Rants Daily: Garcia shines in Cardinals’ loss

In the final Spring Training game against a major league team, the St. Louis Cardinals suffered a 2-1 defeat to the Washington Nationals.

Jaime Garcia was superb in his final tune-up before the regular season. He allowed only one run, a solo homer to Danny Espinosa, in six innings. He scattered four other hits and did not walk a batter. Garcia struck out three and in the process threw 79 pitches.

The Cardinals scored their only run on consecutive doubles by Tyler Greene and Carlos Beltran. These were two of the three hits allowed by Nats starter Gio Gonzalez.

The Nationals won the game in the ninth inning getting to Cardinals’ closer Jason Motte. He was reached for three hits, the final one a run-scoring single by Mark DeRosa. Victor Marte and Fernando Salas pitched scoreless frames wedged between Garcia and Motte.

TWO AT SECOND

It looks like the Cardinals are going to go with a combination of Daniel Descalso and Greene at second base, at least for the time being. According to Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, manager Mike Matheny is going to mix and match the two at second base, but will not call it a strict platoon. More on this in My Two Cents below.

CARDINALS ROTATION IN FINE FORM

Also from Langosch we see that the Cardinals rotation had an extremely productive spring. The combined numbers added up to a 2.24 ERA, 75 strikeouts and 27 walks in 108 1/3 Grapefruit League innings. From Matheny:

"“They reached the plateau, the goals that we wanted them to reach,” manager Mike Matheny said. “They did a nice job of buying into our overall philosophy — throwing strikes, pitching to contact, pitching ahead in the count. And I think they were rewarded for how they went about it.”"

INJURY UPDATES

Skip Schumaker is taking some batting practice and is feeling “all right”. Allen Craig is increasing the intensity of his running workouts including heavy sprinting. There is no direct timetable set for either player at this time.

TODAY’S GAME AND FINAL WORKOUTS

The Major League Cardinals are set to square off today against the Double-A Springfield Cardinals in Springfield, MO. There will be a handful of regular starters on the trip. They include; Matt Holliday, David Freese, Jon Jay, Descalso and Greene. The full bullpen will be on the trip. The entire rotation will remain in Florida. Adam Wainwright will throw an extended batting practice session today on what would be his normal turn in the rotation.

MY TWO CENTS

For what it’s worth, I’m feeling somewhat conflicted with the time share at second base. I’m all for Descalso and Greene being a part of the regular lineup, but not at the expense of their own time on the field. I’m hoping that Matheny finds a way to get each of them on the field at the same time. Depending on how Rafael Furcal comes around, shortstop could be an obvious place for either player. I’m not going to get sidetracked by the fact that I’m not sold on Furcal. I also understand that the money he is being paid, precludes an immediate switch away from him.

This spring Descalso has been good at the plate (especially showing patience by drawing a team leading 12 walks) and he’s shown he can play all over the infield. He deserves as much time as possible in the lineup. Descalso was a major contributor last season filling in for Freese at third base. Maybe he can get some time at third to spell Freese on occasion as well as splitting with Greene at second.

Greene started slow and came around over the last couple weeks of the Spring Training. He absolutely needs to get as many at-bats as possible. To short change him now will certainly affect his development, and will look like he is not getting the chance to succeed.

I understand Matheny is trying to win games, and this is a viable way to do so. My point is, if they become the best options over others on the field, then Descalso and Greene shouldn’t be splitting time with each other but taking over time from the unproductive source. Or at the least, work in routine days off for the regular player who may have a poor matchup with the starting pitcher on a particular day.

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