St. Louis Cardinals split series with Cleveland filled with good, bad, and ugly

The St. Louis Cardinals split a two-game set with the Cleveland Indians filled with good, bad, and ugly moments.

In a two-game series with the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field, the St. Louis Cardinals got a split. The Cardinals won Tuesday 4-2 and lost Wednesday 7-2. Let’s discuss!

The Good

On Tuesday, Harrison Bader got the offense going with his ninth home run of the season. Take a look at the blast here. It is amazing to see his increase in offense combined with his skills in center field and has become a great all-around player the Cards can count on.

In the seventh, Paul DeJong gave the Cardinals their winning run with his 14th home run of the season, scoring Jose Rondon.

And in the ninth inning, with Bader, Rondon and DeJong, Phil Maton walked Dylan Carlson to score Bader. It was nice to see another team do this for a change.

Adam Wainwright moved to 8-6 on the season going seven innings, giving up four hits and allowing two earned runs on a home run for Jose Ramirez. While giving up two walks, Wainwright was dealing as he struck out eight.

Waino and Yadier Molina combined for this amazing play:

Giovanny Gallegos held the game for the Cardinals as he pitched a clean eighth inning. Alex Reyes earned his 24th save of the season pitching an easy ninth inning.

On Wednesday, the team seemed to carry over their successes from the night before. Molina hit a single in the first to score Carlson.

In the third, Carlson hit his 11th home run of the season. Unfortunately, that was it for the Cards on Wednesday.

The Bad

Arenado left the game in the fifth inning after getting hit on his elbow on a pitch from Zach Plesac. He looked in some considerable pain as he was being attended to by the training staff. The team is listing him as day-to-day with right forearm contusion.

Hopefully with the off-day Thursday, he can get some rest and be ready for a weekend series back in St. Louis.  During the post-game press conference, Manager Mike Shildt said Arenado felt confident he will be ready after getting some treatment over the off day, adding it was more of “stinger” and not an issue involving bone. So that’s good.

The Ugly

Kwang Hyun Kim had a horrible game for the Cardinals on Wednesday, moving to 6-6 on the season. He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up five hits and five runs, including four home runs. Two of those home runs came off the bat of Franmil Reyes.

Justin Miller didn’t really help matters, while going 1.1 innings, he gave up two hits and two runs. John Gant pitched an inning, giving up two walks. Luis Garcia pitched two innings, giving up two hits but he did strike out one.  Andrew Miller pitched the eighth, walking one and striking out two.

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Hopefully John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, will see this as a cry for help to get some pitching help. Starting or relief, it doesn’t matter, the team just needs some help!

Putting together significant scoring opportunities was an issue again for the Cardinals.

On Tuesday, the Cards were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. On Wednesday they were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and, again, left seven on base. Getting those runs in would have been significant Wednesday.

With the designated hitter as an option during the series, they used Matt Carpenter much of the series. He was the designated hitter on Tuesday, going 1 for 3 with one strikeout. While he played first base for Goldschmidt who was at DH, Carpenter was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. This is not what you want from your noted bench bat.

Hopefully Mozeliak will see this as a cry for help that the team needs some help for the bench or even a noted hitter available for everyday play. Either way, the Cardinals need help.

In conclusion …

The next time we see the Cardinals play, the trade deadline will have past for the team. Hopefully, they will get some help. If not, here’s hoping the team can gather themselves to do what they can moving forward.

The series split brings the Cardinals back to .500 with a 51-51 record, remaining in third place in the NL Central. The Cardinals will take on the Minnesota Twins, who are last place in the AL Central at 43-60.