One Down, 50 To Go

The Cards took their first series. Now the Royals await.

Opening Day is now well in the rear view mirror and we are starting to get into the regular routine of the baseball season. Not entirely, of course—the Cardinals still have not played a night game and only one game this week starting after 7 PM. (Interestingly enough, the Cards don’t have a game after Friday that starts after 7 PM Central until the 29th. Being that they have some games in the Eastern Daylight Time zone coming up, they don’t have but about three this month that even start after 6 Central.) Still, the days off are minimal (just one more scheduled in April) and that new team smell is starting to wear off.

With the rainout on Monday, there’s a little less data to draw any conclusions about this team. So far, it seems like they can hit. Whether they can pitch still remains to be seen. I was glad to hear that Steven Matz was dealing with a blister, which according to Oli Marmol led to the issues he had after the second inning on Sunday.

I get why Matz wouldn’t say that after the game, because there’s nothing an athlete will avoid more than something that looks like an excuse. Something like that tends to go over better coming from the manager. However, a blister feels like more of a reason than an excuse, doesn’t it? We know how delicate the pitching mechanism can be and if he’d said, “Well, I developed a blister which affected me some in the third” I think most people would have felt a little better about the whole situation. There’s no doubt that some would jump to the “man, he’s just making excuses” but reasonable people would give him the benefit of the doubt, especially in his debut. It might not have completely eased minds but it would have alleviated some worries.

Anyway, we’re off on the marathon. The Cards got a chance to ease out of the gate with the Pirates and the Royals allowing them time to get traction before heading into Milwaukee. We’ll see if they can continue taking advantage.

The Last Time We Met…..

The Cardinals swept a three game set in Kansas City in mid-August last season, finishing a six game winning streak that saw them sweep the Pirates beforehand. Jack Flaherty took the mound in game 1 and had one of his better games of the season, going six shutout innings while striking out five. Nolan Arenado and Tyler O’Neill went back-to-back in the fourth off of Mike Minor and that was all the Cardinals really needed, though they added one in the fifth and three in the eighth to seal the deal.

Game 2 was a bit similar in that it had good starting pitching, this time Jon Lester going 5.2 innings while allowing only one run, and solid offensive support. However, in this one the Royals actually scored first on an RBI single by Michael A. Taylor before the Cards took the lead the fifth on a Tommy Edman single and got four runs in the seventh and three in the ninth thanks to Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado. Andrew Miller scuffled in the ninth, allowing three runs, but the Cards still cruised to a 9-4 victory.

St. Louis wasted no time looking for the sweep. Arenado singled in a run in the first and, later on in the frame, Jose Rondon doubled in two more. In the second, Goldschmidt doubled in Edman, then Arenado and O’Neill homered in tandem yet again. Seven runs was plenty for J.A. Happ, who gave up nothing in 5.2 frames.

The Opponent

Bobby Witt Jr. will be in Busch Stadium the next two days, giving Cardinals fans a chance to see one of the game’s brightest young talents. The problem with the Royals isn’t that they can’t develop talent. Baseball is littered with players that came up and did well in Kansas City. The problem is, well one that they don’t seem to often develop pitching but two, that they don’t get enough of these talents to come up at the same time. When they did, it culminated in two World Series trips and a title.

The current squad isn’t going to be confused with those champions, of course. Kansas City did split its first series, winning the first two games against the Guardians in pitching duels (3-1, 1-0) before getting blasted in the last two (17-3, 10-7). It’s early enough that you may be interested in the thoughts of Royals bloggers from a couple of weeks ago about the upcoming season.

The Mound Men

Tuesday: Daniel Lynch vs. Dakota Hudson

Wednesday: Zack Greinke (0-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. Adam Wainwright (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

The first game of the series was supposed to feature Jordan Hicks returning to the rotation for the first time since 2017 when he was in A ball, but weather intervened by canceling Monday’s game against the Pirates and shifting the rotation a bit. Hicks will still get some innings, just out of the bullpen, and we’ll see him take the bump to start the game against the Brewers on Saturday.

Hudson looked good coming back from injury at the end of last season. He only got five innings in during the spring so there’s not much to glean there. I’m still hesitant about Hudson because of the lack of strikeout ability but there’s no doubt he’s been able to outperform expectations so far in his career.

He’s up against Daniel Lynch, who was a rookie last season and missed the Cardinals, so they’ve never seen him before. He wasn’t overly impressive in his rookie year, though he did have eight scoreless innings against the Tigers back in June.

Wednesday’s game is a matchup of old masters. There was a good section of the fan base that wanted the Cardinals to sign Greinke in the offseason and that sort of veteran presence would seem to be still needed on the club. Greinke went a different way, though, completing the circle by returning to the team that drafted him. So far so good as he went 5.2 innings against the Guardians and only allowed one run.

Assorted Crudités

Nolan Arenado is NL Player of the Week after he hit .500 with two homers and seven RBI in the opening weekend. That’ll get you some recognition.

The Cardinals are tied for seventh in home runs in the early going but have played one less game than anyone else on the list (and two less than the Angels, who have five bombs like St. Louis). They are first in OPS, edging out Toronto by three points. It helps to be playing Pittsburgh, of course, but so far this offense looks as sharp as it did at the end of last season.

While it was great to see the Hall of Famers (both regular and “just” Cardinal) during the Opening Day ceremonies, I’m wondering if it’s not time to figure out another way to get them on the field. Seeing some of the older guys trying to get out of the convertibles was awkward and time-consuming. I don’t know what the answer is—golf carts might be one, if less visible or ceremonial—and maybe it’s not a problem, but the legends are starting to get up there in age. (Though some, like Scott Rolen, had no problem hopping down off of the car!)

Random Links

Currently listening to: The most recent Cardinals podcast I listened to was Talking About Birds Episode 6: Dinger Smell. I have been fans of Nate and Ben for a long time and I was disappointed when the original TAB faded into the ether. Usually when podcasts or blogs drop off, they don’t come back or at least not with any regularity. TAB has been very intentional about returning, though, and it’s been good to catch up with the guys again.

What I’m currently listening to, however, is the fifth episode going through the Exodus scroll from the guys at The Bible Project. I have enjoyed the videos from The Bible Project for a long time and found them very insightful in what the Bible actually says and how it all ties together. They launched an app in January and are spending 2022 going through just the five books of the Bible. If you’ve not spent time with their videos or their podcasts, I highly recommend the whole site.

Currently reading: Queen’s Hope by E.K. Johnston. This is the third in Johnston’s series of stories about Padme Amidala, starting with her time becoming queen of Naboo and then following up with when she became a senator. I’ve just started this one, which is set as Padme and Anakin get married, but it’s already been as good of a read as the first two.

For those not Star Wars inclined, I just recently finished Watergate: A New History by Garrett Graff. As a teen, I was fascinated by Watergate for some reason and read a lot of the memoirs and books about it. (It probably helped that, by that time, the books were 10-15 years old and showing up at flea markets and used bookstores.) I probably still have them stored away somewhere. Reading Graff’s book, just published, was a great way to see the whole story, especially with the benefit of knowing how things turned out, how history sees it, and who Deep Throat was.

Currently watching: Moon Knight, which has been better than I expected. I was afraid it would really lean into the horror aspect which I am not a fan of, but it’s not been like that at all. Definitely have enjoyed the first two episodes and looking forward to seeing how it all develops.

Also, to mix space franchises, I’ve been watching Star Trek: Picard, which is pretty interesting as well. I don’t know that it’s fun—it’s no romp by any means—but it’s enjoyable and I look forward to next season when they get the whole TNG gang back together.

Luke 9:23-24