St. Louis Cardinals: Takeaways From the Opening Series

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Apr 2, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez (18) pitches to a Chicago Cubs batter during the fifth inning of opening night at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

The first clash of the 2017 season between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals featured the defending World Series Champions winning two of three at Busch Stadium.

By the end of the day last Sunday, it had been an almost perfect twelve hours for St. Louis sports fans. It all began when Yadier Molina signed a three-year extension with the St. Louis Cardinals. In the afternoon, the St. Louis Blues defeated the Nashville Predators, 4-1. Just down the street that evening, the Cardinals walked off with a 4-3 victory on Opening Day over their division rival, the Chicago Cubs.

Sunday was followed by an off day Monday, when the Cardinals announced another contract extension, this one, a six-year deal with right fielder Stephen Piscotty. On Tuesday, the Cubs evened the series, edging St. Louis 2-1. That was followed with another spare day on Wednesday, this time because of a rainout.

The rubber game of the three game series was made up Thursday, and the Cubs defeated the Cardinals 6-4. Winning two of three in the opening set, the Northsiders got the best of the Birds in the first meeting between the National League Central Division’s two best teams. The Cubs and Cardinals will see each other next May 12-14, again in St. Louis, for a weekend series.

The pessimist looks at this series and is upset that the Cardinals lost two games to the team they’ll be trying to unseat from first place this season. He points to the blown leads by the bullpen, the low average with runners in scoring position, the strikeouts up and down the lineup, the managerial blunders, and other anecdotes to support the notion that the Cardinals need to address some early concerns.

The optimist says this was only the first three games of a 162-game schedule; there’s 159 to go.

He figures the Cardinals put up a good fight against the Cubs; they lost their two games by a total of three runs combined. They won on Opening Day behind a sterling performance from their young ace, Carlos Martinez. Every regular in the lineup had a base hit, and Seung-Hwan Oh and Brett Cecil won’t be that bad all year.

The realist knows these games were important because they were against the Cubs. He knows the first two months of the Cardinals’ schedule won’t get much easier. St. Louis plays the Nationals, Yankees, Blue Jays, Cubs again, Giants, and Dodgers twice before the summer months begin. Every game against the Cubs counts if the Cardinals want to contend for the Central Division crown.

But at the same time, the realist knows the Cardinals have sixteen more matchups with Chicago. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played.

Some concerns about these three games are merited, while others need not be blown out of proportion. There can be a rational discussion about the product the Cardinals put on the field without going overboard.

Let’s not declare that every piece of the Cardinals’ performance this week against the Cubs will surely be indicative of the season to come. Instead, let’s take the series for what it was and analyze it in its proper context.

It goes without saying: Carlos Martinez pitched brilliantly for the St. Louis Cardinals against arguably the top lineup in Major League Baseball.

He didn’t get the win because of the eventful ninth inning, and Randal Grichuk‘s late-inning heroics were certainly worthy of praise, but Opening Night belonged to the tsunami. Much was made of manager Mike Matheny giving Martinez the ball instead of Wainwright Sunday night, and the 25-year old phenom delivered.

He went through the Chicago lineup three times in total, facing twenty-seven batters and hurling 105 pitches. Considering he went 7 1/3 innings, it was an efficient outing against a lineup that is notorious for working counts and torturing opposing hurlers with their bats.

He struck out ten, only the second Cardinal to do so on Opening Day (Bob Gibson, of course, is the other). He’s only the fourth pitcher ever in major league history to pitch at least seven shutout innings with ten strikeouts and zero walks allowed on Opening Day.

This is one of those performances that we can reasonably consider to be a precursor of more things to come this season.

Martinez was already a very good starting pitcher in 2015 and 2016, but as the Opening Day hurler for St. Louis in 2017, he shoulders more expectations than ever. The organization believes he can contend for the Cy Young Award this year. Watching Martinez pitch all summer long for the Cardinals will be a treat to watch.

Given three run leads in the first and third games of the series, the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen surrendered the advantage both times, with the third game leading to a loss.

This title is a bit misleading – it’s not like the St. Louis Cardinals’ pen collectively collapsed in games one and three.

On Opening Night, closer Seung-Hwan Oh was summoned in the eighth inning with two on and one out. After hitting Kyle Schwarber with a pitch to load the bases, he induced fly balls to right field from both Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to wiggle out of the jam without a run crossing the plate.

The ninth inning, however, was not as kind to the Final Boss. After a defensive miscue by first baseman Matt Carpenter put men on first and second for Chicago with one out, Wilson Contreras took Oh deep to tie the game at three.

Randal Grichuk ultimately bailed Oh out in the bottom half of the inning when he delivered a bases-loaded, walk-off single with two outs to win the game for St. Louis.

On Thursday, another three-run home run doomed the Cardinals. This time, Brett Cecil was on the mound as Schwarber delivered the go-ahead bomb in the seventh inning. Cecil didn’t record a single out in his second appearance in a Cardinals uniform, although Matt Szczur reached first base to begin the inning on Cecil’s strikeout pitch in the dirt.

Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny will rely on Cecil and Oh heavily this season. Cecil will be needed in exactly the scenario he entered into on Thursday: to protect a lead in the seventh inning. Oh will be called upon to finish off games in the ninth as he was on Sunday.

