2 standouts and 1 disappointment from Cardinals series with Jays

A tale of two different St. Louis Cardinals teams took place over the course of a couple of days for the club in a series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Cardinals split the series with the Jays. The Cardinals won 7-3 over the Blue Jays in the 10th inning. The Cardinals lost on Tuesday 8-1.

On Monday, Brendan Donovon got the scoring started for the Cardinals with a double to right field in the second inning, scoring Nolan Arenado. In the seventh inning, Juan Yepez knocked his fourth home run of the year on a liner to left. Yepez homer traveled 376-feet at 112.2 mph.

Also in the seventh, Harrison Bader singled on a grounder to right to score Brendan Donovan.

This tied the game at 3 and took the Cardinals into extra innings. What happened next will be discussed in the next slide.

On Tuesday, the Cardinals didn’t score until the seventh inning. Brendan Donovan singled to center field, scoring Tommy Edman. Unfortunately, that was it for the Cardinals’ offense.

The Jays, however, did a lot of scoring. Danny Jansen had two home runs. George Springer tripled. And, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., knocked his eighth home run of the season.

Kevin Gausman is now 4-3 on the season. He gave up four hits and two walks. Gausman struck out eight batters while inducing a staggering 23 swings and misses.

Some nights the Cardinals just can not get their scoring opportunities in order. Tuesday was one of those nights.

Let’s take a look at a couple of standouts and a disappointment from this series.

Standout: Miles Mikolas

Mikolas received a no-decision in his start Monday against the Blue Jays.

After 6.2 innings of work, Mikolas gave up four hits, two walks, and three earned runs, including a home run to George Springer. This was his eighth homer of the year. Mikolas did strike out five batters and induced 12 swings and misses.

Genesis Cabrera got the win after pitching the tenth inning Monday.

While the club didn’t get the offense it needed until extra innings, it was good to see Mikolas pitch better Monday. Hopefully, he will be able to continue on this path.

Disappointment: Jordan Hicks

It’s never seemed like the best idea to have Jordan Hicks as a starter. He’s seen much success as a reliever. But the Cardinals wanted to give the young, talented flamethrower a shot to stretch out and become the club’s fifth starter.

After Tuesday’s outing, the Cardinals should reconsider things.

Now 1-4 on the season, Hicks pitched three innings on Tuesday. giving up four hits, five walks and four earned runs. He gave up a home run to Danny Jansen that traveled 408-feet at 103.7 mph.

He did strike out three. Hicks did induce five swings and misses. Hicks exit velocity topped out at 101.8.

Hicks pitches so well at such a high velocity, that it’s frustrating to see him not maximize his performance.  It will be curious to see if the Cardinals move him back to the bullpen once they get some more clarity on Steven Matz and figure out when Jack Flaherty will be back in the rotation.

Hicks is an excellent arm. He just doesn’t seem to be finding the success the club wants as a starter. It’s time to return him to the bullpen.