, of course. His list of awards recognizing his performance this season is already long and includes a fourth place finish for National League Most Valuable Player, and he was our very easy choice for 2012 Cardinals BAMF (which I’m sure means as much to him as that MVP finish — right?) It’s also great to know Yadi will continue being his BAMF-self for the Cards into the future.

Tara: Yadier Molina. No explanation necessary

Miranda: Yadier Molina. Amazing season for the team’s leader. He really stepped up to be the teammate and player we all knew he could be. And, he’s fast! Who knew?!


Pitcher of the Year

Chris: Jason Motte. Perhaps an unconventional choice, and I did consider Kyle Lohse, but I found Motte’s performance in his first full year as closer impressive. He tied Craig Kimbrel for the NL lead in saves with 42 and he became only the fourth Cards closer to ever have 40 saves in a season (joining an impressive list of Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith and Jason Isringhausen). Plus he received a beard massage from Mark McGwire regularly — no other Cards pitcher can say that. (And, sadly, Motte won’t be able to anymore either.)

Tara: Jason Motte. League-leading saves, plus joining the exclusive 42-saves club? Yeah.

Miranda: Kyle Lohse. Consistently great all season. I’ll miss him!
» Continue reading “Our Choices For The 2012 Cardinal Blogger Awards”