Dodgers series brings St. Louis Cardinals Good, Bad and Ugly

Bad: Pitching

The Cardinals lucked out Tuesday with a good effort bullpen game. It came close to disaster though.

Jordan Hicks pitched 1.2 innings, giving up a hit and three walks. He did strike out one. Hicks reached a knee-buckling velocity of 103.2 mph. Johan Oviedo earned his second victory of the season after 1.1 innings of work, giving up two hits, a walk and one run. He also struck out one.

Matthew Liberatore struggled in his 2.1 innings of work, giving up four hits and three runs, including a home run to Trea Turner. Junior Fernandez pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up two hits, a walk and one run.

Packy Naughton looked sharp in his inning of work, striking out one. Ryan Helsley pitched one inning of work, striking out two and reached a staggering velocity of 102.8  mph. Giovanny Gallegos decided to make things interesting in his one inning of work. He did get his 10th save of the season. He gave up a hit, a walk and a home run to Freddie Freeman. He did strike out two batters.

Wednesday’s pitching efforts will be discussed in the Ugly section.

On Thursday, Dakota Hudson earned his sixth loss of the season. He pitched 6.2 innings, giving up six hits, one walk and four runs, including a home run to Gavin Lux. Drew VerHagen pitched two-thirds of an inning. He gave up two hits and one walk.

T.J. McFarland had a successful return to the mound. He pitched 1.2 innings without giving up any hits or runs.

Thursday’s poor pitching effort was compounded by a lack of offense as the Cardinals were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They left six runners on base. Scoring would have been awesome.