But the rest of the team looked really good, at least
Well, at least this is just one game in a long season of 162 games. Some years, that number is very important. We have yet to even have an inkling as to if this was a meaningful game.
But I would have to say, I kind of expected they would lose this one. Sure, maybe random happenstance baseball was to happen tonight, but usually baseball at least colors within the lines. Somewhat, at least.
The Real Story Of The Night, is that the Cardinals offense really is dead. They struggled with one to tie the game and put it into extra innings. Of course, the Cardinals were bitten by the “ghost runner” rule or whatever the hellish abomination that Manfred has hatched upon the world, but I’m just going to drop the mic because maybe sometimes people like shortening games by quite a bit.
Goldschmidt somehow cannot hit himself out of a wet paper bag right now, which really feels strange. Has he really dropped off a cliff all the sudden? I really don’t think so, but it sure seems like it, at least for the foreseeable future. Maybe he will do a 180 and have a random resurgence, but I’m not counting on it. Where will the offense come from?
Their Contreras brother provided their offense, while our Contreras brother had a quiet night (but was on base 3 times with 3 walks!). Besides the usual good contribution from Contreras, our other usual good hitter Brendan Donovan provided the sole run of the night with his RWI or run walked in (yes, his walk created a run, with the bases loaded of course). Plate discipline is a real baseball skill that is very useful for winning, the rest of the Cardinals offense should learn from Contreras and Donovan!
Nolan Gorman receives the golden sombrero for having a truly awful night at the plate. 0-5 with 4 strikeouts, the last one which, was striking out looking in a big situation. He needs to snap out of this ASAP or I don’t know, well I suppose he was good enough last year that if he has a good second half he will be fine because he can actually play second base pretty well.
The next most obvious non-offender was Paul Goldschmidt, yet again not doing so well on offense. Veteran Paul Goldschmidt was also 0-5, joining the Nolan Gorman pity parade, but with only one strikeout on the night. There was plenty more to complain about regarding the offense, but it’s just too sad to detail every last failing.
Good news?
Well, there is no good news because they lost a game they should’ve won. I mean, score 2 maybe 3 runs, at least! Sure, Freddy Peralta is a good if not really good pitcher, but this is not a tall order! For freak’s sake. I will be shaking my damn head all day over this offense.
But if we want to look on the bright side, the good news is that the only pitcher that provided negative WPA (win probability added) was Helsley. And he usually isn’t going to do that. The good news is that the Cardinals pitching has been pretty average so far, and the bullpen seems like it could hold a lead pretty often.
Burleson isn’t as bad as I thought he was doing, batting .244 and getting himself a pinch hit tonight. He has more hits than Walker in less playing time.
More impressively, Masyn Winn is second on the team in hits to Arenado who leads the team in hits now, Winn batting .347! Arenado hovering around .300 BA.
Bad
The offense is among the worst in the major leagues. And the fielding isn’t taking away a lot of runs from the other team. Why is the offense so bad? The offense black hole of Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman (who is somehow the home run leader of the team), and Jordan Walker who are all supposed to be important contributors on offense are all batting .180 to .190 range, with Gorman the best of them. Add to that the FIVE HITS on the season for Victor Scott II, and the FIVE HITS from Siani and Nootbaar, the big reinforcement, and that’s a recipe of disaster, or non-disaster for the other team.
I don’t know how they break out of this with half of the lineup batting worse than pitchers. But hopefully they will figure something out soon. Next game is coming up fast now, 1:15pm tomorrow! DL Hall challenges Miles Mikolas for the defense of Busch III, the Suds Wars have commenced!