Rants Daily: Wainwright, Freese and Molina lead Cardinals to win over Mets

Each time Adam Wainwright takes the mound there is a breathe of anticipation. We hope to see some improvement from the last start. We hope that he makes it out of the appearance with no issues. Yesterday’s start went as well as expected.

March 9, 2011; Ft. Myers, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) during the second inning of a spring training game against the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Wainwright was working on three days rest and was still able to up his pitch count to 40 from 29 in the initial start. According to a tweet from Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wainwright was not entirely pleased with his performance. But those who know Wainwright know he is a perfectionist. Perfection can not be expected or remotely expected from Wainwright at this time. His velocity was down from 92-94 in the first outing to 88-91 yesterday. He blamed the level mound, but working three days’ rest could have had something to do with it as well.

This was a complete win for the Cardinals They received a fine start from Wainwright and good relief pitching the rest of the way. The Cardinals flexed some power in this one too.

David Freese for the second day in a row went deep with a two-run shot and Yadier Molina hit his second home run of the spring, a solo blast. Another highlight of the day was the display of precision base running that manager Mike Matheny has been touting all spring. With Daniel Descalso on 1st and Tyler Greene on 3rd, they ran a perfect double steal. Mets’ catcher Lucas May failed to gun down Descalso as the throw went straight through to second and Greene was already three quarters of the way down the home base line before the throw was made home. Greene scored easily on the double-steal.

FURCAL AND BERKMAN AILING

Per MLB.com reporter Jenifer Langosch, Rafael Furcal and Lance Berkman are fighting stiffness in the neck and general soreness respectively. Furcal is expected back in the lineup today and tentatively for Thursday barring today’s results. Berkman will not be in the lineup until later this week and that is not a foregone conclusion. I’m not going to comment much further on this as I wrote at length yesterday about the veterans and how their ailments are preventing them from taking the field.

MOLINA SHOWS LEADERSHIP

Molina was scheduled to get the day off yesterday and asked his way into the lineup so that he could catch Wainwright. This is exactly what you want out of your leader. He went on to hit a towering homer in the second inning. So long as Molina continues to show this level of leadership the Cardinals will reap immense value from him beyond his performance on the field.

TODAY’S GAME

Lance Lynn gets the start today in his effort to fill in the void left from Chris Carpenter missing time due to a bulging disk in his neck. Lynn has one two-inning appearance under his belt this season so it is possible that he may be able to finish three today. Cardinals starter have been throwing 40 or so pitches in their second starts so far this week. Here is the starting lineup courtesy of Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Rafael Furcal ss
Jon Jay cf
Matt Holliday lf
David Freese 3b
Yadier Molina dh
Alex Cora 1b
Tyler Greene 2b
Tony Cruz c
Shane Robinson rf

Beltran is sitting this one out as he played yesterday, though it is interesting that Molina is getting the start at DH. Molina’s bat looks just fine as of this time, but Beltran could use the time at the plate. Greene continues to get starts at second base as he is learning the position. He was on the receiving end of two Wainwright double play balls started by his competitor Descalso. Greene’s pivot looked good and had no problem with his release to first. While Greene has looked good at second base, Descalso has been much better at the plate so far this spring hitting .438 with a .609 OBP. Greene is hitting .200 with a .400 OBP and 3 SB.

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