Joy, Frustration, and One Win Away…

If I were to draw up how this series should go for the Cardinals to win the World Series, I would say that they needed to win one game in San Francisco, two in St. Louis, and then finish the series off on the road again in San Francisco.  The Cardinals have followed this script almost to perfection, and in doing that they have beaten the likes of Madison Bungarner and Matt Cain already to get to their three wins.  The problem is that guys like Barry Zito have given this Cardinal line-up fits, and pitchers like Lance Lynn have looked completely unhittable for three innings before completely falling apart.

Before the 5^th game of the series in St. Louis, feelings of excitement could not have been any higher.  This team was on a roll, and the Giants were sending a pitcher to the mound that had been beaten up by the Cardinals in the past and had been a pretty substantial disappointment ever since signing an enormous contract to go play in San Francisco.  The Cardinals were at home and ready to end the series there, but that was simply not to be. 

For a team that is only one win away from the World Series and an offense that has put up some big games in the postseason, this team is about as frustrating as could be imagined.  When I talk to my non Cardinal fan friends, they all roll their eyes when I act this frustrated about a team that is one win away from back to back World Series berths, but I do not think that there is a Cardinals fan out there who would not at least on some level agree with my frustrations.  For one, they came out flat in Game 5… How in the hell is a team one win away from the World Series and considered to be a veteran team with postseason experience give away a game like that when they know that they will now have to win the final game of the series on the road? 

Barry Zito was not throwing above mid-80’s all game.  I am not saying that this makes him easy to hit.  I am not going to suggest that velocity means that much.  There have been plenty of soft tossing left handed pitchers who have had a lot of success, but those pitchers usually flip in a bunch of curveballs and changeups to get outs, Barry Zito seemed to strike out Cardinal hitters with high fastballs, and at 85 miles per hour, there is no excuse to be late on the pitch.  In the first couple innings, the Cardinals seemed to be only moments away from exploding for a bunch of runs.  They had runners on second and third with no outs in the inning and were unable to come through with any runs.  This is almost difficult to do against a pitcher who struck out only 5 and a half batters per 9 innings this season.  That is Jake Westbrook territory, a guy who is definitely better known for getting ground ball outs than getting big strikeouts.  Of course Zito was able to throw a high fastball by Descalso and escape with a double play ball.  The rest is history.

I suppose we should not be too surprised by this Cardinal team.  It is not because they lack the talent or ability to put this team away, and it is not because they will somehow be unable to close out the series.  We have seen this team successfully close out 4 series in a row at this point in the postseason, so with a one game lead and Carpenter on the mound, I still have faith.  The reason that we should not be surprised that the Cardinals did not finish this series at home in Game 5 is because that just isn’t how they do things.  This team is like Felix Baumgartner, the guy who jumped from space and broke the speed of sound.  What does he do next to get that same adrenaline high?  After being down to a final strike in an elimination game in the World Series twice, winning a Game 5 in St. Louis just does not seem to get their heart pumping enough to qualify it as enough of a high.  They need to get a little adversity built up and have a few people count them out before they can win the game in dramatic fashion.  This is why watching this team is so frustrating; it is like we are just waiting for their parachute to fail because we know that the law of averages says that at some point, it has to.

The Cardinals will be going back to San Francisco with the goal of winning only one out of two games there, but this goal may seem a little too simplified for this team.  They are going to need to win Game 6 or face Matt Cain in Game 7 on the road with all the momentum having shifted over to the Giants.  I would say that this would be too much even for this Cardinals team, but I would have said just about the same thing for the Cardinals when they faced the Nationals in the NLDS.  I guess, I am hoping for a series clinching win tonight more to ease my nerves and indigestion than because I do not think they can win in Game 7.  I just hope I do not have to watch another game while waiting for the parachute to not open.

And now that we know we are hoping for a rematch of the 2006 World Series, we also know that it could be possible that the Cardinals are fighting just to be able to lose to Justin Verlander three times in the World Series.  I do have one suggestion for this team going forward though.  There has been talk about Lance Lynn being removed from the Cardinals rotation if they made it to the World Series, and the logical choice would be to bring back Jake Westbrook to pitch if his oblique muscle strain has improved.  My thought is a little more unorthodox, but it could work perfectly for a home game against the Tigers if they were to get that far.

