St. Louis Cardinals: Austin Gomber flashed his potential in return to Busch

ST LOUIS, MO - MAY 07: Austin Gomber #26 of the Colorado Rockies delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium on May 7, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO - MAY 07: Austin Gomber #26 of the Colorado Rockies delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium on May 7, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Austin Gomber was the main piece in the St. Louis Cardinals’ trade for Nolan Arenado. On Friday, he flashed his potential for the Rockies.

The trade that the St. Louis Cardinals made for Nolan Arenado this winter has universally been viewed as a lopsided trade. While the Cardinals did give up multiple players, the fact that they didn’t give up a single top prospect and the Rockies sent back $50M.

The centerpiece of the return for the Rockies was the Cardinals’ former Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Austin Gomber. Gomber provided some very valuable innings with the Cardinals in both 2018 and 2020, but was kind of on the outside looking in when it came to the rotation in 2021. Given that he turned 27 this year, it was time to get him in a better situation.

When the Rockies came to St. Louis Friday, the main storyline of the day was Nolan Arenado and his first time facing off against his former team. The other story was Gomber starting against the Cardinals, facing off against Jack Flaherty.

While Gomber did end up with the loss in the game and did give up all five runs, he really didn’t look bad at all.

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Over 5.0 innings, he struck out seven and only allowed six hits. To the Cardinals’ credit, they made those count. Homers from Harrison Bader and Jack Flaherty helped, but the hometown team simply outplayed the Rockies.

Gomber has a 6.35 ERA over his seven starts to begin the year, but a lot of that has come from a couple of blowups. The Rockies overall are just a much worse team than the Cardinals. Coming into Friday, they were 12-19 and now sit firmly in last place in the NL West at 12-20.

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The Cardinals, for all their woes, could be the first team in the National League to get to 20 wins if they can win the second game of the series on Saturday. That is pretty telling of the season they have had so far.