St. Louis Cardinals come up golden in sweep of Miami Marlins

After getting swept by the Cubs, it was good to come home and see the St. Louis Cardinals sweep the Marlins.

Everything came up gold for the St. Louis Cardinals in their three-game set with the Miami Marlins. The Cards won 4-2 on Monday, had a walk-off winner 2-1 on Tuesday and they completed the sweep with a 1-0 victory Wednesday.

Let’s discuss the good, bad, and ugly of this series with the Marlins.

Good

The hitting seemed to come around for the Cardinals toward the end of the games. But, the Cards were able to get excellent pitching from all three starters.

In Monday’s game, the game was tied 2 all going into the eighth inning when Tyler O’Neill doubled to left field scoring Dylan Carlson. Paul DeJong the grounded out to first base, allowing Paul Goldschmidt to score.

Adam Wainwright pitched six innings, giving up four hits, three walks, and two earned runs. He struck out six. The next three frames were scoreless from Genesis Cabrera, Giovanny Gallegos and Alex Reyes. While Cabrera gave up one hit, each pitcher struck out one batter. Gallegos earned the victory after the Cardinals scored in the eighth inning. Reyes earned his 17 save of the season.

On Tuesday, the teams were tied one all going into the ninth, when Goldschmidt came to bat. Check out what happened:

So good to see Goldy step up with this big knock! He’d also hit a single earlier in the game to drive in Jose Rondon earlier in the game.

Kwang Hyun Kim had a good restart in his return from the disabled list. He pitched six innings, giving up three hits, five walks but one earned run. He did strike out six. The combination of Cabrera, Gallegos and Reyes finished off the last three innings. Cabrera struck out two, with Gallegos and Reyes striking out one each. Reyes also walked a batter to make things interesting. Reyes ended up with the win in his effort.

Kim told reporters post game that he hopes to exit the next game when the crowd is singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Let’s hope he does! It would be great to see him go further along in a game.

Yadier Molina was the hero on Wednesday with a walk off single to score Goldschmidt. Check out his knock here. Johan Oviedo had his best performance yet going seven innings, giving up six hits but no runs. Oviedo also struck out four. Oviedo tried to help himself by getting on base, check that out here.

Bad

Is it bad fans feel celebratory over a sweep of the last place team in the NL East? Sure. But the Cardinals have been struggling so it’s good to get wins where you can. If that happens to be a last place team, that’s good because the Cardinals should be getting those wins. But after these struggles, it’s ok to celebrate it!

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The Cardinals are still experiencing injuries. Tommy Edman was unavailable Tuesday and Wednesday with what was described as right trunk tightness. The team is optimistic he will return to action during the weekend series with the Atlanta Braves.

Edmundo Sosa left Wednesday’s game with a right hand contusion. He left a half inning after taking a 97.4 mph pitch off of his right hand/wrist. Initial x-ray results were negative but he will be reevaluated.

Ugly

Walks are still an issue the pitching staff is dealing with daily. Wainwright had three walks in his start. Kim had five walks in his start. Oveido had no walks in his start but reliever Andrew Miller had one in relief Wednesday.

It is incredibly frustrating to see pitchers give up walks and place themselves in position to make costly mistakes. While you have to remain hopeful this walking trend will die off, it’s curious to wonder what is being said. Baseball happens. Walks happen. But it’s frustrating to see at this rate and, more importantly, from this team.

The Cards headed to Atlanta after Wednesday’s game for a four-game series with the Braves. Here’s hoping the Cardinals continue their winning ways.