Game Recap - May 5 - Cardinal's flail in attempt to win series with White Sox, go to 0-6 on a Sunday

05/05/2024 23:25

Offense continues the season-long absence

Pre-game Notes

• Matt Carpenter started a rehab Friday night in Springfield. Playing 1b, has a walk, double and 2 K's in 6 PAs. Back this week sometime?
• Middleton throwing off a mound now. MLB.com reports he is expected to head out on rehab by Friday. I'd hazard a guess that he is back before June 1 if things progress normally.
• STLtoday.com reports O'Brien started throwing about a week ago, without issue. He had less time on the shelf than Middleton, so may not take as long to build up. He probably on similar timeline as Middleton.
• Lefty going today for the White Sox. Cards used to eat up lefties.

Line-up (and roster) Machinations

• Carlson is activated for this game and will open in CF. Pages down. DC only has to do better than 66 wRC+ to be an offensive upgrade for this outfield. I'm taking the over on that.
• Somewhat more unexpectedly, Liberatore gets the start. This may be more of an opener situation than a move of Liberatore to the rotation. More than anything, that probably tells us they feel Gibson and Mikolas really need the extra day between starts. I do wonder if they will swap Leahy out with Robberse (on schedule for Tuesday) or Thompson (on schedule for Wednesday) mid-week.
• Bullpen might be a bit thin today. Probably a handful of guys they'd prefer to stay away from (everyone who worked yesterday). That puts Leahy, King and Gallegos front and center, and puts the onus on Liberatore to cover as many innings as possible. I hope to see him stay aggressive as he has been in his relief appearances. Is Robertson red-shirting this year?
• In addition to being bad on series finales (1-11), and bad on Sundays (0-5), has anyone noticed the Cardinal's don't win that often in day games? 5-12 so far, with 2 of those wins against the Marlins. Today is ... let's see ...Day game. Check. Series finale. Check. Sunday. Check. Uh-oh. Seems like they have the right relievers ready, then. Good situation management right there, I'd say.
• Day game after day/night game produces expected line-up alterations, especially with a lefty going. Very right-leaning line-up. Along with Carlson in CF batting fifth, Fermin in the 8 hole playing 2b. Herrera at C. Contreras to DH. Noot drops to 9 hole. 7 of 9 hitters will hit from the right side. Maybe we can see them all in the first inning....

The Game

T1 - Grossman leads off with a double after 3-0 count. K for Pham. Vaughn finds Carlson right away. 100 mph line out F8. Runner to third. The old Liberatore finds a way to let this run leak in. Let's see how he has advanced. Jimenez sharp ground out to SS (110 mph!). A positive!! Libby stayed aggressive, even though his FB command not dialed in yet. 0-0.

B1 - Donovan K's. Contreras backwards K on FB down the middle. Goldy lines out to right. Quick inning. Crochet pumping FB in 98-99 mph. Will see how long that lasts.

T2 - Sheets quick ground out to Winn. DeJong with ground rule double. 4th liner over 100 mph. White Sox hitters are playing top that. WP advances DeJong to third. SacFly Ramos. That's what I was talking about in first inning ... Libby's tendency to overthrow with runners on and create a mistake that allows a run to leak in as a gift. Maldonado backwards K on curve. 1-0 ChiSox.

B2 - Arenado pops out. Carlson ground out to SS. Herrera out 1-3.

T3 - Shewmake backwards K. Grossman singles. Libby picks off runner, but high throw to first leads to bad throw to second. Shewmake with SB. Pham K. Vaughn K's. I think he has been efficient enough to come back out for the 4th. Sox still up 1-0.

B3 - Winn fouls out F9. Fermin K's. Nootbar with a leg hit. Meaning he hit it off the leg of the pitcher. I think the crack of the ball off the ankle was louder than the crack of ball off the bat. After a fair delay, pitcher remains in. Donovan pops out to end the mini-threat.

T4 - Jimenez out 5-3. Sheets out 3u. Libby's day is done at 50 pitches. Seven whiffs, resulting in a line of 5 K's, 0 BB (!!), 1 ER. Most certainly can't complain about that. Leahy K's DeJong to end the inning.

B4 - Contreras leads off with HR to center. Can't have all White Sox hitters on hard hit leader board. 111 mph. 426 Ft. A homerun in 29 out of 30 parks. Which one would it not have gone out???? Goldy K's. Arenado out 5-3. Carlson taps out. Crochet velocity seems down a tick after the ankle biter. Tied now. 1-1.

