Pregame
Getting an early look at this one, with an off day tomorrow, this pregame will be a little more in depth and existent, writing from the midnight hour May 2nd. The Cardinals’ offensive existential crisis probably has them white knuckling their baseball bats, taking anxiety ridden plate appearances, failure an incalculable weight upon their shoulders…
And with good reason: the Cardinals are hitting worse than the Oakland A’s, divisional rivals the Reds and the Pirates, as well as the Tigers who could NOT hit Kyle Gibson really, if that says anything. This by wRC+… they need a reboot.
What about wOBA? They’re still the 4th worst hitting team in MLB. Well shit, that offense ain’t going to win you a lot of games. While they have certainly been “unlucky” by the stat Batting Average on Balls In Play, they also have very little power, a low on base percentage, and a lack of production in key situations.
Are they good at anything? They’re not bad at taking walks, in fact almost in the top 10 teams in the walk rate department. And they are middle of the pack in striking out, so they’re not really striking out a ton. It would appear that whatever failed philosophy that was going on last year is continuing this year, however, because this seems “eerily” similar.
They’re not really stealing bases either. So what is going on? I really cannot say. Maybe we just overrated all the hitters. But it really feels like there’s more to it than that. We must wait and see.
Is there anything that could help us right now, at this moment in the season? Yes! there absolutely is: the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox are somehow hitting worse than the Cardinals are. Only three teams are worse than the Cardinals lineup, and the White Sox are one of them. In fact, they are probably the worst hitting team in MLB. So that will help.
What should help even more is that the Chicago White Sox have had some very bad pitching numbers as well: lowest fWAR total from pitching with a ton of walks issued. The Cardinals team can walk at least, and maybe their bats will come alive this series. If not now, I don’t know when.
Sonny Gray took the mound this Friday night, and prior to gametime Gray had the amazing statline of a 1.16 ERA (only Imanaga is better so far) with the best FIP and xFIP rate in baseball! So this signing looks rather sunny right now. Sorry, had to.
The MLB Ace should be able to shred through the worst hitting team in the majors tonight, one would think. How did that go? We are almost there.
Sonny Gray has been striking mofo’s out at 12.34 K/9 while maintaining an elite walk rate. He may and should have padded those top tier stats tonight. But what if the offense can’t score runs? What if neither offense can score? Someone must score right? I hope they can against the White Sox, which maybe will take the weight off their back.
The only difference maker the Cardinals have is Willson Contreras. Arenado is a league average hitter. Those two are playing good defense, but that’s only one plus hitter.
Richie Palacios would be a huge boost to this team, at least he would’ve been for the month of April, I just noticed. I kind of hate that. But it’s true. This team does seem cursed in some way, not gonna lie. Well, I did, because I don’t believe in things, but I digress.
Are any other players besides Contreras and Arenado (and most of the pitching staff) of any value? Masyn Winn has been bolstered by an extremely high BABIP and he’s been good, but not really good. Outside of that, Nootbaar and Burleson are maybe meh? And then there’s a big dropoff.
Donovan gets on base quite a bit less than 1/3rd of the time. Everyone else isn’t doing shit, not even Herrera. And without Arenado’s resurgence on defense, we would have one good player. While Willson Contreras is definitely a really good player, he’s not among the very best and definitely cannot carry a whole team. Let’s see how they did tonight.
Gametime
Top 1 Sonny Gray induced groundouts from all three batters!
Bottom 1 Good news! After leadoff hitter Donovan produced an out… the veterans got hits! Willson Contreras kicked it off with a double. Did you know that he has the longest average home run in MLB currently? During the first anyways. Goldschmidt, moved up to third in the order, took a walk. Then Arenado knocked both of them in with a double!
Top 2 The best fans in baseball made Paul DeJong feel at home by giving him an ovation and handmade signs. Paul is still a good defensive shortstop but not the best hitter. He struck out. Sonny dodged a double with 2 K.
Bottom 2 After a couple of liners from Gorman and Nootbaar, Siani had some wheels! But, Brendan Donovan flied out. Slump? He was good to begin the season.
Top 3 A strikeout, a groundout, Sonny Gray appeared to be dealing. ground ball single wild pitch and walk to Pham created a tense situation. With a steely eyed glance, Gray threw the ball with all force and got the big guy to line out to Arenado. He got out of that one!
Bottom 3 Willson helps us again with a single but then his cohorts grounded out, struck out, and Burly grounded out to complete the erasure of the Contreras single.
Top 4 Sonny Gray terminated the side.
Bottom 4 Winn got on base because of a DeJong throwing error! Nootbaar and Gorman both struck out though, wtf! Masyn Winn stole second base though! Then there was a wild pitch so Winn advanced to third base, holy moly! However, Siani was up, and yup, that didn’t work out.
Top 5 DeJong struck out, Maldonaldo singled, Willson Contreras let one go through, Maldonaldo to second… Gray struck out Shewmake and induced a groundout to Nolan Gorman to end the inning effectively.
Bottom 5 Donovan’s slump continued, Contreras got on base with a walk, Goldy struck out, but then Arenado hit another double which produced an RBI! St Louis up 3-0. This was good for the fifth most doubles in interleague history!
Top 6 Sonny Gray sliced through their lineup like butta.
Bottom 6 Winn lined out, then both Nootbaar and Gorman grounded out. How boring.
Top 7 Sonny Gray dealing for the Cards again retiring Vaughn, Benintendi, and DeJong.
Bottom 7 Contreras got a hit! Seems familiar now. However, that was with 2 outs. Goldy struck out :
Top 8 JoJo Romero on the case, making the entire side go 1-2-3 with groundouts!
Bottom 8 The Cardinals offense, as ineffective as usual this inning.
Top 9 Helsley summoned and he is looking really awesome this year! Player of the month when it comes to relief pitching I believe! Cardinals win 3-0!
Bottom 9 Unnecessary! thank goodness!
Tonight my goal is to get this recap out as fast as possible. I won’t be able to do this every time, but I will have a quick turnaround sometimes.
Please add any additional notes to each inning, this was kind of a rushed endeavor! However, I am so happy with the 3-0 win. Let me hear what you think of each moment of the game.
My soundtrack to this game was Living Colour’s ‘Vivid’ album on vinyl format, big anniversary for this amazing Rock n Roll release, one of my favorite albums of all time. To close out the game on the turntable I listened to the horrendously titled and covered album ‘Cultosaurus Erectus’ but maybe it will help the offense going forward.
The Cardinals take on the Southsiders tomorrow afternoon at 1:15pm. Lance Lynn will clash with Erick Fedde who has actually been quite good this year, to test the Cardinals hitters yet again in their quest for 4 runs per game in 2024. Stay tuned true believer! Excelsior.