You know it’s a good night when you begin your major league pitching career by getting an at-bat before you even take the mound.

And it definitely was a good night — actually, a great night — for Tyler Lyons in his debut last night as the Cardinals beat the Padres 5-3.

Thanks to a lead-off walk to Matt Carpenter, an RBI triple to right for Matt Holliday, an RBI single by Allen Craig and an RBI double by Daniel Descalso, the Cardinals were leading 3-0 when Lyons strode to the plate in the top of the first inning. There were two outs, the bases were loaded and it would have been a true fairy-tale moment if that 2-1 fly ball to left had dropped in for a hit instead of into Jesus Guzman’s glove.

It didn’t … then.

In the sixth inning, again up with two outs but the bases empty, the liner to left was a base hit — take a look.

Also a hit, in a different sense of the word? Lyons pitching. Seven innings, four hits, one run on a homer to Jedd Gyorko in the seventh, one walk, four strikeouts.

» Continue reading “Tyler Lyons: Another Rookie Starter, Another Successful Debut”

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”

John Gast (screen shot)

It was a spectacular start to the major league career of John Gast. It was even more spectacular that he got plenty of run support in his debut! The Cardinals defeated the Mets 10-4 Tuesday night.

First off, let’s discuss this smooth lefty!

The first Mets batter Gast faced, Justin Turner, was thrown three pitches. All three pitches were strikes. Poor Justin didn’t know what was going on, it seemed!

The amazing start continued from there for Gast.

He threw 71 pitches over the course of six innings. Of the 71, 48 of those pitches were strikes. He threw three strikeouts.

Gast did give up six hits, a walk and had four earned runs thanks to some struggles in the sixth. According to Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “Gast did stumble in the sixth, allowing three straight batters to reach with one out. A botched rundown later extended the inning long enough for Marlon Byrd to connect for a two-run homer. But maintaining his poise, Gast closed his outing with a strikeout — the same result with which he had opened his night.”

Langosch also reported Gast was “[t]he first Cardinals left-hander to make his debut as a starter since Rick Ankiel in 1999. Gast is now the first lefty starter to win a debut since Allen Watson in 2002. Asked how the long-time dream measured up to reality, Gast answered: “It was pretty close.”‘

Very exciting for the 24-year-old. I know I am far from alone in looking forward to more great starts from this guy! » Continue reading “Gast Hot In MLB Debut”

Apparently, Ty Wigginton has been hiding wheels.

On a night where nothing came easily, Wigginton was the guy who came through in the clutch. Twitter nearly exploded at the hit (scored a double, but it was in and out of a diving Rick Ankiel’s glove), and then went postal as Wiggy dashed for home on a miscue by the Mets’ pitcher that left home plate wide open.

Here’s how the play went down, as described by Rick Hummel:

Matt Carpenter, who again reached base three times from the leadoff spot, lined a ball off the foot of reliever Scott Rice.

As the ball rolled down the first-base line, Rice started to pursue — as did catcher John Buck, who finally corralled it. This, of course, left nobody covering home.

Third-base coach Jose Oquendo, in Wigginton’s eyesight, pointed that the catcher and pitcher both had gone for the ball. The rest was up to the 35-year-old Wigginton.

“As I was breaking to third, I saw Buck going after the ball and home plate was going to be open, so I took a chance,” Wigginton said.

“The play’s in front of me, so you’re probably the best base coach there is. If you can see the play, you go ahead and take your chance.”

That chance scored a run, and that run broke a 3-3 tie. Clutch? … sure. For one night, anyway.

(Time out. I have to be honest. At precisely the moment pictured above, I was yelling, “No, no, no, no!!” The play developed so quickly, all I knew was Wiggy was trying to score from second on an infield hit that went off the pitcher’s foot. My apologies, Sir Wigginton. I didn’t trust your call. Thank you, though, for proving me wrong with that heads-up play!) » Continue reading “Cards Do Battle And Ride Wiggy’s Wheels To Victory”

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”

Two big, fat, ugly streaks ended for the St. Louis Cardinals tonight!

Jake Westbrook’s attempt to win his 100th career victory came after two failed attempts. And David Freese’s ugly little streak where he couldn’t get hits or score runs was also foiled.

‘Bout. Time. Amirite?!

Let’s discuss the good coming from Thursday night’s game. I have some bad, ugly, awfulness to discuss and then I promise to make you laugh. OK? All right. Let’s go!

Awesomeness: How about that third inning for the Cardinals? Wow!

The top of the third started out with Pete Kozma flying out to Ryan Braun. Jake singles to center. Matt Carpenter singles to left. Carlos Beltran flies out. Matt Holliday gets hits by a pitch to load up the bases. Allen Craig singles to score Jake and Marp. Yadi singles to score MattyHo. Freesey singles to score Craig! Jon Jay singles. Pete Kozma singles to score Yadi and Freesey.

See what I mean? Awesome! Jake even helped himself!

Speaking of Jake and Awesomeness. Jake earned his second victory of the season and his 100th of his career on a six inning performance. He gave up six hits, one run, three walks and struck out four.

