St. Louis Cardinals get excellent pitching despite series loss

Despite losing two out of three games to the Washington Nationals this week, St. Louis Cardinals starters threw excellent games.

The St. Louis Cardinals definitely had a series filled with their usual traits this week against the Washington Nationals.

They had one game Monday evening where they handily defeated the Nationals 12-5. Home runs from Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt, Justin Williams, and a solo shot as well as a grand slam from Paul DeJong.

It was topped with solid pitching from Flaherty who went six innings, giving up six hits and five runs, two of which were earned. In 107 pitches thrown he struck out five.

It was great to see Flaherty get his 500th strikeout of his career in the game as he is the fastest to reach the milestone doing so in 80 appearances. Flaherty passes Lance Lynn who reached the mark in 101 appearances. He was able to reach the mark faster than Bob Gibson, Adam Wainwright, and Dizzy Dean, according to MLB.

Tuesday evening was incredibly frustrating for the Cards. They lost 3-2 to the Nats after getting seven innings of amazing pitching from Adam Wainwright. He threw 100 pitches, giving up five hits and one earned run, a home run.

What’s even more frustrating is that Waino struck out 10. It’s terrible to see him pitch so well but not get the help needed to pull out the victory. Giovanny Gallegos had a rough eighth inning giving up one hit, three walks, and two earned runs.

In Wednesday’s game, the Cards fell to the Nats 1-0… I’ll let you finish sighing. It was definitely frustrating to see Carlos Martinez throw the best game of his young season only to get no, zero, zilch run support.

He threw six innings, giving up four hits, one earned run, and one walk. He did strike out three in 91 pitches thrown, per Baseball Savant. Ryan Helsley and Alex Reyes each pitched an inning of effective relief.

Martinez had a double off Nats starter Max Scherzer then later in the game had one of the funnier moments.

That’s so Carlos! Love it!

However, I did not love the results of this game nor Tuesdays. It’s incredibly frustrating to see the team’s best pitchers go out and give it their all and then the team can not seem to hit his way out of a wet paper bag.

Case in point. Nats reliever Daniel Hudson walked the bases loaded to get to Matt Carpenter. What did he do? He hit a fly ball to right field to end the inning and the Cardinals’ best chance to score some runs.

It’s awesome to have your starting rotation pitch deep and effectively into games. It will be essential to this team’s success to consistently get these types of performances. This will allow the team to have a chance to win if they can start getting more consistent hits and scoring opportunities from the batting order.