Tag Archives: Gerrit Cole

Can Shelby Miller Break His Pirates’ Curse?

Posted on by
Reply

A quiet St. Louis Cardinals offense, a 3-5 road trip that included losing three of four to the New York Mets (ouch), back to Busch Stadium to begin a six-game home stand with Shelby Miller facing the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Shelby-MillerWelcome home?

Maybe, hopefully, tonight will be the time Miller manages to shut down the Pirates and find success. He’s 0-5 in his career against the Pirates with a 5.93 ERA and has allowed 20 earned runs in 27 1/3 innings along with 9 home runs.

He started against them three weeks ago tonight and pitched 5 1/3 innings while giving up 5 runs on 6 hits (3 of those hits were homers) and walked 3 while only striking out 2.

The bright side — yes, there is one after all that — is the Pirates are struggling lately too. They are 9-14 at the moment and just completed a 2-6 home stand, losing 3 of 4 to both the Brewers and the Reds. (The Brewers still have the best record in MLB, by the way, at 16-6 and have a 4 1/2 game lead in the NL Central over the Cardinals.) Continue reading →

Whose Birthday Wish Will Come True?

Posted on by
Reply

Adron Chambers of the Cardinals was born on Oct. 8, 1986. Yesterday he turned 27.

Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates was born on Oct. 10, 1986. Tomorrow he turns 27.

collage-10-9Chances are very good that both have the same birthday wish, as the Cardinals and Pirates prepare to battle in Game Five of the NLDS tonight: to be spraying champagne in the clubhouse after his team’s victory, since he and his team will be moving on to face the Dodgers in the NLCS.

Since it’s the decisive Game Five, of course, only one’s wish will come true.

Tonight’s game is the 24th time in 2013 the two teams have played each other. No surprises left at this stage, nothing new — even though last Friday, in Game Two, the Cardinals did actually have something new in facing Gerrit Cole for the first time.

But we know how that played out, with Cole allowing only two hits (including a Carlos Beltran home run) in six innings as the Pirates cruised to a 7-1 win. Chambers had his only at-bat of the series in the sixth inning as he pinch-hit for Randy Choate and launched a long fly deep to centerfield — which McCutchen caught.

Cole will start tonight, facing Adam Wainwright.

We obviously know how Wainwright did in Game One, shutting down the Pirates for seven innings and giving up only three hits (including a Pedro Alvarez home run) while the Cardinals had an easy 9-1 victory. McCutchen had one of those hits, a fourth inning single. He singled again in the ninth inning, off Trevor Rosenthal — something he couldn’t do with two out in the bottom of the ninth in Monday’s Game Four. He popped out to Matt Carpenter to end the game and send us to tonight’s Game Five.

Continue reading →

Bizarro World Takes Over Cardinals In Game Two

Posted on by
Reply

Emotions are always higher in October. Friday’s NLDS Game Two unfortunately gave us an unwelcome reminder — just as wins are sweeter in the postseason, losses are even more painful.

NLDS game 2

Photos: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It was another sunny and beautiful afternoon at Busch Stadium, but Game Two quickly became a bizarro world replay of Game One. Everything was reversed, as the Pirates won 7-1.

Well, Lance Lynn didn’t quite do an A.J. Burnett impression, as the five runs he allowed were over three separate innings instead of just one, but he looked more like the Lynn of August instead of September. Unfortunately.

The defensive misplays? The Cardinals this time, although only one official error — by David Freese — compared to the three by the Pirates on Thursday. But Jon Jay misjudged a fly ball in the second that fell in and bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. Yadier Molina — yes, Yadi — didn’t get a pop-up behind the plate. Matt Carpenter couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in what could have been a double play.

The bullpen management by Mike Matheny also was interesting, to say the least.

Continue reading →

And Then There Were Two: Cards Face Pirates In NLDS

Posted on by
Reply

Pirates vs CardsWith the Pirates handily beating the Reds in last night’s Wild Card game, they are now set to return to face the team that snatched the division title out from underneath them. A team they’ve beaten 10 times this season, including four in a row during one abnormally difficult stretch for the now NLC Champs. The Pirates have been a thorn in the Cardinals’ side all season. And it’s not over yet.

Sure, the Reds would have likely been an easier challenge. They seemed to run out of steam about a a week ago. Not to mention, the Cardinals have fared far better against Cincy than Pittsburgh in 2013. Avoiding the pesky Pirates in another five-game series would have boosted the Cardinals’ chances.

But, as they say, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. And between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati? The best team is headed to St. Louis.

One more time this season, the Cardinals better be doing their homework on the Pirates.

Continue reading →