St. Louis Cardinals: Takeaways From Atlanta Series

Apr 8, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz (36) celebrates his solo home run with manager Mike Matheny (22) in the eighth inning of their game against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz (36) celebrates his solo home run with manager Mike Matheny (22) in the eighth inning of their game against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
Mar 31, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) talks with left fielder Randal Grichuk (15) against the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 31, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) talks with left fielder Randal Grichuk (15) against the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

Matheny Still Has Issues

Mike Matheny still has lineup construction issues, as he continues to put Yadier Molina too high in the lineup and then introduced a lineup that Diaz and Holliday on the bench. While I realize that Greg Garcia didn’t get his “attaboy” start after his pinch-hit homer the other night, but it doesn’t make sense that one “hot hand” got a start while the other didn’t.

Hopefully, this is not something we continue to see. On the other side of things, today was yet another perfect example of Matheny trusting his starter for way too long. Wainwright clearly didn’t have it after the Drew Stubbs home run and Matheny left him in about three to four batters too long and it nearly cost the Cardinals the game.

Matheny has struggled with this issue for some time and for whatever reason he seems to be the last one to know that his pitcher cannot go any further. This is just not good and it needs to change and he has got to learn from his mistakes.

Thankfully, the Braves bullpen isn’t good and let the Cardinals back in the game and eventually gave it away, but this isn’t always going to happen (like we saw in Pittsburgh).

Next: This Team is Still Good