Tag Archives: Pat Neshek

My Voting For The United Cardinal Blogger Awards

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Each November, the United Cardinal Bloggers vote for awards on that year’s Cardinals season, as well as the best of our peers. Here’s a look at my choices for 2014.

united-cardinal-bloggers-lgCardinals Team Awards
Player of the Year

Nominees: Matt Carpenter, Matt Holliday, Jhonny Peralta

My choice: Jhonny Peralta. He did what he was acquired to do, which was increase the offense by the shortstop, and even led the team in homers with 21 for good measure. Plus he was very good defensively, with the fifth-best defensive WAR in the National League at 2.6.

Pitcher of the Year

Nominees: Lance Lynn, Pat Neshek, Adam Wainwright

My choice: Lance Lynn. While a case could be made easily for either of the other two (and especially Adam Wainwright), my pick is for Lynn because of the complete season he put together. No post-All Star slump, as he had a 2.22 ERA after the break compared to 3.14 before, plus he had a 3-0 record and 1.99 ERA in August to lead the team when Wainwright struggled through a “dead arm” period. Lynn also had career bests in ERA at 2.74, WHIP at 1.26 and bWAR at 3.7.

Game of the Year

Nominees: May 20 (Adam Wainwright one-hitter), May 31 (Oscar Taveras debut), NLDS Game One, NLDS Game Four, NLCS Game Two

My choice: NLDS Game Four. Beating Clayton Kershaw once in October, after the tremendous regular season that would earn him both the NL Cy Young and MVP awards, was terrific. Doing it again, to clinch the division series, with Matt Adams doing all the damage with a three-run seventh inning homer? Incredible. Just take a look at that homer again, and the reactions from Kershaw as well as the Cardinals players, the crowd (go, Mrs. DeWitt!) and of course Adams himself. Continue reading →

Good, Bad, Ugly, Joy All In Game Two Win

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We all love happy game endings — no matter what it takes to get there.

Game2

Photos: St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLToday.com

Of course, we shouldn’t expect the 2014 Cardinals to do anything different in October than what they did the previous six months before they reached the NLCS, right? Why wouldn’t Game Two of the NLCS be filled with drama and a range of emotions, when it’s this team playing? The Cards had good, bad and ugly before the ultimately satisfying and joyful conclusion of a walk-off 5-4 win over the Giants.

Actually, we probably didn’t expect how they won last night. Four home runs from the team that hit the fewest in the National League during the regular season — even though they had turned on the power in the NLDS against the Dodgers.

You really can’t script October.

Although, if we could, we certainly wouldn’t want any kind of story to include an injury to Yadier Molina.

But that unfortunately happened, as a strained left oblique forced him from the game in the sixth inning. No update on his condition yet today, but we all know that kind of injury takes time to heal.

The game was tied 2-2 when Yadi left, after the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the first on (who else but) Matt Carpenter’s solo homer and a 2-0 lead with a bases-loaded Randal Grichuk single. Both obviously contributed to the “good” portion of the game. Continue reading →

A Hard Team Not To Love, Mike? Well …

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“It hasn’t been easy,” Matheny said. “There haven’t been a lot of laughers one way or the other. They show grit. They show fight. It’s a hard team not to love.”

571eea2e-3e4e-4d1d-acab-86c899b22278The Cardinals won last night 5-4, their second straight walk-off win over the Reds — this one on a walk-off hit by pitch to Jon Jay (although it wasn’t the first time this season the Cards won in that way.) The victory put them at a season-high 11 games over .500. And, following the game, manager Mike Matheny said the above words.

It’s a hard team not to love. Hmmmm. How many fans feel that way about the 2014 Cardinals?

There’s certainly been a lot of discontent among Cardinals fans this season, more than I remember seeing in a very long time, and I am right there with those not enjoying things much. The main reason: Mike Matheny.

In a post from Monday at Viva El Birdos — Mathenaging: Mike Matheny doubles down on double standards — Ben Humphrey really captures the discontent well. If you just need a quick summary, the subhead from that post will do: “Manager Mike Matheny is not the Leader of Men the Cardinals sold us upon his hire.”

