Musings from an Optimistic Redbird Fan: 13-2012

Cards “giveaway” Game 5 – Not to take anything away from the San Francisco Giants but, our St. Louis Cardinals seemed to do everything they could to give the game to the Giants. There were several moments in the game that the Redbirds could have at the very least avoided a shutout but, could have won the game. Lance Lynn was the starter and he pitched very well until the 4^th inning. That’s when Lynn’s glaring shortcoming reared its ugly head; getting the third out. The Giants scored three of their runs with two outs. The Cards had a chance to get out of the inning but with a runner on first base, a weak grounder was hit to the right of the pitching mound. Lynn fielded the ball but, as he attempted to throw to second base, the ball instead, hit the second base bag and caromed into center field. One run scored and with runners now on 1^st and 2^nd with one out, the Giants went on to score two more runs in the inning. What should have been a double play, turned into an error. In my opinion, although the error was given to Lynn, I think Pete Kozma made a mental error and was slow covering 2^nd base. Daniel Descalso had made an attempt to field the ball and as a result was out of position to cover 2^nd base.

Sleeping bats – As a result of the loss Friday night, the Cards head back to San Francisco for Game 6. In order for them to win this playoff series, some of the bats in the middle of the lineup need to wake up. Most notably, Allen Craig is off to a very slow start in this playoff series. After leading the National League in scoring runners in scoring position, he’s 1-13 with 1 rbi so far; the one rbi came on a sacrifice fly. Matt Holliday is another player who bat is conspicuous in its absence; most notably, Holliday’s “power game” is missing. Although he had two rbi singles in Thursday’s win, he’s hitting .190 so far and had three strikeouts Friday night. In fairness, Holliday is dealing with a personal crisis involving his mother. She underwent surgery for colon cancer so, I’m sure he is a bit distracted by that circumstance. Jon Jay also needs to get on base as he’s hitting .238 with an OBP so far of .278; very anemic for our leadoff hitter.

Starting Rotation needs to energize – After Adam Wainwright’s performance Thursday night, I was sure our starters would follow suit and pitch better and start to resemble the innings eating “machine” we saw early in the season. But, Lance Lynn didn’t go past 4 innings and our bullpen had to shoulder the rest of the game. Chris Carpenter gets the start on Sunday. When the Cardinals make it to the World Series, there’s speculation that Jake Westbrook will rejoin the rotation and Lynn put back in the bullpen.

Thanks for reading. Go Cards!