St. Louis Cardinals fall short of gargantuan sweep of Giants

Did you think the St. Louis Cardinals would win the series with the National League-leading San Francisco Giants?

The St. Louis Cardinals beat all odds and took two of three games from the San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals won Monday 5-3, Tuesday 6-5, and lost  5-2 on Wednesday.

Let’s discuss the good, bad, and ugly of the Cardinals winning series against the Giants.

The Good

The end to the game Tuesday evening brought one of the best defensive plays we have seen this season. Take a look at Dylan Carlson being amazing:

What a beautiful, game-saving play!

It was also nice to see the offense show significant signs of life this series.

On Monday, the scoring kicked off in the seventh inning with a triple off the bat of Matt Carpenter. Yes, That Matt Carpenter. The hit scored Tommy Edman and Nolan Arenado, who broke up a no-hitter by Kevin Hausman. With Carpenter struggling much of this season, it was great to see him get this big hit.

Arenado singled in the eighth to score Carlson. In the ninth, Harrison Bader singled to center to score Edman. Jose Rondon hit a sac fly to center to score Paul DeJong.

Kwan Hyun Kim also made it to the seventh inning and earned his third win of the season. So great to see him smile as he did so well in his outing. Going seven innings, he gave up three hits and two walks. He struck out two.

Giovanny Gallegos earned his 13th hold of the season, going one inning in which he struck out three, but did give up one run. Good to see him have a successful outing. Alex Reyes finished off the game with two hits, two runs, a walk, and one strikeout.

On Tuesday, the scoring got off to an early start with a homer to left-center from Nolan Arenado to score Paul Goldschmidt. This was Arenado’s 17th homer of the season. In the fourth, Goldschmidt singled to score Bader and Sosa. In the seventh, Yadier Molina singled off his old buddy John Brebbia to score Arenado. Sosa hit his second homer of the season in the eighth inning off Brebbia.

Adam Wainwright got the win for the Cardinals, his seventh of the season, going five innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs, along with four walks. He did strike out three. Justin Miller got his first save of the season handling the final two-thirds of the ninth for the Cardinals. When Carlson made his catch to end the game, Miller was pumped. It was great to see.

On Wednesday, the Cardinals had a few bright moments, but mostly struggled. In the first inning, Arenado doubled to score Goldschmidt. In the eighth, the team attempted to crawl back from a 3-1 deficit. Goldschmidt knocked a single to score Matt Carpenter. But that was it.

The Bad

Carlos Martinez has landed on the 10-day injured list with a right thumb ligament sprain. He was headed back to St. Louis to have the hand further examined. Manager Mike Shildt shared concern that it could be a tear to the ligament and didn’t see him returning to the rotation for some time.

Martinez has been very streaky this season. You didn’t know if you were going to get a guy who could go eight innings or give up eight in the first inning. He did take the ball every time he was up in the rotation.

With the loss of Martinez, it becomes necessary that John Mozeliak, Cardinals president of baseball operations, follows through on promises to make moves to improve pitching. The loss of Carlos makes it staggeringly apparent we have very little starting pitching depth. Mozeliak must make moves to improve the starting rotation. With the All-Star break approaching, I hope Mozeliak isn’t allowed a break and he works the phones to get deals made.

If the Cardinals want to remain anywhere near contention in the last half of the season, pitching is desperately needed.

The Ugly

In the bottom of eighth inning of Tuesday’s game, Wilmer Flores hit a double off of fly to center field. Flores’ knock fell in the triangle of Edmundo Sosa, Paul DeJong, and Harrison Bader. While Bader was playing deep and did have to run in to get close to the play, there should have been some communication between the trio. With DeJong on the outskirts of the play,  Bader or Sosa could have called for the ball. In fact, you could say it was Bader’s play to make as the center fielder. If he couldn’t, yell for Sosa to take it. Communicate. Please.

You can’t allow plays like that to continue!

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• Cardinals Rumors: 3 pros and cons of signing Carlos Rodon
• Cardinals: Here is Willson Contreras’ first message for St. Louis fans
• How do the St. Louis Cardinals stack up with Willson Contreras?
• Cardinals: The insane asking price the Athletics had for Sean Murphy
• St. Louis Cardinals: Ask me anything with Josh Jacobs – 12/8

Another thing you can’t allow is walks. Johan Oviedo had an overall terrible outing Wednesday going four innings, giving up three hits, two earned runs and four walks. Oviedo is now 0-5 for the season. Just awful considering the team’s pitching rotation situation. Brandon Waddell pitched two-thirds of an inning giving up two walks, a hit and an earned run.

John Gant pitched one and a third inning, walking two and striking out one. Interesting to note, Gant leads the majors with the number of walks given up at 52. The team leads the league with the number of walks given up at 385. The Cardinals also lead the league in hit batsmen with 61. Sheez! That’s horrible and yet another reason Mozeliak needs to make moves and soon.

The Cardinals have an off day Thursday and head to Chicago for a three-game set before the All-Star Break. With the Cardinals feeling pretty good taking two of three from the Giants, the Cubs broke an 11 game losing streak on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see the level of intensity the teams will have this weekend. Will the Cardinals be exhausted and just ready for a break or be primed and ready to end the first half positively?

Here’s hoping the Cardinals end the first half on a high note.