Tag Archives: Tony Cruz

When Cards Starters Are Good, They Can Be Very Good

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The one thing that’s been fairly consistent through the mediocrity of the Cardinals going 31-31 has been the starting pitching. Yes, there have been those occasional clunker game from each of them — those things happen on occasion.

ShelbyBut when the starters have been good, they’ve often been very good. The Cardinals are tied with the Rangers for the MLB lead in shutouts with 11 (which is three more than the teams tied for second) and, as of yesterday, now has the big league lead in shutouts with four.

That’s thanks to Shelby Miller, who joined Adam Wainwright with two and Lance Lynn on that 2014 Cards shutout list. And, as Jenifer Langosch writes at Cardinals.com, his performance might have been even more impressive than last year’s leadoff-single-then-27-straight-retired performance last year: “While Miller may have relied on an overpowering fastball to mow down 27 Colorado hitters in a row in a start last May, this time he toyed with Toronto purely by pitching.”

It was pretty spectacular to watch.

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4 Highlights From Lance Lynn’s 4th Win

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First off, see? Saturdays are better than Fridays for this year’s Cardinals. Their Saturday winning streak increased to a perfect 3-0 for 2014 with yesterday’s 4-3 victory over the Nationals.

LanceLynn419And speaking of perfect records, Lance Lynn has one as well — he’s now 4-0, the first (and, at the moment, only) pitcher in the National League with that many wins. There’s only one in the American League too: Mark Buehrle of the Blue Jays, who also won yesterday afternoon.

Just a reminder: Lynn does rhyme with win …

Anyway, the win more importantly was the Cardinals 11th of the season. And here are four highlights from the victory.

1. The top of the second inning

Yes, another error, and not surprisingly by the Nationals. This time it was after a one-out walk to Allen Craig, when Jhonny Peralta grounded it to Anthony Rendon at third, whose throw to Danny Espinosa at second was wide. Both Craig and Peralta were safe. They each moved up a base when Kolten Wong grounded out, which meant they each were able to score easily on Tony Cruz’s base hit to right when the Nationals chose to pitch to him with Lance Lynn on deck. Although pitching to Lynn perhaps wasn’t a wise decision either, given that he doubled to the right field corner and drove in Cruz. A 3-0 lead in the second inning courtesy of the 8th and 9th hitters? Now that’s a highlight. Continue reading →

My Biggest Fear About This Cardinals Season

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With spring training games beginning at the end of the week, we are inching closer to the start of the 2014 season. We know the Cardinals are talented and deep and poised for success again this year, and that was even before learning they have eight of MLB Network’s Top 100 players in the game right now.

Yadier-MolinaYet there’s one player whose value is indispensable, who presence is invaluable and whose absence — despite the team’s depth — would be irreplaceable.

Yadier Molina.

Of course, right? Yadi puts the bad-ass in BAMF, without a doubt.

Hearing the high praise for him during the MLB Network’s Top 100 Right Now countdown reminded me of that yet again, without hearing Dan Plesac say he’s hands-down the best catcher overall in the game of baseball right now and that the success of the entire Cardinals pitching staff — starters and relievers — is because of Yadi.

And that brings me to my biggest fear for 2014: Yadi getting hurt.

Injuries are unpredictable, as we Cardinals fans know all too well from experience, and an injury to any other member of the Cards is something they could probably handle without missing a beat. Jaime Garcia is having shoulder trouble after coming back from last season’s surgery? If it’s long-term, that just opens up the door for — take your pick — Joe Kelly, Tyler Lyons or Carlos Martinez in the rotation. The team has extraordinary depth in pitching, and certainly enough depth in the outfield and even the infield.

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So, This Is It.

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Fenway awaits. Bring it on, Boston.

Fenway awaits. Bring it on, Boston.

“It starts with Game 6…” Adam Wainwright said, after predicting a “legendary” comeback for his Cardinals.

The team ace and Game 5 starter was certainly not satisfied with his performance in the final game at Busch Stadium. He knew that his leadership could have shifted the series in favor of the Birds. Instead, the offense that has been sputtering came nearly to a stop. (Kind of like the plane the team sat on for roughly six hours yesterday awaiting their takeoff to Boston…)

And with that, it all comes down to this.

…no pressure or anything, guys.

As a Cardinals fan, October baseball is almost expected these days. As a baseball fan, it’s never taken for granted. Continue reading →

Lance Lynn Lives!

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There was a chance. After giving up a single and a walk, he had a moment … a small one, but a moment, nonetheless. In his defense, most anyone would have had a moment when the throw from Tony Cruz to Daniel Descalso ended up in center field, allowing the first run of the game to score.

Lynn is certainly allowed a moment of frustration there.

More often than not, though — at least as of late — that “moment” turns into a catastrophe. The frustration steals away his focus and BAM. It’s all over.

LynnI’ll admit it — I was ready for it. I was bracing for “in play, run(s)” to flash across my iPhone screen. I was even more resigned to it when Lynn promptly walked the next Milwaukee batter to put two on with two outs in the second inning.

