After spending the weekend at Busch Stadium watching the Cardinals play a three game series, there are some notable things to take away that just may improve the sub .500 club.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of getting to continue one of my family’s longtime traditions: watching some St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball at Busch Stadium.
Courtesy CBS St. Louis
My parents and I went up Friday afternoon, ready to watch the Cardinals play three games against their hated NL Central rival, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Unfortunately, St. Louis lost the series–with their only win in the series coming on Sunday night. But the whole experience this past weekend generated many thoughts, with some being on the more negative side, and others being more positive and upbeat.
I’ll do the negative thoughts first and end with the positive ones, in order to end on a good note–which something the Cardinals’ bullpen fails to do at times….which brings me to my first point.
The Negatives
The bullpen is in DESPERATE need of repair
It seems like it has been the same script in all of the Cardinals’ losses this year: Build an early lead behind solid starting pitching and hitting, lose the lead when the middle relievers come in, and ultimately, lose the game. In fact, the Cardinals have lost 16 games this season when leading by two runs or more, and the team’s bullpen currently owns an abysmal 4.37 ERA.
The same thing happened Friday night, as I saw the Cardinals take a 3-2 lead into the eighth behind a two-hitter from Adam Wainwright, only to watch the Pirates tack on one run apiece in both the eighth and ninth innings off relievers Trevor Rosenthal and Seung-Hwan Oh to steal the victory.
St. Louis puts themselves in positions to win, but this inconsistency from the bullpen has been the culprit in far too many losses. It may be time for some changes before the trade deadline on July 31.
The lineup has no consistency
I anxiously sit by my cell phone all day, every day, waiting for the moment that Mike Matheny calls and tells me I am starting for the St. Louis Cardinals that night! Like WOW!
But honestly, with how inconsistent the manager’s lineup card has been lately, it would not totally shock me.
The Cardinals never have the same lineup from night-to-night, and that is a major thing that has attributed to the Redbirds’ sub-.500 record.
The same thing happened when I was at the games this weekend–you had absolutely no idea who he was going to put out there. A prime example is the lineup Saturday night, when Matheny left two of the team’s better hitters (Stephen Piscotty and Aledmys Diaz) out of the lineup for no apparent reason.
The dog days of summer are dawning upon Matheny and the Cardinals, and it is time to find the winning formula…and stick with it. If this “experimenting” continues, then St. Louis will continue to fall behind in a division race that they are only in due to the mediocrity of other NL Central clubs this summer.
Lack of aggression in the organization
Lou Brock, one of the greatest St. Louis Cardinals of all time, set the franchise stolen base record back in 1974 with 118 swipes on the base paths in one season.
In 2017, with almost half of the season over with, the club’s stolen base leader, Tommy Pham, has just SEVEN. That’s right! SEVEN!
Courtesy minor league baseball
Mike Matheny is that guy who blows on his coffee far too long, waiting for it to cool down. He is just FAR too cautious. But whenever you put the steal on, you’re putting pressure on the defense to make a play, and oftentimes they can make a mistake that leads to a run.
But this has become a common consensus in the organization as a whole. It is this way of cautious thinking by GM John Mozeliak that has also resulted in great players such as Albert Pujols, John Lackey, and Jason Heyward leaving St. Louis.
It is time for the Cardinals to become the aggressor in the NL Central again. If not, then it will be a long October and November for Redbirds’ fans.
Well, that’s my negative thoughts. Now on to the section of the column for “the glass is half-full” people.
The Positives
The return of a hero
October 27, 2011, is a night that David Freese will never forget.
A kid from St. Louis and a lifelong Cardinals fan, Freese lofted Mark Lowe’s 3-2 pitch over the wall in dead center to give the Cardinals a 10-9 victory in 11 innings in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals went on to win the Series the next night, with Freese being named MVP.
But Freese would be traded to the LA Angels after the 2013 season before joining the Pirates in March 2016.
Every time the former St. Louis Cardinals’ third baseman stepped into the batter’s box this weekend, the crowd at Busch gave him a warm reception…even when the Cards were losing.
Seeing that was truly one of the greatest experiences of my life, and occurrences like this are one of the reasons we love sports.
The ultimate dream come true
Luke Voit not only grew up in St. Louis and watched and loved the Cardinals like Freese did, but he also attended the same high school as him—Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri.
Courtesy twitter
Voit was called up to the big leagues on Sunday morning after an impressive stint with Triple-A Memphis to start the season, and Freese sent Voit a congratulatory note before the game. Talk about class.
Voit came in as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning on Sunday night, as the crowd roared when he walked up for his first ever MLB at-bat.
He got on base too, just probably not the way he would have liked, taking a 96 MPH fastball from Jhan Marinez in the back. But the 26-year-old Voit was in awe, smiling all the way down to first base, hearing the applause from the fans in the place he’d dreamed of playing his entire life.
Randal with the POP!
Luke Voit wasn’t the only one sent up Interstate 55 from Memphis to St. Louis on Sunday. The Cardinals also welcomed back Randal Grichuk, who has been in the minors for the past month after a subpar start to the season in the Majors.
From the way Grichuk performed, I don’t think he has any desire of going back to Memphis.
Grichuk went 2-for-5 on Sunday night in the win, including a solo shot—a 478-foot bomb to left good for the longest by a Cardinal in Busch Stadium history—-that started the game-tying rally in the bottom of the sixth.
He followed that performance up with another 2-for-5 outing on Monday against Cincinnati, slugging a two-run homer and recording an RBI single in an 8-2 Cards’ win.
Hopefully the 25-year-old is finally reaching his full potential, as his remarkable bat speed gives him the capability to eventually become one of the best power hitters in baseball by the end of his career.
