Tag Archives: Seth Maness

There Is A Bright Side To The Cardinals Losing To The White Sox

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Obviously, it’s never fun when the Cardinals lose a game — even when they have the best record in baseball (though, even after two losses, the next team closest to their 51 wins is the Astros at 47) . It’s even less fun when they lose two in a row to a team that is as bad as the White Sox.

Positive-AttitudeYet that’s where we are right now, after the late-and-very-rain-delayed 7-1 loss in which Seth Maness and Randy Choate created quite a mess for Marcus Hatley to wade into during the ninth inning (yes, the water-logged description was intentional) and make his major league debut. A 2-1 Sox lead grew out of hand into that final score.

Ah, well. That’s baseball.

Want to know the bright side?

Seeing the Sox sweep the two-game series from the Cards annoys Cubs fans.

Just Tuesday night’s win did the trick.

I got a message from my long-time friend and long-time Cubs fan Debbie yesterday. “So how can the Cubs get swept by the Cardinals and then the White Sox find a way to win last night?? Just doesn’t seem right!”

Sure, it’s a mild annoyance — and the fact the Cubs have won two straight over the Mets to now trail the Cards by only 9 1/2 games in the NL Central helps improve their moods, I’m sure.

Still, there is one thing that can unite Cardinals fans and White Sox fans everywhere: success that ticks off Cubbies fans. A two-game sweep by the Sox over the Cards is obviously nothing like the South Siders winning the World Series in 2005 followed by the Cardinals winning in 2006 as far as really annoying those North Siders fans.

But it’s enough to take the sting out of these two losses a bit.

The Bullpen Had A Rough Night, But …

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Yes, things got a little ugly from the bullpen last night — unexpectedly rough performances from Mitch Harris and Seth Maness in particular as the Detroit Tigers ended up beating up on the Cardinals by a final score of 10-4. I will admit I turned the game off in the top of the ninth inning (although that was also because I had to be up very early this morning more than anything).

MediaWiki_Emoticons_StareA quick check of social media last night and this morning shows that — as expected — there was great furor from many Cardinals fans over the eight runs allowed once starter Carlos Martinez pitched five innings and allowed two runs.

However …

Last night was one game, and the Cardinals still have the best record in the majors. They’ve played 35 games now, with that being only the 11th time they’ve lost.

I’ll put my sparkly pom-poms away now and take a look at some numbers instead.

Even with last night, the Cardinals still have the best team ERA in baseball.

Overall ERA

They have the best starter ERA in baseball.

StarterERA

And, while yesterday at this time they had the best reliever ERA in baseball at 1.90 or something similar, they didn’t fall that far based on one bad night.

Reliever ERA

Plus, since every day is a new day in baseball, the bullpen disaster can be all forgotten starting at 1:15 p.m. when the Cards and Tigers are back at it again. Sure, a starter match-up of David Price vs. Tyler Lyons might make you cringe a little bit — but that’s why they play the games.

 

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 Positive Stat For The Cardinals Offense

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The season-long struggles of the 2014 Cardinals on offense are much discussed and well documented, so there’s no need to get into those. And that might be why I was surprised to hear last night of an offensive category in which the Cardinals lead the National League — a positive category, that is.

thumbs-upDid you know the Cardinals are tops in the NL in two-out RBI? That little tidbit was courtesy of Greg Brown on the Pirates radio broadcast last night (and, yes, I will often listen to the other team’s announcers instead). The Cardinals may be 13th in the NL in total RBI with 474 for the season, but 196 of those have come with two outs. That two-out total is six better than the second-place Dodgers, and just two behind the AL leading A’s.

The game-tying RBI by pinch-hitter Randal Grichuck (welcome back!) in the seventh inning last night was with two outs to add to the Cards lead in that category. Of course, the ultimate outcome of the game was not good as the Cards lost 5-2 on a pinch-hit home run by Ike David off Seth Maness in the bottom of the eighth.

Sigh.

The Cards and Pirates are back at it in just a few hours, with game time at 11:35 a.m. Central and a pitching match-up of Adam Wainwright vs. Jeff Locke. Here’s hoping the Cardinals can win to take the series — then at least they can have a split for this Pennsylvania road trip.

Today’s Loss In 3 Sentences

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Cardinals Loss 2You’d never think a team could leave 17 runners on base and win.

Yet that’s what happened to the Nationals, as they beat the Cardinals 3-2 on a one-out bases-loaded walk-off sacrifice fly by Denard Span with a five-man infield and Seth Maness pitching.

Boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo.

Let’s See, Can We Find 3 Positives About That 12-2 Loss?

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Well, that was ugly.

question-markNot that the St. Louis Cardinals losing 12-2 can ever be pleasant, yet that just seemed exceedingly terrible as things went on.

Because it wasn’t awful when Matt Carpenter homered to make it 3-2 in the fifth inning and Gerrit Cole looked to be struggling as much as Shelby Miller had, plus Miller then retired the Pirates in order in the fifth.

