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”

Say what you will about Ty Wigginton. (Most of you have said plenty.)

But for the second time in three games, Wigginton was directly involved in what ended up the game-winning play as the St. Louis Cardinals again beat the New York Mets by a score of 4-2.

And this time he did nothing but stand there.

Yes, it’s from his days on the Pirates, but somehow it still works …

A wild pitch by Mets reliever Scott Rice while Wigginton was pinch-hitting for Matt Adams, who’d been announced as the pinch-hitter for Seth Maness, allowed Daniel Descalso to race home from third to put the Cardinals up 3-2. Wigginton was then intentionally walked to bring Matt Carpenter to the plate.

Maybe Lance Berkman left a little bit of magic behind in that No. 12 jersey.

Or maybe the Cardinals are just on such a roll right now that everything is going their way.

Whatever works!

And things are definitely working — the Cardinals have won 12 of their last 14 games, are 11-2 this month and have the best record in the majors.

Perhaps that is all because of Ty Wigginton’s mere presence …

(Or not.)

» Continue reading “Wigginton Comes Through Again For The Cardinals – Really!”

Think of every synonym for “amazing” that you can. Astonishing. Astounding. Remarkable. Wonderful. Incredible. Marvelous. Brilliant.

And there you have a description of Shelby Miller’s performance in the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 win over the Colorado Rockies.

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Oh, wait — there is one more way to describe it: almost perfect. Just one hit allowed, to Rockies lead-off man Eric Young Jr. in the first inning, a broken-bat bloop into right field.

Then it was 27 straight retired, 13 by strikeout. And eight of those were caught looking — including Troy Tulowitzki three times, Carlos Gonzalez twice and, perhaps poetically, Young for the final out of the game.

The entire performance was just a thing of beauty. See the highlights for yourself, or see them again (because they are certainly worth watching over and over), in a summary of about 90 seconds here.

It was Shelby’s first career complete game — as a professional ballplayer, not just as a big leaguer. According to Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miller said he had worked eight innings only once before, in Class AA.

And, as you can expect, there are many interesting numbers that resulted from the night.

» Continue reading “Shelby Miller Nearly Perfect For The Cardinals”

Losing to the Cubs is annoying. Especially on the heels of sweeping the Brewers and that six-game winning streak. Not to mention, Lance Lynn’s perfect win-loss record was on the line. Against the Cubs. And, no matter how good of a game it was, Cubs fans will take great pride in rubbing this in. At least for a day, they will.

So yes, losing to the Cubs is annoying. But, it’s not devastating. It’s still just one game.

Rivalries are tough, no matter the opponent. Wrigley is tough, no matter the strength of the visiting team. And, if the Cubbies have had one thing going for them this season, it’s starting pitching. So, getting to Travis Wood wasn’t going to be the easiest of ventures.

Allen Craig made Wood pay for a mistake early, launching a line-drive home run to the bleachers in center field. The Redbirds created a few opportunities here and there after that. Every time there were runners on base, though, they stayed there. No one could bring them on home.

Lance Lynn pitched a beauty of a game. Did you realize he didn’t throw a single pitch with a runner in scoring position? Unfortunately, after Alfonso Soriano looped an ankle-high slider over Craig’s head for a single, Lynn made his only mistake of the night — a 91 mph fastball that caught too much of the plate … and then caught a lot of air as it sailed over the still-brown ivy. Cubs lead, 2-1. This game was probably going to lower Lynn’s average run support, too.

Carlos Marmol tried to give the Cardinals a chance later in the game. In the eighth inning, with chances for the Cardinals running out, Yadier Molina singled off of Marmol with two outs, then proceeded to (barely) steal second on an awkward, good-thing-he-missed-the-tag play. Safe, nonetheless. And, Jon Jay walked. Two on. Two outs. Cardinal Nation’s favorite Cub on the mound. Perfect set up, right? » Continue reading “Cardinals: Rivalry Games Are Never Easy”

Six, as every St. Louis Cardinals fan knows, is a serious number. (How about that nice plug for Mobil’s On the Run?)

The Cards current winning streak has now reached serious status thanks to the team’s first-ever four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with Sunday’s 10-1 win.

Also serious, though it has nothing to do with the number six: the Cardinals 20-11 record. It’s the best in the National League, and is tied with the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers (hello, Lance Berkman!) for tops in the majors. The Cards 2 1/2 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds is currently the biggest lead in any division also, tying them with the Rangers and their lead over the Oakland A’s.

But back to Sunday. You know it’s a successful day when it’s a challenge to even figure out what the “good, better and best” of the game would be.

How’s this for good — and it’s another six as well? A six-run second inning got the Cardinals scoring under way. A one-out walk to Daniel Descalso put him on base, while a Pete Kozma single and Jon Jay hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with two outs. (Jaime Garcia fouled out trying to sacrifice the runners up.) Marco Estrada was a little wild, to say the least — back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Shane Robinson and Matt Holliday gave the Cards their first two runs. Then Allen Craig kicked off his big day with a hit that was just fair down the left field line that cleared the bases. Yadier Molina drove him home with a single before David Freese came up for the second time in the inning — and earned the distinction of making the first and last outs.

Seeing is always better, though, right? Here’s a look at all six runs scoring, along with a nice look at the 1913 throwback uniforms both teams were wearing. And for once it really was a High Sock Sunday for nearly everyone!

» Continue reading “Cardinals Winning Streak Gets Serious With Sweep Of Brewers”

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”

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”

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”

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.”