Cardinals Stay Hot In Series Wins Against Rockies and Phillies
- Jim Santora
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
With just one series left in the first half, the Cardinals find themselves at 25-15 and near the top of the standings. In this, a season of parity in the KPSL where as many as ten teams have a shot at the playoffs, I fully realize that we can be .500 in short order should things go south.
Here is what we know about our cardinals:
The starting pitching is very good. The cardinals have FIVE starters with a whip of 1.21 or less. Five.
The bullpen is somewhat good. No one is dominant, but this unit hasn’t blown enough saves to make me worry YET
Skenes has not bee lucky. 2-3 is not a record for a guy with 59ks in 52 innings.
Ouch. We get hit a lot. 29 HBPs along with 145 BBs give us a OBP of .339.
We do not hit a lot of homers (unless we are in Philly, but we will get to that later).
We do have 72 doubles, which says something -- though I am not sure what.
And we are doing this with Freddie Freeman hitting .238, Willson Contreras hitting .121 and getting virtually no offense out of the ss and 2b positions.
We have won 12 of our last 16.
Friday night at Eds, Saturday morning on route 70.
Let’s talk about what’s going on.
ROX in ST. LOO
(Note, the cardinals inadvertently played this series at 27 players. I had no idea until Saturday a.m. In talking with Ed (who conferred with Jim) the rules state that the 27th person to enter the series (Nolan Arenado) gets ten games plus an injury roll. I rolled a 1 so it’s 20 games for Arenado).
GAME 1:
CARDINALS 4
ROCKIES 0
WP: Imanaga
LP: Roup
The goings on: After the Rockies left the bases loaded in the top of the 2nd, the Cardinals scratched across a run through a bases loaded walk and then added two more in the third with a William Contreras single. Imanaga wriggled out of another based loaded mess in the 5th after Ed got three straight ballpark singles, followed by Olsen tapping into a 1-6-3 DP to end the threat. After that, the Rox would not get score a hit in the contest. The Cardinals scored an insurance run in the 7th when Friedl singled, stole second and scored on an Alec Burleson single.
GAME 2:
CARDINALS 8
ROCKIES 7 (11 innings)
WP: Vasquez
LP: Civale
The goings on: The Cardinals scored first on Burleson RBI double, but the men in lavender fought back with three runs off of singer in the third behind a two-run double by Lile and an RBI by spencer (may indeed be related to Todd) Horowitz. The Cardinals tied the game in the fourth. With Freddie Freeman on second, Winn singled and a throwing error by Baty plated Freddie. Friedl then doubled to tie matters. The Cardinals took the lead in the fifth through Willson Contreras’ RBI single. The lead was extended to 6-3with an RBI double by Freddie and an RBI ground out by Winn. The Cardinals used two lefties (Pomeranz and Banda) to styme the Rockies until the ninth, when Ed got a dramatic two-out, three run homer from Willy Adames to tie the game. Ed took the lead in the 11th behind singles by Wagaman and Adames and an RBI double from Tatis. In the bottom of the 11th, Ed reluctantly went with Civale – who would fail to record an out. William Contreras singled, Freedie got hit with a pitch, Parades walked and Tyler Freeman delivered a two-run double to end the proceedings. A great well managed game.
GAME 3
CARDINALS 11
ROCKIES 1
WP: Gausman
LP: Flaherty
The goings on. I got every roll. Pretty simple stuff. The Cardinals got six in the third inning (Burleson with his first homer of the year) and pretty much coasted. Ed couldn’t get anything going.
GAME 4
Rockies 4
Cardinals 0
WP: Ray
LP: Skenes
The goings on: Ed got to Skenes and Robbie Ray was a buzz saw, giving up just one hit through eight, striking out 10. Olsen had two dingers to provide most of the offense.
Ed was a gracious host and I appreciate your hospitality.
The next day I went to Sam’s office. Things went well. I got just about every roll. It happens. Sam was a gentleman about the whole thing, which I appreciate and respect.
In this series, we were in Philly. My team isn’t exactly the 27 Yankees with the power. But I tried to be diamond friendly and I called up Joey Weimer (he of the diamond studded card vs. southies). I expected a typical slugfest. And my team certainly brought the lumber – Sam, unfortunately, did not.
GAME 1
CARDINALS 4
Phillies 3
WP: Rogers
LP: Rodriguez
S: Estevez
The goings on: DeGrom was outstanding, giving up just one run and three hits through six. In the eighth, Randy Rodriguez was brought on. It didn’t go well. Cronenworth singled, stole second and scored on Bader’s double. Burleson followed with a two run dinger to make it 3-1. Now, we all know this, Sam is cagey and he can figure out how to scratch out a run using cotton balls and twine. In the bottom of the eighth, Harris singled, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder to short (that “decide” clause which no one but Sam seems to ever use) and scored on a Stott single. Stott then stole second and Harper, thank goodness skied to right. Estevez relieved Banda and got pinch hitter Bleday to ground to short. In the bottom of the ninth, Lindor singled, was unable to steal and then was part of Altuve’s game-ending double-play. Great managing by sam to create something out of nothing. But Cards win.
GAME 2
CARDINALS 8
Phillies 4
WP: Imanaga
LP: Gore
The goings on: Honestly, Imanaga’s card is a diamond fest. I thought Sam would feast. Instead, Sam got one crummy run over seven innings against him. Sam issued eight walks and plunked two more as the Cardinals had men on consistently. Weimer drove in three runs. Hays had three hits. Sam scored two late, but the issue had been decided.
GAME 3
CARDINALS 9
Phillies 5
WP: Singer
LP: Nola
The Goings on: The Cardinals score five in the fourth through homers by Burleson, Yelich and Freddie. Parades almost had one go. Sam was once again climbing uphill. The phils got two back from a double by ramierez, but could not catch the cards – who tallied a season high five homers on the day.
GAME 4
CARDINALS 3
Phillies 2
WP: Gausman
LP: Peterson
S: Iglacias
The goings on: The Phils got a strong performance from Peterson, but a three-run homer from Joey Weimer gave the Cards all they would need. Gausman moves to 6-1 on the season. Sam had runners in scoring position in both the 7th and 8th, but could not get the run across. In the ninth, he closed the score to 3-2, but Iglacias Kd Ramierez to end the proceedings.
Again, I got lucky. Very very lucky.
I am sure I will see both teams again come playoff time.
