Last night’s grinding, gripping, sometimes gruesome 13-6 victory over Houston was a fitting way to almost end the baseball season for the St. Louis Cardinals.
It was the Cardinals’ 2011 season encapsulated in an excruciating, but ultimately exhilarating 3 hours and 35 minutes.
I have had surgical procedures (with anesthesia) that were shorter, and less painful, but as these Redbirds have proven, there is no other way.
St. Louis’ long, winding trek to All Square (ie tied with Atlanta for the Wild Card lead with one game to play) started in the first week of Spring Training when staff ace Adam Wainwright was lost for the season due to an elbow injury that required Tommy John (ligament replacement) surgery.
Then, closer Ryan Franklin started pitching like Benjamin Franklin—and I don’t mean because he was inventing ways to lose. I mean that he was pitching like a 5’7, 220 lb old man.
In 21 appearances Franklin posted an 8.46 ERA and 1.84 WHIP with 9 home runs allowed in 27 2/3 innings. He was FINALLY cut by St. Louis on June 29th, but had been constructively fired long before then, making only rare appearances as “the guy you throw out there before you resort to position players pitching”.
The resultant uncertainty in the back end of the bullpen has plagued St. Louis all season. Rookie Fernando Salas has been the most effective closer for the bulk of the season, and he didn’t make theclub out of Spring Training, only began getting save chances in mid-summer, and is tied for 7th in the national league in blown saves with 6. As a team, St. Louis is one off of Washington’s major league-worst 27 blown saves. The Cardinals haven’t had as many “walk off” losses as they have had this season (18) since the 1930s.
Thankfully, the Redbirds’ offense has been better, leading the NL in average and runs for most of the season, but it also holds the distinction of having hit into a major-league record 158 double plays this season, and having 3 of the league’s 5 worst in that category (Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina). The Cards might have had 4 out of the top 5 but for third baseman David Freese’s inability to stay healthy for long periods of time.
St. Louis’ biggest guns—Pujols and Holliday–have both had star-crossed seasons. Pujols began the campaign in a slump that had nothing everything to do with his contract push and looming free agency. Then, to make matters worse, he suffered a freak injury (breaking a bone in his wrist on a literal bang-bang play at first base) that put him on the disabled list for a few weeks this summer.
Pujols returned about a month ahead of early forecasts and at times has flashed the form that has made him the game’s premiere player. Despite his struggles, Pujols (.300 BA 37 HR 98 RBI) is still second in the National League in home runs and has a chance to run his streak of seasons with .300 BA, 30 HRs and 100 RBIs to 11 seasons.
To put that into perspective, the second longest such streak in baseball history is Lou Gehrig’s nine. Pujols is the only player to ever have 10 such seasons consecutively at any point in his career. And, no player other than Pujols has started a career with 2 such seasons, much less 10.
If he extends the streak with a hit and 2 more RBIs tonight, Pujols will be in position to tie the record for most .300 30 100 seasons of all time (12) with some guy named Babe Ruth.
Holliday, meanwhile, has had one of the craziest individual seasons in recent memory. He has missed time due to food poisoning, appendicitis, back stiffness, a quadricep injury, a strained oblique (suffered during a pregame weight-lifting session) and a reoccurring hand injury that he first injured while was swinging the bat on the ondeck circle. The hand injury caused Holliday to leave last night’s game (and has left him unavailable for much of St. Louis’ September rush).
I know— Holliday’s season sounds like biblical, swarming locusts stuff. It should. He even had to be removed from a game in August when a giant moth flew into, and became lodged inside of, his ear.
Thanks to all of these issues, Just over a month ago (August 25th), St. Louis was 10.5 games behind Atlanta in the NL Wild Card race, and was more worried about October tee times and finishing over .500 than making the playoffs.
But, the Cards swept Atlanta (September 9-11) to pull to within 4.5 games of the Wild Card lead and signal that the Braves had a fight on their hands. The sweep was part of a 20-8 finish for St. Louis, while Atlanta went 10-19 in that span and has lost its last 4 games with St. Louis breathing down its neck.
In order to pull even last night, St. Louis had to first overcome blowing a 4-run 9th-inning lead last week to the New York Mets and a extra-inning, bloop, back-to-back bunt, walk-off defeat at the hands of a 104-loss Houston Astros team in front of family, friends and beer vendors on Monday.
Then, Tuesday, the Cardinals overcame deficits of 5-0 and 6-5 while scoring 13 of the game’s final 14 runs and embodying their manager Tony LaRussa’s pet slogan, “Play a hard 9 (innings)”. It was a testament to Cardinal comeback stories like Lance Berkman, but also to castoffs, afterthoughts and career minor leaguers who have chipped in to make this team a joy (and a pain plenty of times) to watch.
Now, they turn to their grizzled veteran, former Cy young Award winner Chris Carpenter, to try and pitch them either into the National League playoffs, or a 1-game playoff with Atlanta.
After having an advanced metrics-loving Sabermetrician’s dream season (READ: Carpenter has had a very solid season, but doesn’t necessarily have the “baseball card” numbers—10-9, 3.59 ERA–to reflect it), Carpenter is the guy St. Louis wants and needs on the mound.
He is good, he is mean (on the field) and after overcoming a myriad of career-threatening injuries, Carpenter is not going to be scared off by the big stage, a tie in the standings before game 162 and a 105-loss Houston Astros club.
Stay tuned, though. If we have learned anything from the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, it is that it won’t be easy.
Thanks for sticking with us during (what we hope is) the most painful week of the year. The Alabama loss has been tough to shake, and it showed this week. Thankfully the Hogs get on the field quickly on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for just after 11:00am CDT from Jerry World (aka Cowboys Stadium) in Arlington, Texas. Adam will be in attendance this weekend, so be sure to get back here on Monday for a full breakdown from the stands (Adam) and the couch (Brett).
NWC Report for 9/30/11
Posted by Jeff on September 30, 2011
From one Hawg to another...
That rumbling you hear is the sound of 300,000 people going through a mid-life crisis in and around Fayetteville this weekend. It’s BB&BBQ time again. The big names in town at the AMP for BB&BBQ this year are Candlebox (last night) and Jamey Johnson tonight. Oh… and no dogs allowed.
Fayetteville has to renew a one cent sales tax this year. You know it is important if the two traditionally conservative aldermen are supporting it.
A 51-year old woman turned herself in this week after the city worker that she hit on Joyce Blvd died as a result of his injuries. She was charged with driving under the influenceof prescription drugs.
What?! A new restaurant where parking is SOOOO Hard to find? Weird. (Picture stolen from FayettevilleFlyer.com)
Several new restaurants have opened in Fayetteville. One of which occupies the space that Kosmos left. Wow. I guess maybe parking isn’t that bad after all, huh?
Uncle Gaylord’s has closed. The owner died quite a while ago so this isn’t really news. The news is what his former building is now going to be. Enter the Dragon…
Jones TV is turning out the lights. The award-winning, not-for-profit station started by the Jones family trust had become too expensive for the trust to continue.
I wonder if news reporters get as tired of doing this story as I do. Beaver Lake is turning over. The water smells and tastes bad. It won’t hurt you.
Posted in Commentary, News | Tagged: BBQ, Bikes, Blues, Dickson Street, Fayetteville, Jones TV, NW Arkansas | 6 Comments »