The best news I have for you is that the Cardinals didn’t lose yesterday, they had an off day.
After losing another series (Cards are 1-5 in series this season), the Cardinals return to Busch for a 7 game home stand (Cincinnati & Philadelphia) followed by a quick 3 game road trip to Pittsburgh, followed up by another 7 game home stand (New York Mets & Colorado). If you’re counting – that’s 17 straight games. This is where I could break down the Cardinals plan on using a 6 man rotation for this stretch – however that’s not really what’s on everyone’s mind.
I wonder if that opt-out that Nolan Arenado has, that seemed like a non-issue back in Spring Training, has crept back into his head? The Cardinals offense has been feast or famine. Here are their run totals over their last 8 games – 14, 0, 2, 9, 0, 12, 2, 0. That’s an average of almost 5 runs per game – however they’re 3-5 over those 8 games. Take a wild guess at which 3 they’ve won.
Tonight’s game yields Sonny Gray of the Reds taking on Kwang Hyun Kim of the Cardinals. Kim wasn’t his best last Saturday in his 2021 debut, going only 3 innings while allowing 3 runs. Hopefully he can pitch deeper into today’s game with so many upcoming games on the schedule. The Reds losers of four in a row, will come into St. Louis looking to crank out more wins against the Cardinals. I wouldn’t think anything will be brought back up in retaliation of the “Nick Castellanos Incident” however, all it takes is one inside pitch to get the fireworks going. Enjoy the series, and hopefully the Cardinals can win a series at home, and against someone other than the Marlins.
Tyler O’Neil should be activated today, and Harrison Bader isn’t far behind. When the Cardinals have healthy productive outfielders, or at the minimum healthy outfielders, Tommy Edman will be playing 2B. If you’re someone who has been shouting on social media about Matt Carpenter, please, lower your voice, he won’t be getting as many plate appearances. I don’t want to trigger any snowflakes by bringing up that he’s in the top 4 percent in exit velocity, and that his barrel percentage is in the top 1% of baseball. Big shout out to Ben Frederickson for doing the leg work on those statistics.
One other piece of “best news” that I’ll share – for as inconsistent as the Cardinals have played (8-10), they are only 3 games out of 1st.
Enjoy your weekend!
(Photo Credit: Jon Durr/Getty Images)