T5 - Leahy back out. Ramos out 5-3. Leahy running it up there 95-96? I don't remember that. Not complaining. Maldonado K's. Shewmake lines out F8 to finish the inning. Leahy at 15 pitches, 1.1 IP.

B5 - A quiet inning. Lots of swings, and soft contact. Herrera out 3u. Winn flies out. Fermin pops out.

T6 - Leahy back out. Length is crucial here. Grossman out 3u. Pham out 4-3. Vaughn out on nice play by Carlson. Quick inning. Leahy does well. Still 1-1.

B6 - Nootbar crushes a 3-2 pitch off the lefty 400 Ft at 101 exit velo, but Pham tracks it to the wall. Donovan out 6-3, but after review, has infield single. Contreras K's. WP pushes Donovan to 2nd. Goldy K's.

T7 - Gallegos in (he's the best choice in a tie game? Wow.) He promptly gets shelled for a HR by Jimenez, a double by Sheets, followed by another double by DeJong. He threw like 5 sliders, 4 of them hung. FB sitting 91-92. Neither will work at this level. Gallegos out. Ramos greets King with a single and the wheels are coming off. Maldonado backwards K. Shewmake singles in a run and then steals 2nd. Grossman SacFly. Pham backwards K. Damage done. ChiSox now up 5-1. Ugh.

B7 - Crochet out, relieved by Wilson. Arenado backwards K. Carlson out 5s-3. 5s as in third baseman shifted to the SS spot. Herrera K's.

T8 - King still in. Vaughn out 5-3. Jimenez backwards K. Sheets doubles. Robertson in, King out. DeJong pops out. ChiSox 5-1.

B8 - Winn leads off with an infield single after a tough 9 pitch AB. Fermin backwards K. Not a great day for him. Reliever Leasure keeps throwing to first, with a 5-1 lead. I'm hoping it's a strategy to reset the pitch clock and not just stupid baseball. Nootbar lines out to left. He seems close to breaking out. Donovan flies out F8.

T9 - Ramos backwards K. Maldonado K's again. Shewmake grounds out 4-3. Clean inning for Robertson.

B9 - Contreras backwards K. Goldy grounds out. Arenado K's. Cards go quietly. White Sox take game and series. 5-1 is the final.

Post game notes (and random musings)

• Did you know there was not a single walk in this game? I don't remember the umpire strike zone being overly generous, but not a single walk? Guys must have really been seeing the ball well today. Oh, wait...
• The Cardinals were 10-24 at this point last year. A moment of silence for that, please. May 2023 rest in peace. Thank you. This year they are 5 games better, even after this weekend's disaster. If the rest of the season played out exactly as the last 128 games of last year, this would be a 76-win team. This includes the dreadful final 2 months of 2023. It's not hard to imagine the 2024 team as it is currently constructed exceeding that by a bit. If this season plays out to the trading deadline (before the fire sale) as it did last year, they would go into the trade deadline 62-66. Not something to really aspire to, but not dreadful either.
• I watched Jose Fermin quite a bit while I was in Florida this spring. During games, I most noticed how unpolished his defense is. What really influenced my perception of him was how little effort he seemed to put into defense on the backfields (he and Baker stood out that way). I found that fascinating since that aspect of their game is probably what limits their opportunity at the MLB level. Perplexing, I thought. Perhaps I just looked at all the wrong times. On the flip side, Fermin's ABs aren't at all bad. Good approach and does damage. We've seen some of this since he has come up.
• I've been watching Memphis a bit more closely (not obsessively) lately. Mostly to catch up with players rehabbing from injury (Carlson) or rehabbing their prospect hype (Walker, Scott). Hard not to notice that Memphis doesn't have a load of talent, particularly on the offensive side. Right now, Prieto is the only prospect that is hitting well. Saggese is OK, but nothing that jumps off the page saying he is ready for the next step. Walker and Scott are both under .600 OPS, which isn't exactly hopeful and inspiring. After that...zilch. I take from this that there is no help coming, if the major league team doesn't fix itself offensively.
• On the pitching side, it's not as barren, but overall sorta average-ish. Robberse is their best pitcher by a lot. I didn't dig in to see how much their league is offense-heavy but memory tells me that pitching stats get a bit distorted in that league, so average-ish might not be so bad, in context.
• Mets come to town tomorrow night. Manaea, another lefty. Perhaps today is a cameo for tomorrow's lineup, too? Saw Manaea in spring training. He looked good then. Could be a tough one, although at this stage he appears to be a 5-inning pitcher.