Tag Archives: Kansas City Royals

Five Years Ago Today: Albert’s Fractured Forearm

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NOTE: While the Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals five years ago yesterday, it’s doubtful most of us remember that outcome. Instead, what we remember is this collision between Albert Pujols and Wilson Betemit that forced Albert from the game and onto the disabled list. Five years ago today, we learned the injury was a non-displaced fracture of the left radius and he was supposed to miss four to six weeks — and we soon learned timelines like that meant nothing to Albert, since he was back when his initial 15 days on the DL were up. Still, it was kind of a big deal at the time — as the post below will indicate. You also can read about some names you probably wanted to forget, like Brian Tallett and Miguel Batista. And, as a result of Batista being in the game, there also was a poem. Ah, Poems For The Poet — those were the days … 

Painful Win For Cardinals

Skip Schumaker delivered an improbable walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning, leading the Cardinals to their second consecutive 5-4 win over the Royals. The victory moved the Cards back into a tie for first place in the NL Central.

Albert Pujols reacts after injuring his wrist in Sunday's finale against the Royals.

Albert Pujols reacts after injuring his wrist in Sunday’s finale against the Royals.

The bigger story, however, is Albert Pujols and what happened in the top of the sixth. The details, from Austin Laymance of Cardinals.com:

The inning after his homer gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead, Pujols collided with Wilson Betemit on a play at first base after Betemit hit a slow roller up the middle. Pete Kozma fielded the ball and made a hurried throw that tailed away from first base towards the infield grass. When Pujols lurched for the ball, he made contact with a charging Betemit.

“He hit me in the wrist and shoulder and kind of jammed it back,” Pujols said. “As a first baseman it’s one of the toughest plays to make, it’s almost a bang-bang play and you can’t let the ball go. You risk it and, hopefully, don’t get hurt.”

But Pujols got hurt, and as the slugger went to the ground in obvious pain, an eerie hush fell over the crowd.

The initial report is that Albert has a sprained wrist, and he will be having further tests today. Given the Cardinals history with injury diagnosis — Allen Craig’s broken kneecap not being revealed via x-ray until a week after it happened being just the latest example — perhaps we have reason to worry. Or perhaps not, according to Bernie Miklasz in the Post-Dispatch: Continue reading →

Remember This Cubs Tweet From Saturday Night?

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If you frequent Twitter and were checking it Saturday night, perhaps you saw the Cubs’ reply to the Royals’ tweet about the outcome of that evening’s (unfortunately) rain-shortened game.

CubsTweet

Clever, right? Ha ha, the Cardinals lost, thanks for the huge favor of putting the Cubs one game closer when May isn’t even over yet, Royals! Fist bumps all around!

Sure, it’s great that the person now handling the Cubs Twitter account has a sense of humor and is engaging and interacting with fans. And, sure, it’s certainly Twitter friendly to play up the long-time Cards-Cubs rivalry — look at the number of retweets and favorites of that for proof. Yes, the Cardinals Twitter account certainly could step up the creativity and the interaction … and maybe even take over the “#WeAreGood” hashtag the Cubs account (and Cubs’ fans) love so much.

But have you paid attention to what the Cubs have done since beating the Diamondbacks on Saturday night, after the Royals beat the Cardinals?

On Sunday they lost to the Diamondbacks 4-3, which resulted in them losing the series as well — Arizona won in 13 innings Friday night.

Continue reading →

Since The Cardinals Last Played The Royals …

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It’s been nearly a year since the Cardinals last played the Kansas City Royals. And the Cards in-state rival is certainly in a much different place now that they were when the teams matched up in 2014.

Kansas_City_Royals_logo_gif_360x540_autocrop-True_q85Last year, the Cards hosted the Royals for two games at Busch Stadium on June 2-3 then were the visitors for two at Kauffman Stadium on June 4-5. It was definitely not a good four-game series for the Redbirds, as they lost both games at home before winning the first in K.C. and losing the second. After the final game, the Cardinals record was 31-30 and they were in second place in the NL Central and five games behind the Brewers. We obviously know how that Milwaukee lead held up …

Winning those three games gave the Royals a record of 29-31 and boosted them up from last place in the AL Central to a fourth-place tie with the Minnesota Twins — though both were just four games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers.

Obviously, things improved from there as the Royals went 60-42 throughout the rest of the regular season to clinch one of the AL wild card spots. After the crazy comeback win in 12 innings over the Oakland A’s in the wild card game, they swept their way through the ALDS over the Angels and ALCS over the Orioles to meet up with the stupid, awful, lucky San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

And the Giants are the team the Cardinals saw last October also, in the NLCS, as we unfortunately remember. Before playing for the NL pennant, the Cards went 59-42 through the rest of the regular season to win the NL Central plus defeated the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Continue reading →

Thank You, Matt Carpenter

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When things get ugly for a baseball team — and last night’s bottom of the ninth inning certainly qualifies as ugly for the Cardinals, following several days of ugly losses — someone needs to step up and do something about it.