Sure, I know not every fan feels that way — I see the giddy social media posts and the tweets exclaiming how their record is even better now than it was at this point in 2011 and the continued gushing over Matheny’s looks. Continue reading →

A Photo In Honor Of Today’s Cardinals Win

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After the sad photos to describe Friday and Saturday’s games, here’s one to summarize today’s 8-3 Cardinals win.

happypanda

Eight runs! Seventeen hits — although the first 13 of them were singles! Seven for 16 with runners in scoring position! Four hits for Kolten Wong! Two hits — including the first extra-base hit — and an RBI from Daniel Decalso! A home run by Peter Bourjos! Lance Lynn — not spectacular but good enough especially when he needed to be! Pat Neshek with six Orioles up and six Orioles down in order! Trevor Rosenthal with a 1-2-3 inning! (Thankfully, since it wasn’t a save situation.) No homers by the Orioles! Mike Matheny challenged a call and it was overturned! And a highly entertaining ejection of Buck Showalter! Continue reading →

3 Hits, 2 RBI, 1 Great Game For Shane Robinson

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Shane Robinson hasn’t gotten a lot of attention this season, and probably rightfully so. He hadn’t done much, hitting just .100 before he was sent to Memphis in late April and, now that he was recalled this week, flying out as a pinch-hitter on Wednesday night to drop his average to .095.

Then came last night.

shane robinson

Photo: STLToday.com

Robinson started in right field (with Allen Craig at first and Matt Adams getting a day off) and definitely made a big impact: three hits and two RBI that tied the game in leading the Cardinals to a 4-2 win and sweep of the Diamondbacks. He also scored the final run of the game on Matt Carpenter’s RBI single.

Great to see for Shane? Definitely. Plus his success — two singles and a two-RBI double — boosted his batting average all the way to .200. Progress!

Also great to see: Allen Craig driving in the go-ahead run in the seventh, after he singled in the sixth. Craig still isn’t the Craig we’ve gotten used to, but he’s showing signs at times. Progress!

Plus all four runs by the Cardinals came with two outs. With those, the Cards as a team are now hitting .217/.320/.343 with two outs and runners in scoring position and .235/.322/.334 with RISP overall. Progress!

With just two runs allowed, the pitching obviously went well — although you certainly wouldn’t have known that if you glanced at Twitter during the first inning, when Lance Lynn allowed two runs on three hits and a sacrifice fly. Calamity! Lance Lynn is the worst! OMG! Release him! They’re doomed! Continue reading →

Winning Makes For A Better Night All Around

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From the very beginning, things were much improved for the St. Louis Cardinals compared to Friday night. For that matter, things were much improved in facing the Pittsburgh Pirates Francisco Liriano than they had been during the entire 2013 regular season when they only scored two runs off him in three games.

Last night, the Cardinals scored two runs before they even made two outs in the top of the first and finished that inning with a 3-0 lead. Matt, Matt and Matt all played a role as Carpenter led off with a single, Holliday drove him in following a Jhonny Peralta walk and Adams followed an Allen Craig sacrifice fly and Yadier Molina single with an RBI single of his own.

Allen Craig

Allen Craig driving in a run, always a good thing. (Photo: STLToday.com)

And though Liriano settled in and began throwing like his usual self facing the Cards, retiring 13 straight from the second inning through the sixth, Yadi homered to make the final total on the night four runs allowed.

That kind of game is so much better, as the Cardinals ultimately won 6-1 since Jhonny Peralta has apparently decided the only kind of hits he’s going to get as a Cardinal are home runs — he hit a two-run shot in the ninth with Matt Carpenter on base. (Now, if only Peter Bourjos can get that bat going …)

With just a lone run scored by the Pirates, it’s obvious the pitching was much better too. Yes, Pirates Stopper Joe Kelly retains that title once again. And while it wasn’t necessarily the most efficient of outings for him — the run allowed came on a bases-loaded walk, one of four he gave up for the night along with six hits and four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings — it was good enough to get the job done. Continue reading →

7 Things We Learned From The Cardinals Crazy 7-6 Win

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Attention, everyone worried about the St. Louis Cardinals offense through the first two games: the bats are still there, the Cards know how to use them, and they can indeed still hit and score runs. They just needed another long rain delay to figure that out …

And another long delay was definitely in store before the Cardinals 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Once it finally began, it was about as crazy as the amount of time they spent waiting to play on Wednesday and Thursday. No pitchers’ duel this time, although some great pitching to close it out. And here are seven things we learned.

collage-4-41. Lance Lynn is Lance Lynn

Your opinion of Lance Lynn’s performance yesterday depends on your opinion of Lance Lynn. To his legion of detractors, it was just another typical start and emphasized why you can’t stand him. Of course he had a bad inning — this time it was the first, when he allowed back-to-back mammoth home runs to put the Reds up 3-0 — and of course his luck from last year of getting tremendous run support continued.

If you like Lynn, yes, the bad inning frustrated as it always does but he settled in after that and gave up plenty of hits but limited the damage.

