St. Louis Cardinals: Four moves to get Cards back in the NLCS

Pinch-hit for the starter sooner

This rule will depend on the score. But if you are not healthily in the lead, and your pitcher has between four and six innings under his belt, don’t give Washington a free pitcher’s out. You have to trust your bullpen more than your offense at this point.

To consider the immediate efficacy of this, let’s look ahead to the next two starters. Jack Flaherty was 0 for 5 with a walk in the NLDS. Flaherty for his career is slugging .189. Dakota Hudson, who is starting game 4, is career-slugging .077! Those are almost sure outs.

I know it is pitiful to have to count a couple of pitcher at-bats as crucial to a team’s offense. And it can cause major heartburn if either Flaherty or Hudson are dealing to take them out. But that is pretty much what the Cardinals are down to against the highly motivated Nationals who have never been to an NLCS and are tasting the city’s first World Series appearance in almost 100 years.

I might add that the Post-Dispatch’s Ben Frederickson is making a good case that Shildt sticks with his pitchers a little too long anyway, compared with his rival Dave Martinez (and Tony La Russa!).