But then came the sixth. Followed by the seventh. And, unfortunately, the eighth. A bullpen nightmare, from bad to worse.

Which made me remember something I forgot to include in yesterday’s series preview: the Cardinals weren’t very successful at PNC Park last year. I should have remembered that — I was there for the Labor Day weekend series, after all, and sat through two painful losses in person (in which Shelby Miller was the starter on a Friday night for a little deja vu to last night) plus watched all the rest on TV. The Cards only won three games out of 10 in Pittsburgh during the regular season last year, one of two (Michael Wacha!) in the NLDS. But it’s a new year — things should be different. Right?

Ah, well. Just one game …

And there’s plenty that could be said about Russell Martin interfering at third base and the relief pitching and the batting order below Matt Holliday not doing anything and 0-8 with runners in scoring position and Peter Bourjos’ struggles but the reality is that was the fourth game of the year. Too soon to panic. 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.

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What Could Keep The Cardinals From Winning The NL Central?

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It’s a good week ahead, right? Spring training games begin on Friday — just the final step before real baseball games — and the outlook is good for the talented and deep 2014 St. Louis Cardinals.

united-cardinal-bloggers-lgYet yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but feel pessimistic as I thought about what to ask my fellow United Cardinal Bloggers members for our spring training roundtables. Blame it on Monday, blame it on the post I’d just finished at the time, blame it on the rain (for those of you who’ve even heard of Milli Vanilli …)

My question to them: what could keep the Cardinals from winning the NL Central in 2014?

Here are the responses.

Daniel Shoptaw, C70 At The Bat

Your post this morning pointed out the main possibility — Yadier Molina missing a significant portion of the season. Most anything else I think the Cards can survive, but Molina going down would be rough.

Bill Ivie, I-70 Baseball

I’m taking two shots … Health and inexperience …

The Cardinals have depth, but it is young and unproven at a lot of spots. An injury to a key player with little depth behind him could disrupt this team fairly quickly. An injury to a veteran starter and the young arms that have yet to pitch a full season are suddenly going to have to shoulder (pun intended) a lot of the inning load.

The team has the depth in various places to sustain an injury. But young players will have to play up to expectations for the Cards to be able to chug along without a key component. The pitching looks great on paper, but I wonder how hard they will push the young bucks. Time will tell.

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Player Feedback From the Winter Warmup

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Now that the hysteria and maniac writing in the room has died down and there are seconds to process thoughts let me provide you with player feedback, pictures, analysis and other information from the first day of the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warmup.

*Funniest moment of the day.   Yadi Molina coming into the conference room at the end of Adam Wainwright’s media session and raising his hand, “I have a question.” This event is where you can match a face with the player and see them as the regular people they are away from the field.  People have undervalued Molina’s sense of humor for a while. When asked his knee injury lingering into the offseason, Molina admitted some exhaustion.  “Sometimes you go that long into the postseason, your body needs the rest.  Then you are lying around your house, getting bored and you want to go back to the ballpark.”  Molina was excited about Peralta’s addition to the team, admiring his offensive production.  Like many teammates, Yadi was sad to see David Freese go.  “With David, it’s a business and I wish the best of luck to him.  But we will stay friends.”

*Kevin Siegrist spoke about his work his offseason.  “Working on the same stuff, getting stronger, working on my pitches and refining the ones I have.”  Asked about his role this season, Siegrist was blunt.  “For my development, it is better to work on my pitches as if I am going to start.  It’s easier to translate that to the bullpen.” On his role this season, “I am ready for whatever they want me to do.”  In person, the young lefthander is a tall monster and bigger than he appears on television.  They say it adds 10 pounds but they didn’t mention height.

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Seth Maness, 2013 Mostly Unsung Hero

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With 38 different players taking the field for the St. Louis Cardinals over the course of 179 games from April 1 to Oct. 30, it was sometimes difficult to really highlight even the impressive seasons — like that of rookie Seth Maness.

Seth ManessFor pitchers, it’s usually the starter or the closer who get all the blogging attention and we certainly wrote plenty about Shelby Miller, Michael Wacha, Trevor Rosenthal and even Carlos Martinez. All justified, of course. And we did mention Maness, most often with the phrase “double play” used in the same sentence. But it wasn’t quite the same glowing praise — instead usually along the lines of “hey, he did it again!”

An article about a week ago in his hometown newspaper, The Pilot in Southern Pines, N.C., brought Maness to mind again. “‘One of Ours’ Makes the Big Time” chronicled Maness’s year, starting with his major league debut in Milwaukee on May 3 when he threw six pitches, and six strikes, to get three outs — all ground-outs, of course. After that:

The next night proved emblematic of what would become a hallmark of his rookie season. In the eighth inning of a tie game, with runners on first and second, the batter ground into a double play to end the inning. The Cards scored a run in the ninth, and Maness got his first Major League win in his second outing.

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