St. Louis Cardinals: Takeaways from the Red Sox and Giants Series

As the St. Louis Cardinals gear up for their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team was unable to continue its positive play against the Red Sox and the Giants.

The St. Louis Cardinals, fresh off a series win against the Chicago Cubs, came into last week feeling pretty high. They were winners of eight of their last nine games heading into their series against the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. The best part? The Cardinals were in sole possession of first place in the Central Division.

As I mentioned in my May schedule piece, the Cubs series was a must win for the Cardinals. They needed to win it to gain some ground in the Central. Although I didn’t predict the Cardinals to win the series, they managed to take it to their North-Town Rivals. Granted the Cubs weren’t exactly playing great baseball, but do you think that matters to the Cardinals? Not a chance.

Then came in the Boston Red Sox, the Cardinals kryptonite of the American League, and the San Francisco Giants, the Cardinals kryptonite of the National League. If you were paying attention to the team last week they finished their home stand by losing two to the Red Sox and two to the Giants.

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So what were the takeaways from their respective series?

Red Sox have the Cardinals’ number

What can you do when a team you’re playing can’t do anything wrong? Short answer is nothing, but it seriously is frustrating that we haven’t beat the Red Sox in the last six games we have played them, going back to the 2013 World Series.

In my May piece, I give the Boston Red Sox some well deserved credit for the offense that they have. They are as good as any team, in the AL, one through nine.

Their one weakness is their rotation towards the end. The Cardinals were lucky enough to avoid Chris Sale and David Price, but still had to go through Rick Porcello. I gave the Red Sox the respect knowing that if the Cardinals did not play well, they could find themselves in the midst of a three or more game losing streak.

One of the biggest takeaways from Game One was Lance Lynn‘s pitching performance. His performance by no means was terrible, but he did labor through six innings. Lynn had to navigate through some errors, but it ultimately took him 100 pitches to get through six innings.

Now don’t get me wrong. The error in the fifth inning probably broke Lynn’s spirit, but he still managed to have a decent night and kept the Cardinals in the game for as long as he pitched.

Speaking of the errors, at some point you have to wonder if the Cardinals are lacking confidence on the field. I understand errors happen, and that it’s a natural part of the game. But, the Cardinals currently rank second in the NL in errors committed, behind the Cubs (hah). Maybe it’s just time to assume that the Cardinals will make errors in the game and hope pitching bails them out.

My point to all of this though, is if you expect to be a postseason team, then you have stop committing errors and make the plays you need to make. There are too many close games being lost by errors on the field that turn into runs. The defense just continues to disappoint at the worst times and it’s frustrating.

You know what’s also frustrating? Brett Cecil‘s struggles. I know the strike zone might have been a little tight. But, a walk to Andrew Benintendi and then a walk on four straight pitches to another left hander, Mitch Moreland. Follow that up with an error by Tommy Pham to allow another run to score.

Game Two didn’t offer any comfort as the Cardinals failed to keep a four run lead heading into the seventh inning. I know some of us want to blame the umps, but you do realize that the Cardinals failed to score in the last eleven innings of Game Two before the game was over? That’s just the reality of how frustrating this team can be.

I feel like Game Two was a microcosm of the season so far. We had good start pitching with a sprinkle of offense, only to be undone by inconsistency in fielding and in the bullpen. Maybe that’s just me, but the Cardinals have to be better than that.

Mike Leake had an other solid performance for the Cardinals by only giving up towo earned runs through seven innings. However, I do question Matheny’s choice to roll with Leake at the beginning of the inning and then right after the error by Aledmys Diaz. The only reason I questioned the move was because of Leake’s pitch count going into the seventh. It was pretty high, even for him.

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Leake is now a perfect eight for eight in quality starts throughout the season. That’s pretty impressive for a guy that many of us had written off last year. It’s great to see him continue this roll, and the Cardinals will need him next start against Rich hill and the Dodgers.

As for the negatives in game two, I point to two things: bullpen and offense.

I’ll dig into the bullpen first. Trevor Rosenthal got squeezed on some calls, but I’ll put it as simple as I can. You still have to compete in the game and keep the lead. Two runs isn’t a lot to work with, but it should be enough to get you through the game. We can’t expect the Cardinals to win all the close games, but they need to be able to close these games out come playoff time.

