Winning is therapeutic (especially when you beat Senators)
The Cardinals “ambushed” the Washington (DC) Nationals tonight 8-1! The District of Columbians stood no chance, despite jumping all over us last night. The Cardinals win the series and their 50th game of the season. This stations the Cardinals a couple games ahead of the pretty good Reds, still 1 game out of the wild card race, and within shouting distance of the Brewers and even the Cubs (St Louis is 5.5 games out of first place, and six games above .500 after game #94). Four out of five teams in the NL Central remain above .500!
Tonight we saw the really good version of 2025 Miles Mikolas, after he seemed to be struggling for a little bit there. The Lizard King owned this game with a .302 WPA. He allowed only 2 hits while striking out 6 and only walking 1 batter. He pitched 5 2⁄3 innings. Steven Matz remained dominant, not allowing a run; while Kyle Leahy pitched the 8th and 9th innings, giving up 1 run and 2 hits, while walking 2 batters.
The top 4 hitters in the order did the team well tonight, take your pick on your favorite hitter: Brendan Donovan leading off scoring two runs, 2-4 with an RBI; Masyn Winn also helping to set the table 2-4 with an RBI; Alec Burleson with 2 RBI; Willson Contreras 2-4 with 2 runs scored and a home run! Heck you could even say Nolan Arenado’s 6th inning RBI got the runs going that inning. After last night’s crushing defeat and some rough times lately (4-6 last ten games), tonight was fun and victorious. Even Yohel Pozo and Victor Scott II got in on the runs batted in, at the bottom of the order. Pozo did his patented hit a pitch way outside the zone into fair territory and surprise people trick.
The Nationals 6’ 6” 241 lb. pitcher Mason Thompson was awarded with an ERA just above 135.0 tonight, giving up 5 earned runs, facing only 6 batters. He somehow did all this without giving up any home runs and walking only 1 batter. .800 BABIP against… that’s uhm… something.
Michael Soroka held the Cardinals to 2 runs. Jackson Rutledge gave up a run, and the Nationals bullpen finally stifled the Cardinals offense at the end of the game. The Nationals offense came up with 4 hits, 2 off of Mikolas and 2 off of Leahy.
Bottom of the order Jacob Young provided the only RBI for the Nats.
Now that’s an inconsistent strike zone.
Update
- The Cardinals are 10 games above .500 at home, but still struggle on the road: 22-26
- St Louis is 21-28 vs teams above .500… that’s not so encouraging
- The Nationals are 38-55… it would have been nice to sweep them at home; but hey they are about as good as the Pirates and we got swept by Pittsburgh so this was a nice series win
- The 40-51 Braves are up next Friday 7:15 PM at Busch Stadium
- Tonight’s game felt tense until the 6th inning when the Cardinals scored 5 runs
- Click here for a statcast preview of Friday night’s game!