A Monumental Visit
The Cardinals go to Washington hoping to figure out who they are and how they can win ballgames.
I guess every year the schedule has its weird quirks and strange nooks. The Cardinals left St. Louis smarting from a series loss to the Nationals and now, with just one less-than-fulfilling trip to Philadelphia in the interim, they turn around and deal with the team from Washington again, this time on their turf. Can we hope for different results? Well, there’s always hope. Even if it’s not reasonable.
The Last Time We Met….
Was, of course, the three game series in St. Louis last Monday-Wednesday. We all remember how that went, a quiet loss Monday, blowing up against Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday, then watching a team that seemed ready to head out of town in the Wednesday matinee.
The last time the Cardinals were in Washington, besides that 2019 NLCS that we’ve all done our best to forget, was April 29-May 1 of ‘19. The Cardinals swept that series, which was right before the Nationals turned around their series on the way to winning the World Championship.
A quick recap: Game 1 was a 6-3 win as Michael Wacha “outdueled” Patrick Corbin, giving up three runs in five to Corbin’s six over the same span. All those runs came in the fifth (we know a little something about six run innings these days, don’t we) starting with a Harrison Bader homer and ending with a Yadier Molina RBI single.
Game 2 was a little closer, as Adam Wainwright went six and a third, allowing two runs in a 3-2 win over Anibal Sanchez. (Apparently Sanchez held a grudge.) Bader again did damage, driving in two with a single.
Game 3 was Miles Mikolas vs. Max Scherzer, but the Cards still came out on top 5-1. St. Louis jumped on Mad Max for three in the first then tacked on two more late against…Joe Ross? Is this right?
The Mound Men
Today: Jack Flaherty vs. Joe Ross
Tomorrow: Adam Wainwright vs. Patrick Corbin
Wednesday: Carlos Martinez vs. Max Scherzer
We know about Ross, having seen him shut down the Cardinals last Wednesday. It does allow the Cardinals another chance to be the first team to score on Ross this season. Ross has actually been pretty solid against all the NL Central teams in his career (with roughly 20-25 innings against them all) so watch Milwaukee or someone go get him in a trade.
Patrick Corbin signed a six-year deal worth $140 million with the Nationals after the 2018 season. They won a World Series with him in 2019, but last year he gave up 85 hits in 65.2 innings in route to a 4.66 ERA (4.17 FIP). This year has made last year look Cy worthy. After two starts, his ERA is over 21. He allowed six runs to the Dodgers in his first start (4.1 innings) and nine (10 earned) in two innings against the Diamondbacks his second. He’s probably about due to start regressing to the mean, but ouch.
Max Scherzer faced the Cardinals three times in the spring. He gave up two runs the first time and that’s it. His last start he threw seven scoreless against Arizona. He’s still Max Scherzer.
The Hot Seat
With Lane Thomas getting quickly removed from the premises, the hot seat is a more general affair as much of the offense comes in for their share of criticism. However, with Matt Carpenter going 0-3 with three strikeouts in the 5 hole yesterday, you’d not be wrong to think there’s some focus back on him.
Assorted Crudités
The Nats split a four game series with the Diamondbacks this weekend in Washington. At the end of this series they will have played 13 straight games, getting an off day before heading to New York. Washington is 3-4 at home so far this season.
Trea Turner has four home runs in the last 15 days and leads the team with a .308 average over that span. Juan Soto is right behind, hitting .304 with two homers. Soto does lead the team in barrel percentage for the season at 17.5%.
Dylan Carlson moves up to fifth today while Carpenter, still starting, slides to seventh. We’ll see if that makes any difference against Ross.