Daily Rant: Cardinals Can’t Figure Out R.A. Dickey

Figuring out R.A. Dickey has been difficult for a lot of teams this season, and the St. Louis Cardinals were no exception yesterday.  After seemingly finding their groove, hopefully this was just a small bump in the road, and not a sign of things to come.  With the Cincinnati Reds magic number dwindling, the Redbirds are running out of time to catch them.  On the upside, they do own the second Wild Cart spot at the moment.

 Box Score:

Behind the Box Score:  Adam Wainwright looked fatigued and could not seem to find his spots yesterday, as the New York Mets gained 8 hits and 5 runs off him in just 5 innings of work.

Shelby Miller  made his MLB debut yesterday and was spectacular.  He brought with him his ridiculous strikeout rate too.  In his 2 innings of work, he allowed just 1 hit, while walking none and fanning 4.  Victor Marte allowed a garbage run late without getting an out, and Marc Rzepczynski and Sam Freeman finished up the game.

R.A. Dickey won his 18th game of the season, and now leads the MLB in wins.  His 2.64 ERA is dazzling, especially considering the fact that he throws mostly knuckle balls – which can be quite finicky normally.  Though the Redbirds managed 8 hits off him, they couldn’t put them together in a manner that put more than 2 runs on the board.  Dickey’s final line was 6 2/3 innings, 8 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday was Adam Wainwright’s 3rd inning homerun off R.A. Dickey.  The only other run that the Redbirds managed was on an Allen Craig double play groundout, which scored Daniel Descalso.

The New York Mets fared quite a bit better, getting their first run off a Josh Thole single in the 2nd.  They scored again on a bases loaded walk to Lucas Duda.  Ike Davis hit his 26th homerun of the season in the 5th to put the game out of reach at 5-1.  The Mets added a 6th run in the 8th off an Andres Torres single, and that was it for the scoring.

Quick Look At The Standings:  The Redbirds may have lost this one, but 2 of 3 against any team is a good series in my mind.  A weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers should bring another couple wins, and quite possibly even a sweep.  Jake Westbrook will have to pitch well on Saturday to make that a possibility though.  He follows Kyle Lohse (14-2, 2.81), who pitches Friday.  Sunday’s matchup is Shaun Marcum (5-4, 3.53) against Joe Kelly (5-6, 3.54), and that could be a matchup that bears watching, as both pitchers have pitched quite well thus far.

The Cincinnati Reds suffered a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, but saw their magic number decrease by 1 as the Cardinals lost.  The Pittsburgh Pirates won 6-3, and inched closer to the Cardinals in the NL Central standings as well as the NL Wild Card.  The Atlanta Braves won 1-0 against the Colorado Rockies behind a great Mike Minor start.  The Los Angeles Dodgers lost on a 7th inning sacrifice fly by Carlos Quentin, and that about rounds out the games that have bearing on our Redbirds.