Sometimes, the best thing about baseball is that during the regular season there's always another game tomorrow. For the Cardinals, after a brutal sweep at the hands of the Rockies, their next tomorrow couldn't come fast enough, but fans and scribes everywhere weren't sure what to expect coming into yesterday's game against the Astros and Bud Norris. Norris had been inexplicably dominant against the Cardinals... right up until last night. Eight shutout innings by Adam Wainwright and eight wild runs by the boys in red helped everyone find serenity last night!
The Cardinals have been wrapped up in their fair share of craziness already this season. Today we thought we'd look back at the good, the bad and the strange. Ready? Here we go!
Gut Wrenchers
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| Chris Lee - STL Today |
I'm sure you didn't expect the first 'bad' game to be a win. However, after shocking everyone (including himself) with a third inning grand slam, Cardinal fans watched in horror as Brad Penny went out in the next half inning and, after throwing a couple of warm-up pitches, was quickly ushered off the field by the training staff. He hasn't seen the mound since. The team might have won the game, but was losing Penny worth it?
May 25: Cardinals - 0, Padres - 1
What on earth did Adam Wainwright have to do to win this game? Here's what he did do: give up 4 hits and 1 run over 7 dominant innings, walking 1 and striking out TWELVE. To add to the madness, the Cardinals actually outhit the Padres 7-4, but couldn't figure out how to bring any of those baserunners back around to home plate. It was a frustrating start to a strange six game road trip to San Diego and Chicago.
July 6: Cardinals - 9, Rockies - 12 and July 7: Cardinals - 7, Rockies - 8
What could possibly be worse to a fan than seeing your team give up a huge lead in the ninth inning? Watching them do it all over again the next day in the eighth and ninth. Salt? Meet wound. Both games were so winnable. The bats were getting things done and the baserunners were going crazy. Fans were lauding Matt Holliday and Jon Jay for having big games at the plate, seeing so many 2 out RBI's and stringing hits together in a way that we haven't seen in weeks. Then, everyone watched in horror as the strong bullpen fell apart and some bizarre defensive positioning and play let to back to back walk-offs for the Rox. It was a horrible 2 days in Cardinal Nation.
Flat-Out WEIRD
April 17: Cardinals - 1, Mets - 2
The Fox Saturday game of the week provided fans with almost 7 hours of listening to Tim McCarver spout nonsense as the Cards and Mets clashed for 18 innings of no-run baseball, a 19th inning in which both teams scored exactly 1 run, and the Pond Scum finally pulling ahead to stay in the top of the 20th. 19 pitchers battled through the game that never seemed to end, including appearances by both Felipe Lopez and Joe Mather. Skip Schumaker had 10 plate appearances. Brendan Ryan, who pinch hit for Jaime Garcia after 7 innings of 1 hit ball, had six plate appearances. At the end of the game, fans couldn't decide whether to just breathe a sigh of relief that it was over, or agonize over enough missed opportunities to cover a week's worth of games.
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| Scott Rovak - US Presswire |
In a game where the team was playing with an extremely short bench, Adam Wainwright became player of the game, and all he did was walk to the plate in the bottom of the 9th with instructions to bunt. A throwing error on Waino's bunt scored Jaime Garcia (who was pinch running for Yadier Molina), and after a weak groundout by Randy Winn, Skip Schumaker came up with runners on second and third. He slapped a ball to the first base side, and Adam LaRoche threw wildly to the plate, allowing not only Brendan Ryan to score, but Adam Wainwright to swipe home plate as well! If you want the definition of a gift-wrapped win, that was it.
Parties
May 30: Cardinals - 9, Cubs - 1
After Erika had the gall to question Albert Pujols on Friday, Albert had his revenge on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, blasting 3 home runs deep into the bleachers and on to Waveland Avenue. Wainwright knew what to do with that kind of lead, throwing 7 innings of 1 run ball and sending Cardinal fans home happy. David Freese also got in on the fun, going 3 for 5 with 3 RBI's and a home run.
June 4: Cardinals - 8, Brewers - 0
How did Waino choose to follow up his Memorial Day weekend game mentioned above? How about a his first complete game - a 9 strikeout, 2 hitter vs. the Brew Crew? The Cardinals were patient, tossing runs on the board in 4 different innings and putting up 5 runs on starter Randy Wolf and 3 on relief pitcher Jeff Suppan. 3 days later the Brewers released Suppan and... oh wait, this is the happy section. Moving on!
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| Broken! Chris Lee - STL Today |
Mark this down as the day Nick Stavinoha broke Trevor Hoffman. In a game that the Brewers had seemingly been running away with since about the 4th, Cardinal fans had felt little reason to cheer coming into the 9th, save a Matt Holliday home run in the 6th that went farther than any other regular game home run I have ever seen at Miller Park (Yes, I was there). When Hoffman came trotting in for the 9th, it felt like game over. A walk to Colby Rasmus gave me a little hope, but then two warning track shots by David Freese and Yadier Molina left the Cards down to their last out, and pinch hitter Stavinoha trotting to the plate. Who could have predicted Stavi golfing a shot from his knees deep into the left field bleachers?! Miller Park went silent, and I went crazy. Poor Trevor Hoffman went into a dive, blowing 4 of 5 save opportunities. Brewer fans still haven't forgiven me for being at the game where it all went downhill.
We've had some ups and downs with this Cardinals team. By the end of the season, we're hoping that the good outweighs the bad. We'll find out!
Game time tonight is 6:05. Go Cards!
Great look at the games of the first half.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I remember and think is funny is in that game on June 28. It was weird to see Adam pinch hit while Jaime pinch ran and Adam get player of the game. The weird side comes from breaking that game down to the basic knowledge. Waino got player of the game for laying down a horrible bunt that should have seen the runner thrown out at third. Strange how they award those games sometimes.
Good read, thanks for pointing me to it!
Thanks for the nice and fun look at the first half of the season. You made me laugh at some things that were not so funny at the time (and a few like the Diamondbacks meltdown that will be for some time to come).
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