So thank you, Matt Carpenter, first for this (from Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch):

Matt Carpenter simply wouldn’t let the staggering Cardinals lose yet again. And he wasn’t bashful about letting his feelings be known Wednesday night.

After the Kansas City Royals spoiled a potential shutout by Adam Wainwright with the aid of a strike three that got away in the ninth inning to help them tie the score 2-2, Carpenter, according to manager Mike Matheny, “came into the dugout screaming, ‘We’re not giving this away. This is our game. It’s not going to end like this.’

And then, in the top of the 11th, for this (also from Hummel’s game story):

MCarp-KC Star

Photo: Kansas City Star

Carpenter became the first Cardinal since Ryan Ludwick on Sept. 4, 2009 to get five hits in a game when he doubled off reliever Kelvin Herrera with one out in the 11th inning. It scored Peter Bourjos, who had walked and stolen second base and propelled the Cardinals a 5-2 victory, just their third in their last 10 games.

Words. Action. Success.

Victory.

Tonight is the finale of the home-and-away series against the Royals, as the Cards try to make the visiting team the winner in all four games. Michael Wacha starts for the Cardinals, just after the one-year anniversary of his major league debut against the Royals and just after the two-year anniversary of being the Cards top draft pick, facing Yordano Ventura, the hard-throwing rookie whose left his most recent start because of elbow soreness and then skipped a turn in the rotation. Game time is 7:10 p.m. Central.

Hey Cardinals, Are You There? Do You Even Care?

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Quick, what’s the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the 2014 Cardinals? Underachieving? Frustrating? What-the-hell-is-up-with-these-guys?

faceAll are accurate, but I’m going with frustrating. That’s the exact word used by my Giants fan pal at work when he saw me yesterday: “It must be frustrating to be a Cardinals fan these days,” he said as a form of greeting after his team took three of four.

Yep, it is frustrating.

And, yep, pity from a Giants fan.

Ugh.

Beyond that, though, it’s now been 19 innings since the Cardinals last scored a run, during the seventh inning of Oscar Day on Saturday. Of course, even the excitement of Oscar’s arrival and debut game home run seem long gone by now, with the malaise of back-to-back shutouts by the Giants and the Royals and an offense of seven total hits, 12 strikeouts and 11 left on base combined from those games.

Ho hum.

Hey, Cardinals, are you there? Do you guys even care?

I’ve been wondering that, both in watching these past two games and in reading a post from Scott Wuerz on his Cheap Seats Blog at the Belleville News-Democrat website, which begins like this:

I’m probably wrong. In fact, I hope I am wrong. But it just seems, from the outside looking in, that the St. Louis Cardinals have a bunch of guys on the roster who don’t really get all that excited about playing baseball.

I hadn’t really paid attention until the Arrival of Oscar Taveras, who smiled throughout his debut and seemed to be aware of the fact that he’s the life of the party. They go about their business and I’m not saying that they don’t work hard. But for too many of the Cardinals players it seems like it’s only business, no passion.

Accurate? Seems like it to me, just as a fan watching on TV. Wuerz probably has more insight, given he covers the team so is privy to more than what we see on television or from the stands at Busch. Continue reading →

5 Things To Know About The Royals

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The less said about the Giants series, the better — so let’s look ahead to these next four games when the Cardinals face the Kansas City Royals for two games at Busch Stadium and then two games at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas_City_Royals_logo_gif_360x540_autocrop-True_q85Since it’s been just over a year since the Cards and Royals last met — May 27-30, 2013, to be exact — an update on how the 2014 team is doing seems like a good idea.

Here to provide what we need to know about the Cards’ neighbors to the west on I-70 is Jen Nevius of Drinking the Royals Blue Aid. And you might be surprised as you read on — right now, other than the standings, these two teams are more alike than you might think.

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The Royals are heading into this series with St. Louis with a 26-30 record, good enough for dead last in the American League Central. Not a lot has been going right for the underachieving Royals, especially offensively. That led to a coaching carousel and Dale Sveum taking over the hitting coach duties at the end of his past week.

As a Cardinals fan, what do you need to know about your opponent the next four days? Here are five things to know about the Royals:

1. Power outage: The Royals have hit just 24 home runs this season, the least amount in the Majors. Their current roster has hit 22. Their normal middle of the order — Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler and Alex Gordon — have combined to hit six (with four hit by Gordon).

To go along with that power outage, many complain about how hard it is to hit the long ball at Kauffman Stadium. Well, opponents have hit 25 home runs this season at the K. The Royals? Just 10. Continue reading →