St. Louis Cardinals: Opening Day Game Grades

One run, five hits, 14 strikeouts, 10 left on base, zero extra base hits

Ouch.

14 strikeouts, 10 left on…

Don’t get me wrong, Francisco Liriano was very good yesterday, but we made him look so much better than he really was.

I mean, Liriano walked five guys yesterday. We had baserunners for virtually the entire afternoon, and scored just one time in the ninth inning.

What was the issue? 14 strikeouts. Zero extra base hits.

You absolutely cannot strikeout that many times, while hitting for absolutely no power, and expect to be able to score runs.

Most of Liriano’s 10 K’s were on chased pitches, as they pretty much always are when he throws. When pitches weren’t in the dirt, Randal Grichuk was taking two-seam fastballs over the inside corner for a similar result.

I get it, he’s tough. But I thought that our offensive approach was absolutely brutal, particularly in run scoring situations.

I just can’t get over the 14 strikeouts. If you aren’t going to hit for any power (as we hardly ever do), at least give yourself a chance by putting the ball in play.

It’s not like the Pirates were torching the ball all over the diamond. The difference was they only struck out five times. They gave themselves a chance.

Anything can happen on a ball put in play. The only result of a strikeout is a slow walk to the bench and a stagnating offense.

14 K’s are unacceptable, plain and simple. Liriano and that Pittsburgh staff is good, but nowhere near that good. You cannot compete striking out at that high of a clip, unless you hit bombs.

We don’t hit bombs.

Offensive Grades

Approach/Gameplan: D

Situational Execution: D-

Overall Performance: D-

Defense/pitching/run prevention efforts are next.

Next: Ya can't win if ya can't score...

Pitching and Defense

This is where the Cardinals have, and are going to have to continue to make their money. It’s becoming brutally clear that the club is all-in on run prevention, with less concern for the offensive woes that may come along.

That formula is fine, you know, so long as you are good at preventing runs.

Adam Wainwright and company gave the club a chance today, it just wasn’t enough. They didn’t pitch a shutout to bail out the offense, shocker.

Waino was good (not great) over his six innings yesterday.  He spent some time in the middle of the plate, but worked around a fair amount of walks and hits to keep his club in the game.

Seung-Hwan Oh was shaky in his debut, but got his zero in the seventh.

Maness got knocked around.

The defense was good, the highlight coming from Grichuk on that throw to double off Polanco at second base in the bottom of the 6th.

The simple fact is that Wainwright and Co. were outdone by Liriano and Co.

That’s going to happen over the course of a 162-game schedule. It’s understandable.

I’ll take Wainwright’s effort just about every time out, and I have to believe that the offense is going to show enough of a pulse to back up his performance most of the time.

Run Prevention Grades

Pitchers gameplan/execution: B (higher had Maness not struggled)

Defense: A-

Overall Performance: B+

Next: While it doesn’t really go with the theme of this piece, we have to talk about the training staff.

Next: All aboard the DL train

Let me just summarize what the past week of health (or lack thereof) has looked like for the Cards, in case anybody has been living under a rock or something.

3/31: Replacement shortstop Ruben Tejada pops a quad, 15-day DL

4/1: Jordan Walden to undergo MRI on right shoulder. Announced that he will miss “several months” with a grade 2 lat strain.

4/2: Backup catcher Brayan Pena needs surgery to remove loose bodies that have been in his knee since the middle of spring training. Two to four weeks of missed game action expected.

4/3: Tommy Pham leaves opening day match up with the Pirates with an oblique issue. He’s headed to the DL.

I mean, our training staff has some sort of injury prevention plan in place, right?

I assume they work with players to properly warm up and cool down from games and workouts on a fairly routine basis.

You know, the basics you learn when you’re playing Little League at the age of 10.

Obviously, I’m speaking sarcastically, and it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to say that the training staff is the problem here.

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But this is getting so frustrating. I need somebody to blame, and the training staff is the only place to turn on this one.

I understand Waino popping an achilles last year was a freak thing. There’s not much they could have done to prevent Lance Lynn‘s Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) from going all mushy in his elbow.

But holy cow, how many muscle strains do guys have to suffer before the training staff starts to be questioned?

Matt Holliday and Matt Adams last year. Ruben Tejada and Tommy Pham so far this year. What the heck is going on?

You can only suffer so many muscle-related issues in a given time period before you have to seriously question your injury prevention efforts.

With that, why was Brayan Pena allowed to run around on a damaged knee for a week and a half, only to undergo surgery right when the real games start?

He could have gotten a real head start on the rehab process. Now he looks like he will miss most of (if not all of) the month of April.

It’s a long season Cardinal fans. I still think that this group has the leadership in place to weather the storm. They are going to be there at the end of the season.

Next: Has Jamaal Charles Lost a Step?

But I’m not sure if you could have drawn up a worse start to a season.

Knock on wood.