St. Louis Cardinals remember the late Whitey Herzog in their win against the Oakland Athletics

17/04/2024 07:30

Smallball backed a strong Lance Lynn effort

Let's start with the most important news of the day, which is the passing of Hall of Fame Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog at the age of 92. Most Cardinals fans are probably aware of the legacy Herzog left with the organization; his unique strategy of taking advantage of the infamous Astroturf playing surface that was a staple of 80s baseball parks by focusing on speed, defense, and pitching would forever be known as "Whiteyball". This strategy led the Cardinals to a World Series win in 1982 and pennant wins in 1985 and 1987. But even more than his on-field accomplishments were he personal ones. By all accounts, players enjoyed playing for him and though I never had the pleasure of meeting him personally, I have heard several stories from people of his exceptional kindness and graciousness. He has been a stalwart in the Cardinals organization for over four decades and had built and image and legacy that will live on even longer.

Try to bear with me as I make the hard pivot to discussing the game that was played Tuesday night in wake of this news. It seems fitting that the Cardinals relied on pitching and baserunning to steal a win from the Oakland Athletics. The Cardinals ultimately won the game 3-2 with just four hits on the night and none of those hits batted in any runs. They put their first run on the board in the top of the third after a walk and a stolen base by Masyn Winn, an atonement for a throwing error the inning before on a tough play that allowed the runner to advance to second and score on a groundball single up the middle. After a walk from Jordan Walker, Winn and Walker both advanced on a sacrifice bunt and Winn scored to tie the game 1-1 on a Brendan Donovan groundout.

The Athletics reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fifth on solo homerun from Kyle McCann, but it did not last long. Winn once again was involved in the scoring, bringing home Nolan Arenado from third on a sacrifice fly after Arenado singled and advanced on back-to-back walks to Iván Herrera and Lars Nootbaar. Walker batted in the go-ahead run with another sacrifice fly.

Lance Lynn for his part has pitched better than I had even hoped so far. In his first game of the season he kept a very talented Los Angeles Dodgers team of the scoreboard. Going into this game he had 29.5% k-rate with a 4.76 FIP. His strikeouts were down in this game with only one, but he went seven innings of four-hit ball and allowing one earned run. He did this in classic Lance Lynn style; of his 101 pitches thrown, 84 were fastballs. Of those strikes he coaxed seven wiffs, threw 15 called strikes, and induced 14 foul balls for 34 total strikes on fastballs alone (19 balls in play).

The bullpen cooked once again. JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsey pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth inning, respectively. Helsey had the top five fastest pitches of the game with the hardest pitch flying in at over 102 mph, per Baseball Savant. Helsey threw 17 pitches in his inning of work with four swing and misses, three on his slider which looked particularly devastating. He ended the game with a strikeout on a slider out of the zone on a 3-2 count.

It was not a particularly flashy game, but it was a game the Cardinals found a way to win, games that the team was frustratingly incapable of winning in 2023. While no facet was quite sharp enough to pull through on its own, offense, baserunning, and pitching were just good enough combined to earn the win. While that makes for a less exciting recap, these are games teams with postseason hopes must find ways to win and it is certainly a nice change of pace from last season to see the Cardinals do just that.

The Cardinals go for the sweep tomorrow at 2:37 pm CT. Steven Matz takes the mound against Paul Blackburn.