Both will be eager for the next opportunity they get to prove that their performance in the Chicago series was a fluke.

Randal Grichuk was the hero at the plate for the St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day, popping a two-run home run in the eighth inning to cushion his team’s lead, and delivering the walk-off single in the next inning.

Randal Grichuk will be the regular left fielder for the Cardinals this season after the departure of Matt Holliday. He got off to a hot start Sunday, hitting what turned out to be the only long ball of the series for St. Louis. He absolutely stung the final pitch of the night into the left-center-field gap for the game-winning hit.

However, on Tuesday, his ill-advised throw home on the Cubs’ first run of the night allowed Wilson Contreras to scamper from first to third base. That gave Chicago manager Joe Maddon the opportunity to call for the safety squeeze with Javier Baez at the plate, which led to another run.

Grichuk also had the opportunity to tie the game or give the Cardinals the lead in the sixth inning. His team down 2-1 with two outs, the bases loaded, and Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta on the ropes, Grichuk popped out on the infield to end the threat.

On Thursday, he struck out with two on and one out in the eighth inning with the Cardinals trailing by two. For the series, he went 3-for-12 with four runs batted in and four strikeouts.

Until he can improve his plate discipline and become a more reliable bat in run-producing scenarios, Grichuk probably won’t ascend higher than sixth in Matheny’s batting order. He hit eighth on Opening Day, seventh in game two, and sixth in game three.

The organization’s commitment to give Grichuk regular playing time through the ups and downs benefits the young left fielder. He’ll have his opportunity to reach ever higher to achieve his potential.

When Stephen Piscotty went down in the second game of the series, it was Matt Adams, not Jose Martinez, who took over in the outfield for the St. Louis Cardinals.

It began late in Spring Training when Matt Adams began shagging fly balls in left field during batting practice and on the back fields. He even made it into some Grapefruit League games in the outfield, and eventually got some chances to catch fly balls in the game setting.

He got the call to trot out to left at Busch Stadium sooner than he probably expected.

Necessity caused the move when Stephen Piscotty’s rough trip around the bases in game two forced him out for the remainder of the contest. Needing someone to take over for Piscotty in the field the next inning, Matheny moved Grichuk from left to right. Instead of sending fourth outfielder Jose Martinez out to left to take Grichuk’s spot, he called Adams’ number.

He got three fly ball chances in the first two innings, and caught all three.

Adams wasn’t in left field for his defense. He was in left field because of his bat. He nearly tied the game when he drove a ball 400 feet to straightaway center that landed in the glove of a leaping Albert Almora Jr.

On Thursday, Adams got the start in left field and hit fifth in Matheny’s lineup. He drove in a run with a single in the bottom of the first inning but struck out in his next two at-bats. He flubbed on a diving attempt at a fly ball in the gap and was switched out for Stephen Piscotty in the sixth inning.

If Big City’s bat is too good to keep on the bench, he’ll see more and more of left field as the season continues.

Adam Wainwright is on a mission to bounce back from a miserable 2016 season. Lance Lynn is determined to prove he hasn’t missed a beat after sitting out all of last year because of Tommy John surgery. Both made their season debuts for the St. Louis Cardinals in the Opening Series.

Neither finished six innings, and neither recorded the quality start statistic, but Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn turned in quality starts for the St. Louis Cardinals in games two and three. Wainwright pitched five innings, allowed two runs on three hits, and struck out six. Lynn pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowed two runs on five hits, and struck out four.

Neither surpassed the 100-pitch count, which is something they’ll be expected to do with regularity this season. But most importantly, both gave their team the opportunity to win.

Wainwright wasn’t helped by an offense that mustered only a single unearned run against Chicago starter Jake Arrieta. Lynn exited with a lead in the sixth inning but could only watch from the dugout as it quickly disappeared in the seventh.

The Cardinals’ rotation is a bit of an unknown entering the season. All five pitchers have high ceilings, but the four after Martinez all have something to prove after last year. Mike Leake and Michael Wacha follow Wainwright and Lynn, and both will look to make strong debuts in the footsteps of the top three in the rotation.

The St. Louis Cardinals had a hard time driving in runs when they had the opportunity, tallying only ten in the three games while swatting only five extra base hits.

Randal Grichuk’s home run in the eighth inning Sunday was the Cardinals’ only home run of the series. Aledmys Diaz (2), Jose Martinez, and Kolten Wong were the only Redbirds who hit two-baggers. As a team, St. Louis went just 4-for-27 (.148) with runners in scoring position.

Eleven of the twenty-three outs with runners in scoring position were strikeouts. In the three games, the Cardinals struck out at the plate a total of twenty-seven times.

If you’re looking for a player or two other than Grichuk who looked good at the plate during the series, Molina reached base six times (three walks, three hits), and Aledmys Diaz tallied four hits, the most of any Cardinal in the three-game set. New lead-off hitter and center fielder Dexter Fowler also recorded a hit in each of the three games.

It’s not unusual for teams to collectively trudge out of the gates on the offensive side as the season begins. Brisk April weather in the Midwest and Northeast plays a factor in many teams’ slow starts with the bats.