Rants Daily: Lohse sharp & Matheny ticked

The St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Miami Marlins yesterday in a game interrupted by a one-hour forty-nine minute rain delay. Cards manager Mike Matheny was pleased with starter Kyle Lohse‘s performance, but not so much with the delay and the reason behind its extreme length.

Lohse was making his second start of the spring. He lasted three innings giving up one run on two hits and a walk. One of the hits was a home run by light hitting Omar Infante. Lohse did not strike out any batters. The Marlins’ starter, Josh Johnson was strong as well, throwing two and 1/3 innings of shutout ball with three strikeouts.

The Marlins scored two more runs off Brandon Dickson who is having a rough spring so far with a 15.00 ERA. This is not promising for the pitcher the Cardinals could be relying on for spot starts during the season.

Despite the loss, the rest of the relief crew was stellar. Lance Lynn, J.C. Romero, Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Motte all tossed scoreless frames.

At the plate, Erik Komatsu was the hitting star with a single and a RBI triple which accounted for the lone Cardinals run. Tyler Greene did not get a hit, but was on base twice. The base running results were split. He had a stolen base, but was also picked off trying to steal second. When one of the best parts of your game is also a clear advantage to winning a job is defeated it isn’t good.

MATHENY UPSET WITH REASON BEHIND LENGTHY DELAY

According to MLB.com reporter Jenifer Langosch, Matheny was not pleased when he found out that during the rain delay the Marlins took advantage of the MLBPA being in the Marlins clubhouse and conducted the annual 90-minute meeting for players. He felt the field was completely dry and ready for play well ahead of the time they came back out on the field.

A rain delay of this time regardless of the reason makes very little sense to me. These games are important for the sake of getting players ready to play, but have no redeeming value beyond that. To sit through a delay of almost two hours seems pointless.

TODAY’S GAME

Jake Westbrook takes the mound against the Washington Nationals today at Roger Dean Stadium. Westbrook went two innings in his first start. Westbrook can be expected to throw approximately 45-50 pitches based on the 45 pitches that Lohse threw yesterday.

Here is the lineup for today’s game provided by Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

1. Shane Robinson rf
2. Tyler Greene dh
3. Matt Holliday lf
4. David Freese 3b
5. Lance Berkman 1b
6. Yadier Molina c
7. Jon Jay cf
8. Daniel Descalso 2b
9. Alex Cora ss

Matheny continues to manuever players around the lineup in an effort to see where they fit best. Today, Greene is the DH and hitting second. He has been hitting eighth or ninth in most games to date. Descalso gets a start at second base and hits eighth. Hummel notes that Holliday is back in the lineup after two days out with a tight back. Cora continues to see significant time at shortstop.

NOTEWORTHY

• Chris Carpenter has been diagnosed with a bulging disk in his neck and has nothing to do with previous nerve issues according to Post-Dispatch reporter Joe Strauss
• Carlos Beltran worked out yesterday and hopes to be in one of the two split-squad games on Monday.
• Jaime Garcia and Shelby Miller will be the starters for he Monday games. Garcia will be working on short rest
• Adam Wainwright will also have his next start moved up. He will pitch Tuesday on three days rest.

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