Whether he wants to believe it or not, he was pitching for his rotation life last night. Based on the rumblings from the top of the food chain (i.e. John Mozeliak), the organization isn’t entirely pleased with the repeated “maturity” struggles. No one has ever questioned Lynn’s stuff. But, keeping the attitude and emotions in check? That’s been in question for a while now. Continue reading →

Joe Kelly, Forgotten No More

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Remember when Joe Kelly was the Ferrari stuck in the garage? Without a defined role, without many opportunities. He was jumped over for spot starts by the AAA flame throwers like John Gast and Tyler Lyons. Meanwhile, Kelly sat.

Remember that?

Now, twice in the last week Kelly has been the guy. The stopper … literally. He stopped the Cardinals’ seven-game losing streak last Thursday, then last night he stopped the Dodgers’ 15-game road winning streak. And, he out-dueled one Clayton Kershaw in the process.

There was much to clap about as the Cardinals defeated the Dodgers 5-1.

There was much to clap about as the Cardinals defeated the Dodgers 5-1.

The once-forgotten son silenced the hot Dodgers bats through the first five innings, due in part to three double play balls, giving up just one run in the sixth. That run ended Kelly’s own streak of scoreless innings, but the “fill-in” starter has an 0.78 ERA over his last four starts. Not too shabby. Continue reading →

Westbrook: “I’m going to be better.”

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It wasn’t Westie’s night. Boo

Five runs on four hits and five walks in five innings.

It wasn’t the rest of the lineup’s night, either. At least not like it had been the previous two evenings.

Just four hits. Three runs. Six runners stranded. One-for-nine with runners in scoring position, and three left with two outs. No magic two-out RBI this time.

And the Pirates won, to boot.

No, it wasn’t the Cardinals’ night. But, they’re going to be better. Winning teams make adjustments. They take nights like last night and figure out how to avoid the same mistakes again. That’s the idea, anyway.

“I’m going to be better,” Westbrook said. “It’s just a matter of figuring it out and getting back into the swing of things and getting back to where I was earlier in the year, getting a lot of ground balls and limiting my walks and getting a lot deeper in the ballgame than I have been.”

You know the best part about this road trip? It’s almost over. One game left today, and it’s over. You know what else? There’s absolutely nothing the Cardinals can do about the last 10 games. The wins were big. They were loud. Yet, the losses were louder. Even so, just like a good pitcher has to have a short memory, so does an entire team. Continue reading →

Yes, The Cards Are Down, But No One Is Out

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Yesterday’s doubleheader could have been a chance to flip the momentum right back around. Instead, the Cardinals continued to play hide and seek with their offense, and lost both games. That pushes the season-high losing streak to six. And what’s worse? They

"Tell me when it's safe to look, okay?"

“Tell me when it’s safe to look, okay?”

also lost Yadier Molina.

Everyone take a moment to panic, cry, scream, throw things, blame Mike Matheny, Tyler Greene or the Muffin Man. Get it all out.

No matter what, there are still 57 games left to play. And, I don’t know about you, but I have a suspicion that a 1.5 game deficit can be made up in 57 games … somehow.

Now, I’m certainly not happy with the goings on the last week. It’s been tough. The Cardinals have looked bad — swinging at bad pitches, pressing, expanding the strike zone, playing poor defense, and acting more defeated than perhaps they should. To throw Yadi’s injury into the mix is just pouring salt in the wound. For now, the team is calling it a sprain, though the MRI today will provide more detail.

A sprain or a hangnail, though — time without the MVP candidate will hurt. Not only will the pitching staff miss his guidance, but the lineup that is struggling to put numbers on the board will miss his 2nd-place NL batting average. What’s more, he has often been credited as the heart and soul of the team. Continue reading →

Finding Some Cardinals Bright Spots

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None of us as Cardinals fans enjoy what we’ve witnessed on this 0-4 road trip. Longest losing streak of the season — ugh. But how about a little perspective?

sunshineOf course it’s easy to panic and be all doom and gloom and think trades have to be made right this second since the trade deadline is tomorrow and things are terrible today.

And it was terrible to watch Allen Craig and Yadier Molina strike out five times between them last night, a season first. (They did strike out twice each on Opening Day in Arizona — which, after their second back-to-back Ks last night prompted me to see if they’d each struck out that many times in the same game before.)

But we know the team can, and has, played better.

And will again.

So here are some bright spots — in general and from last night in particular.

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Fifteen Runs In Two Games? Yeah, A Good Cardinals Day

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Whether you prefer watching the St. Louis Cardinals score a lot of runs or continuing more of this year’s stellar pitching, you were happy with Saturday’s doubleheader.

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In fact, with scoring 15 runs and giving up only 1 in the day’s sweep of the San Francisco Giants, every Cardinals fan should be plenty pleased.

Come on — even Ty Wigginton went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI in the second game.

Thankfully, that was far from the day’s highlight.

In game one, the Cardinals had a third inning that was very reminiscent of April 7 against the Giants in San Francisco — except this time the Cards only scored 7 runs in the inning off Matt Cain instead of 9. However, 16 runs in 2 of the innings he’s pitched against them this season? Pretty productive.

Twelve batters came to the plate in the third inning, with the dynamic duo of Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma getting things started with a double and a single. Shelby Miller then sacrificed Koz to second before Matt Carpenter got the scoring started. It continued when Jon Jay singled, Allen Craig singled and Matt Adams singled with three more runs scoring.

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