There’s not much good that can be said about last night’s 17-5 Cardinals loss to the Cubs. It was ugly, period, and the sole bright spot may have been Daniel Descalso coming in to pitch with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. It’s too bad that Mike Matheny let Randy Choate stay in the game and struggle long enough to allow six runs. Because, once Descalso came trotting out to the mound, at least the crowd finally got into the game.

Scrappiness personified — look at the dirty uniform while he’s pitching!

That’s the beauty of watching a position player pitch. Sometimes horrible blowout games happen — it’s a fact of baseball life. And the entertainment value of staying with a game like that is seeing a non-pitcher out there.

Obviously, this blog’s name is a tribute to the Cardinals’ master of position player pitching. And I did see Aaron Miles pitch in person — the last time the Cardinals gave up 17 runs in a game, actually, on Aug. 3, 2010, against the Astros. The photo is from that night.

Miles made five appearances on the mound for the Cardinals and pitched five full innings, with a career 3.60 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. The five appearances are the third-highest total for a non-pitcher since 1900, behind Vance Law and Eddie Lake. And, courtesy of a post from the early days of AMF in January 2011, here’s a look at Aaron’s outings. (Click the date for the MLB.com article on each game.)

1. Aug. 4, 2007
Nationals 12, Cardinals 1

Cardinals lowlights: Joel Piniero gave up five runs in one inning, though only four earned on his own error. Mike Maroth (remember him?) also gave up five runs, though only two earned on Adam Kennedy’s error. Brad Thompson gave up the final two runs.

Aaron highlights: One inning pitched, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, three batters faced, nine pitches. It was his first time pitching since high school. Continue reading →

If you’re wondering where Aaron Miles is these days, we are here to help. We’re not named after his pitching prowess for nothing. (And if you’re not wondering about him — well, it does get your mind off the current Cardinals’ troubles momentarily.)

You’ll remember that Aaron was with the Dodgers last year. (You of course recall his homer off pitcher Skip Schumaker in that terrible sweep in August, right? It was his revenge on the Cardinals.) He was a free agent after the season ended and remained unsigned through spring training and up until a few weeks ago, when he signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers.

Aaron made his debut at Triple-A Albuquerque on May 21. Yesterday, the Isotopes faced the Round Rock Express — and their new pitcher Roy Oswalt. That batter/pitcher match-up prompted our fellow Cardinals blogger Chris Mallonee of Birds on the Bat 82 to snap and then tweet me this picture.

And that picture launched a hundred more tweets.

Or, rather, the plumpness of our old pal’s posterior did.

Yes, Miranda and I are not ashamed to admit that we spent time conversing with several of our Twitter pals about that very topic — and its increased size from what we remembered.

Continue reading →