Now let’s get to the bad, ugly, awfulness. Yes. Quiet. We have to.

The bullpen blows, y’all. It was almost as if they didn’t want Jake to get that 100th victory.

Joe Kelly entered the game in the seventh and only pitched two-thirds of that inning. He gave up two hits and two earned runs. He did strike out Ryan Braun. And that is quite acceptable!

What isn’t acceptable. Mitchell Boggs. Whew. Goodness.  » Continue reading “Bad Streaks End As Cards Win Despite Pen”

Now that’s the way to return to Busch Stadium.

The St. Louis Cardinals had quite a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night, filled with home runs and hits and inside pitches — some connecting with flesh, some not — and even a couple minutes of reliever drama. In the end, the Cardinals won 9-1.

And their hitting started right away. Matt Carpenter led off the game with a home run off Jonathan Sanchez, which Carlos Beltran followed up with one of his own. Matt Holliday then singled, bringing Allen Craig to the plate. Sanchez threw up and in, hitting Craig in the left shoulder — and umpire Tim Timmons ejected Sanchez. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle argued about it, and was ejected too.

Things settled down somewhat after that, although Lance Lynn did hit Starling Marte — who was crowding the plate — twice, and Lynn himself hit the ground later when a pitch from Jared Hughes was inside as he attempted to bunt. The Pirates hitting coach was ejected after Marte’s second hit-by-pitch. (And, since video is better than words, you can see all the night’s HBP drama here including the Pirates’ broadcasters perspective on some of it).

» Continue reading “Cardinals: Homers, Hits And Hit-By-Pitches — Oh My!”

If ever there were a time to get a sweep, this was the time to do it. The St. Louis Cardinals swept the Washington Nationals Wednesday afternoon with a 4-2 victory.

The Fox Sports Midwest crew pointed out another interesting tidbit about this sweep … it was the first time the Cardinals swept either the Expos or Nationals outside of St. Louis since September 1969.

Wow. Just. Wow!

So many great things about this game. Let’s discuss!

* Matt Holliday. Is he ever not clutch? Wow! Yes, that was sarcasm, kiddos! Yesterday he was 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI. In the eighth inning, Matty Ho singled on a grounder to short allowing Matt Carpenter to score. Matt Carp scored the fourth run of the day. A pretty pivotal insurance run for the Cards.

* Matt Carpenter. He was also 3 for 4. He scored two runs. In addition to the run he scored when Holliday drove him in, Marp led off the game with a double. With Holliday and Carlos Beltran also on base, Yadi singled a liner to Jayson Werth, scoring Carp and Holliday. One more run came in that inning as Daniel Descalso reached on a force to score Beltran.

Yay for productive first innings!

* Dirty Dan. He gets playing time sporadically these days. So why did he get the call Wednesday? According to a tweet from Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold:

Questions about Descalso playing today should be met with the answer:Garcia is pitching. Matheny goes with the good-hands team. #stlcards

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 24, 2013

* Jon Jay. Hey! Coming off the bench certainly seemed to work for you this time! He broke an 0 for 21 streak with a single to center field in the eighth inning. Hopefully this was just the kick start he needed.    

* Cardinals Pitching. The starting pitching remained great and the relief staff seemed a little more … settled. Jaime Garcia improved to 2-1 on season. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four hits and one earned run. He walked one and struck out three. Excellent for Jaime!

Joe Kelly got another pitching appearance! He even got a little bit of a longer appearance this time too! Kelly pitched 1.1 innings. He gave up two hits and made things a little interesting and tense for a few moments. But he struck out two, including the last batter he faced. That K seemed to give Kelly a jolt of needed confidence. By the way, seriously enjoyed these tweets from  Goold regarding Pitching Coach Derek Lilliquist and Kelly.

The Ferrari is coming out for a spin. #stlcards #Cardinals #nats — Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 24, 2013

It was Derek Lilliquist who called Joe Kelly a “Ferrari in the garage,” the explanation is here: bit.ly/11kXQK7 #stlcards #cardinals — Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 24, 2013

#Cardinals RHP Joe “Ferrari” Kelly hits 98 mph with his fifth pitch of a key strikeout there in the sixth inning. No longer in the garage. — Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 24, 2013

Next up, Trevor Rosenthal pitched the 8th inning. He gave up one hit. Guess what that one hit was, my friends? That would be a home run to Jayson Werth to make it 4-2. He walked Bryce Harper and then settled down and struck out the next two batters – Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond.

Edward Mujica came in to pitch the ninth and earned his fourth save of the season by getting hitters to either fly or ground out.

* Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals star pitcher didn’t look as amazing as we have been lead to believe. He pitched seven innings and while he did strike out seven, he also gave up five hits, a walk and three earned runs. It is the first of the season still. He will come around and pitch lights out, I’m sure. Hopefully not against the Cardinals though!

The Cardinals are now 13-8 with a half game lead over the Cincinnati Reds, who play the Nationals this weekend. The Cardinals start a series at Busch against the Pirates tomorrow night.

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

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”