2. Trevor Rosenthal is Trevor Rosenthal

Continue reading →

Yadi + Wainwright + Bullpen = Opening Day Happiness

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When there are nine tight, tense and dramatic innings that end with the St. Louis Cardinals on the right side of 1-0 Opening Day victory over the Cincinnati Reds, it’s pretty hard to be unhappy about it.

collageOpeningDayWhen the lone run is courtesy of a Yadier Molina seventh inning homer — after the crowd had already been booing him all day? Great.

When Adam Wainwright throws seven scoreless innings and gives up only three hits while striking out nine to not only pick up his first-ever Opening Day win but also the 100th of his career? Even better.

When we get to see Kevin Siegrist, Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal throw 21 of their combined 28 pitches for strikes to get the final six outs of the game — especially when three of those outs are in a messy eighth inning? Fantastic.

Oh, and for Johnny Cueto to pitch nearly as well as Wainwright by allowing just Yadi’s homer and two other hits while striking out eight Cardinals in seven innings — and be the losing pitcher? What more could you want?

Well, sure, you could want to not see the Cardinals defense commit three errors. Yet each of the three who committed those errors — birthday boy Peter Bourjos, Kolten Wong and Matt Adams — also made good defensive plays. The first inning catch by Bourjos was great (and, sadly, not worthy of being a video highlight from the game according to MLB’s website) and proved right away why his speed will be such an asset. Continue reading →

Is It Time To Worry About The Cardinals Bullpen?

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Spring training games don’t count, but spring performances are what determine the final St. Louis Cardinals roster that will take the field on Opening Day in Cincinnati March 31. And some spring pitching performances have been awfully unpleasant.

collage318Now it’s true that pitchers sometimes work on specific pitches and take risks they wouldn’t otherwise do when the games count — Adam Wainwright focused just on his curveball in Sunday’s game against the Mets, for example. But is it time to get concerned about the bullpen — or at least some components of it?

Looking at all 30 MLB teams this spring, the Cardinals team ERA through yesterday is 6.27 — tied for last in baseball with the Texas Rangers. Cardinals pitchers have given up 105 earned runs (108 runs total) in 150 2/3 spring innings.

Break that down to starters vs. relievers and the picture changes considerably. The ERA for Cards starters is 3.63, which is fourth-best in the National League and ninth-best in MLB. And for the relievers, it’s 7.66 — not surprisingly last, but more than a full run worse than the team directly ahead of them, the Rangers at 6.18, and two runs worse than the NL team ahead of them, the Padres at 5.42.

Since we need a little good news after that, let’s look at those who are excelling — beginning with closer Trevor Rosenthal. Nothing to worry about with him. After being slowed by a strained groin in late February that kept him from appearing in a game until March 8, he’s now pitched five total innings and allowed one earned run on a homer while striking out five and walking three for an ERA of 1.80. No saves, but no save opportunities yet either.

Having nearly identical stats — same number of games, innings, earned run on a homer, ERA and strikeouts — although with two saves in two opportunities is Kevin Siegrist. No worries there.

Randy Choate has pitched 5 2/3 innings over six games and allowed just two hits while striking out six and walking two. Hard to improve on an ERA of 0.00.

Continue reading →

Catching Up With the Cardinals, Current and Former Edition

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With spring training games under way (Michael Wacha today — yay!) plus the opportunity to get a look at the newest Cardinals, it also means we have the chance to see those who’ve moved on to other teams.

Yep, it still feels weird.

Freese-angels

Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

I had the chance to see the highlight of David Freese’s first Angels spring at-bat on MLB Network on Friday. Since he was in red, that wasn’t too jarring — but seeing the 6 on his back is definitely different. The result of a ground-out? Well, yeah, we’ve seen that before. Not that spring results matter, especially at-bats in the first game.

Here’s an article on Freeser from the Los Angeles Times and his perspective on leaving his hometown team. And, though the pic above is not from the Times article, he looks a little awkward … although we should probably be thankful the photo is not as awkward as all the Angels photos this year have been.

Skip+Schumaker+Cincinnati+Reds+Photo+Day+h7Koaytz7xJlSpeaking of awkward former Cardinals photos, thanks to Kelly for passing this one of Skip Schumaker along. Well, “thanks” meaning “ugh, yeah, we’ll share the pain of this with you.”

Because, yeah, it is nice to see Skip in red again … sure, but not that red.

And apparently Reds writers feel the same way, saying that Skip spent eight years with the “much-despised Cardinals.” Although isn’t Hal McCoy the one who wrote the article with the infamous and idiotic Brandon Phillips quotes back in 2010? And Phillips and “that” whole thing is referenced in here, as well as in this article from the Reds MLB.com site, as Skip calls him the “best second baseman in the big leagues.”

Ouch.

Continue reading →