St. Louis Cardinals: Rebuilt Card Bullpen excels against Cubs

The St. Louis Cardinals rebuilt bullpen excelled this weekend during the series against the Chicago Cubs. Is it too early to say the Bullpen has turned a corner?

The St. Louis Cardinals played the Chicago Cubs this weekend and one of the standout performances came from the ‘rebuilt’ Cardinal Bullpen. This group of relievers pitched 10 2/3 innings and did not allow an earn run against the NL Central leading Cubs. Some faces were new and some were old, but the new mix worked. Their contribution helped the Cards take two out three games from their rivals.

Let’s look at some of the relievers interim manager MIke Schildt used this weekend and their contributions. There were four old faces, one heralded and one unheralded new face, we saw this weekend.

The Old Faces in the Bullpen

Jordan Hicks and Bud Norris were their usually reliable selves during Friday’s and Saturday’s game. With Hicks pitching in the eighth and Norris closing in the ninth, neither allowed a run in either game. The only blemish was Hicks allowed a walk and Norris gave up a hit in Saturday’s game.

Mike Mayers, pitched a scoreless inning in Friday’s game and John Brebbia pitched two scoreless innings in Sunday’s loss.

The only runs allowed by the bullpen came during Sunday’s loss and they were unearned.

With Austin Gomber in relief of John Gant during the fifth inning, second baseman Yairo Munoz fumbled a grounder that would have likely allowed the Cardinals escape the inning unharmed. Three unearned runs were eventually tallied by the Cubs to lead to Sunday’s loss. Gomber threw 25 pitches in 2/3 innings work, but was not charged with a run.

New Faces in the Bullpen

The heralded Dakota Hudson made his major league debut in the seventh inning during Saturday’s victory. In relief of Miles Mikolas, the right-handed Hudson threw 13 pitches, and struck out two in an 1,2,3 inning. The much-anticipated call up of Hudson on Friday, was in response to bullpen purge of Greg Holland, Tyler Lyons, and Sam Tuivailala, along with Bret Cecil returning to the DL.

The unheralded Tyler Webb made his St. Louis Cardinal debut during Sunday’s loss, and pitched two scoreless innings. The left-handed Webb, threw 25 pitches and scattered three hits in the eighth and ninth innings. The 26-year old Webb was claimed off waivers by the Cardinals on June 29, and had been assigned to AAA Memphis before his call up on Friday.

Hudson and Webb are a study in contrasts in regards to expectations. Hudson is considered to be the number four prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals system. On the other hand, Webb had a 12.60 ERA with the San Diego Padres when he was claimed off waivers by the Cardinals.

Conclusion

This weekend certainly wasn’t conclusive that the Cards bullpen is ‘fixed’. However, its performance against the Cubs was promising. What makes this weekend promising, is the Cubs are leading the NL in team BA average(.266) and team OPS(.768).