My suggestion is to start Lance Lynn just like normal.  Let him go his three innings if he is able to get that far, but have Joe Kelly ready at a moment’s notice.  The goal would be to keep Lynn in the game long enough to bat once if the Cardinals are able to get a few hits early in the game, but if he would not bat until the third inning, the Cardinals should pinch hit for him regardless of how well he is throwing.  This would essentially make the Cardinal’s lineup into an American League lineup without the pitcher’s spot while taking advantage of the depth they have of pitchers who can go multiple innings and can also be ready in relief.

After Kelly is brought in, preferably in the 4^th inning, the Cardinals would be all but set up for the rest of the game.  If Kelly could throw the 4^th and 5^th innings, then they could pinch hit for him when his spot came up before putting in Rosenthal who would be trusted for two more innings at which point Matheny could go directly to Mujica, Boggs, and Motte if they were ahead or close.  The drawback to this plan is that if the game were to go into extra innings, they would have burned most of their bullpen, but the Cardinals still have a starter in the pen in Shelby Miller who could be counted on to be the long man.  Another drawback to this plan would be the potential loss of Kelly and Rosenthal for the next game which would make this plan more realistic if it were to take place either before a travel day or perhaps in the game before Lohse or Wianwright were to start and could be leaned on to throw 6 or 7 innings without the backup of the Cardinal’s two starters turned long men in the bullpen.

This is basically the strategy that La Russa used last season to win the World Series.  He went to the bullpen early and often to mix and match with hitters in a way that would be most effective, and it could be argued that this season’s bullpen is even better set up for that type of usage.  The only issue with it is the complete lack of a left handed reliever with enough ability and credibility to be leaned on in a late game situation.  I know, I know.  I am getting ahead of myself.  As far as the Giant’s series goes, the Cardinals are still one game away from being able to look at strategy against the AL champ.  I still remember the 1996 Cardinals who could not put away the Atlanta Braves after taking a 3 games to 1 lead, and I would rather not see the second Cardinal team to do that during this season.  Hopefully, tonight the Cardinals can do things the non-dramatic way and score some early runs and hope Carpenter can pitch his way into the 6^th inning.

Lessons From San Francisco

We are now two games into this playoff series and nothing is set about which team will separate them enough to make it to the World Series.  The Cardinals have met their match in this Giants team.  The Cardinals biggest advantages during the first series was their experience and belief that all things are possible and that they could come back from any deficit that may be thrown their way by the Nationals who were largely inexperienced.  The Giants have their own past history of success.  Like the Cardinals, they have won a World Series in the past few years and feature a roster that is full of the type of talented and experienced players that the Cardinals rode to get to the NLCS.  Like the Cardinals, the Giants are coming off of their own miraculous comeback in which they had to win 3 games on the road against one of the best teams in the National League.  It has only been 2 games so far, but the lessons we have learned in those 2 games may very well be played out over the course of a long and competitive 7 game series.

Lesson 1: Carlos Beltran is unbelievable in the postseason.  You can count me as one of the people who thought that Beltran was just about all washed up.  He was slowing down quickly at the end of the season offensively, and it was looking more and more like those balky knees of his may not allow him to catch a fly ball or make it around the bases in one piece.  I was sure that the high work load early in the season had all but doomed the old man to the same mediocrity that we had seen at the end of the season.  Who knew that Carlos Beltran would start to hit like it was 2004?  I just hope that he can get enough hits to balance out the futility of those around him.

Lesson 2:  While Beltran, Freese, and occasionally Allan Craig are hitting, there are just too many holes in the Cardinals lineup right now.  John Jay, Yadier Molina, and Pete Kozma are all hitting below .200 during these playoffs, and Matt Holliday is hitting all of .250 in the third spot in the order.  There are just too many spots in the Cardinals order where hitting streaks will have a tough time of continuing, and that leads to the enormous amounts of stranded runners that they have had during this postseason.  The Giants will not walk the bases loaded and give the Cardinals runs like the Gio Gonzalez and the Nationals did regularly.

