St. Louis Cardinals: Mayers sent back down, Lucas called up

After nearly blowing an eight run lead, the St. Louis Cardinals send down one of the pitchers responsible for the catastrophe.

The St. Louis Cardinals recalled right-hander Mike Mayers from AAA yesterday afternoon. Less than 24 hours later, Mayers heads back to Memphis and relief pitcher Josh Lucas will take his spot.

Taking the place of the injured Adam Wainwright, Mayers did appear in last night’s mess of a win. With an eight run lead heading into the bottom half of the eighth, Mayers came in and allowed five runs (four earned) and got through two-thirds of the inning.

In three appearances this season, Mayers has an ERA of 11.57, walked four, while striking out three. Allowing two home runs and eight hits does not help his cause for consideration in September games.

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Lucas, on the other hand, is different from other Memphis pitcher call ups. Unlike Mayers and Luke Weaver, Lucas is strictly a relief pitcher.

This season, Lucas has spent the entire year in AAA and has made forty-three appearances with an ERA of 3.65.

More importantly, Lucas has shown control as he has walked just 1.4 batters per nine and has allowed a minuscule 0.5 home runs per nine.

The 6’6 right-hander has been in the Cardinals organization since 2010 and promoted to Memphis for the first time in July of 2016.

This is an interesting move by the St. Louis Cardinals, as we are used to a starting pitcher being called up from Memphis. Perhaps this is building up to another move or maybe it is just what the club thought was best during Wainwright’s absence and dealing with a fatigued bullpen.

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All in all, the Cardinals are making a smart move as we near the home stretch. Lucas will provide a fresh arm which will allow some of the regular arms to rest up for what should be a thrilling NL Central race.