What also doesn’t help is the offense getting shut out for eleven straight innings after the first two. You’d think four runs would buy you enough time, but not against a team like the Red Sox. The Cardinals needed to keep forcing the issue and score as many runs. Easier said than done, but the Cardinals had multiple opportunities to score more and win this game comfortably.

Instead, they lost the two game series and found themselves facing a suddenly hot Giants team over the weekend.

Giants hand the Cards another series loss

The St. Louis Cardinals fell victim to the San Francisco Giants in Games One and Two, but managed to salvage Game Three on Sunday. Once again, the themes in the two losses for the Cardinals were bullpen and defense.

A costly error in the seventh inning in Game One by Jedd Gyorko extended the inning for the Giants. The play resulted in a run scoring, but allowed the Giants to continue to peck away at the lead. A couple batters later, the Giants found themselves in the lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The Giants are not the best team in the National League by any means, but even a team like the Giants can make you pay if you make mistakes. These errors happen at crucial moments in the game and cost the Cardinals wins. I can count at least five games where defense has been the biggest let down in a Cardinals loss.

Fortunately, the Cardinals were able to regain the lead in the bottom half of the seventh thanks to Dexter Fowler.

However, the Cardinals eventually gave up the lead again when Seung Hwan Oh let the game slip away in the top half of the ninth. Oh looked to have figured out some early season trouble, but for some reason continues to be a little inconsistent. I don’t think he is in any danger of losing the closer role, but at some point you have to wonder when is enough.

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The lone bright spot for the Cardinals in the series against the Giants was the starting pitching. What else can you say about the performances Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez, and Adam Wainwright gave you? I mean Wacha was able to go a strong six innings. Carlos Martinez had his most dominant game I have ever seen. Adam Wainwright had a third consecutive start that went into the sixth inning.

I’ll start with Carlos Martinez. I don’t want to say it’s because he got rid of the dreads, but ever since then he just looks like a different pitcher. His last three or so starts have been what Cardinal fans have come to expect out of their ace. Saturday was just about as good as it gets. Martinez goes nine innings and allows no runs on two hits. That’s ace level pitching.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals couldn’t figure out Jeff Samardzija. Martinez’s excellence was given away to the Giants in the 13th inning. Hey, look. Another game where the Cardinals failed to score for more than nine innings.

The Gyorko error I mentioned Wacha’s solid start. It’s unfortunate for him as well because he looks like the Wacha of old and the Cardinals have failed to capitalize on his starts.  The Cardinals decision to give him rest raised many questions, but it seemed to have paid off. The more rest for Wacha, the better his shoulder will feel.

Lastly, Adam Wainwright’s resurgence is definitely a welcomed sight for everyone. I’m sure he would be the first one to tell you that things weren’t going the way he wanted, but he has turned it around.

I’m not saying he is going to be perfect from here on out, but it seems to me that he has figured out what he needs to do on the mound to get through games. The only thing I worry about is whether his pitch count gets too high early on.

So what does this mean moving forward?

If you noticed, there is a parallel between the two series. In the two losses against the Red Sox and the Giants, defense, bullpen, and stagnant offense played a part. The starting pitching for the Cardinals remained the only consistent piece for the team and its unfortunate that the Cardinals could not get a few more wins.

Moving forward, the Cardinals need to put these two series behind them and gear up for the series opener against the Dodgers. That will be easier said than done because they are going up against Clayton Kershaw. But, maybe this is the type of game the Cardinals need.

After giving up the division lead to the Brewers and giving a couple games to the Cubs in the standing, the Cardinals have an opportunity to get themselves right against two of the better teams in the NL in LA and Colorado. As I said earlier in the piece, if the Cardinals want to make the playoffs, they need to continue to keep pitching well, including the bullpen, and limit mistakes on the field.

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Let’s hope the St. Louis Cardinals can turn the ship around and get a win streak going. I know I said that the Cardinals would split the six games against the Dodgers, but they honestly need to go four and two against them. Who knows, maybe this is your NLDS preview?