Lesson 3:  If the Cardinals are going to win this series, much like last year, they are going to need to rely heavily on their young bullpen.  While Cardinal starters like Chris Carpenter are inspirational, to hope for more than a solid 5 innings out of Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, or Lance Lynn would not be realistic or responsible.  If the Cardinals are going to win, they are going to need a consistent 4 innings out of a bullpen that is populated mostly with extremely young pitchers.  It has no consistently effective left handed reliever, but this relief corps that has been patched together, seems capable of some pretty impressive things.  We will just have to hope that these impressive things include another trip to the World Series.

Lesson 4:  Matt Holliday looks lost.  While there are plenty of times when I feel like I want to completely bash the guy, something about him makes this impossible.  Matt Holliday has given nothing but his all every day since he has become a Cardinal.  He may have frustrating moments where he cannot perform with runners in scoring position, but the way he took out the Giant’s second baseman Marco Scutaro shows that he is trying almost too hard.  He looks even more lost at the plate than he does on the base paths.  He seems to either flail away at curveballs in the dirt or take fastballs over the plate because he almost seems to be trying to work a pitcher for a walk.  This combination of over aggression and over patience is just not going give them the type of production that this team is desperately needing out of its third hitter.

Lesson 5:  This series very well may come down to Kyle Lohse vs. Matt Cain.  These two right handers very possibly could match up both in game 3 and game 7 of this series if it gets that far.  If the Cardinals could win the third game of the series, they will have a good chance to at least head back to San Francisco needing only a win to take the series, and a potential Game 7 needs no extra hype or stated importance.  Luckily for the Cardinals, Kyle Lohse has been the most consistent and steady pitcher, and if there is a man this team could at least stay with the guy who threw a perfect game this season, it would be Kyle Lohse.

There will be quite a few new lessons to be learned over the course of this series.  Will this series get ugly as so many Cardinals vs. Giants playoff series in the past seem to have after Matt Holliday’s aggressive slide?  Whose postseason magic will run out first?  Which of the game’s best catchers will have a bigger impact, Yadier Molina or Buster Posey?  Will the Giant’s pitching staff filled with former pitching stars turned 5^th starters such as Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito be able to channel their old selves enough to lift the Giants to the World Series?  We will learn the answers to these questions and more, and the answers will start to come tomorrow…

Déjà Vu and What’s Next?

I thought that by waiting a full day and a half before writing about Game 5 of the National League Division Series, I would be able to write about it without feeling like my heart was going to explode.  I am only a man in my mid 20’s, but still I feel like each game is pushing me closer and closer to some sort of myocardial infarction.  How do elderly fans or people with preexisting heart conditions watch this team play?

All joking aside, this was the most exciting, frustrating, and amazing games I have ever seen.  It brought flashbacks to Game 6 of the 2012 World Series.  I remember telling anyone who would listen that the Cardinals and the Rangers played the best and most exciting game I had ever seen.  Watching this last game against the Nationals made me realize a few things about that Game 6… It was absolutely miserable.  For some reason, all of the excitement at the end of the game caused me to forget how horrible and frustrating the beginning and middle of the game could be.  Just like in Game 6 last season, the Cardinals seemed to do nothing right.  The only reason why they were still in the game in the end was because of the wildness of Gio Gonzalez once again.

It is a strange thing to watch this Cardinals baseball team.  Even when they play horribly for 6 innings, they still have a chance to win the game.  I would say this is because they have a talented and powerful offense, but that can’t be considered the real reason for why they seem to come back.  This just would not make sense considering it was the very non powerful Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso who were the heroes of the night from an offensive stand point.  We could point to the Cardinals young and powerful arms out of the bullpen, but then again, the hardest throwing of the Cardinal bullpen arms was the one that gave up a run in the bottom of the 8^th inning which almost made the deficit to the Nationals a death sentence for the Cardinals.

The truth is that to point at one reason why the Cardinals seem to come back in games like these or the different series that they play in cannot be isolated to any particular strength of their team.  Instead it is more the mentality of a team that has been there before, and knows how to handle the big spot.  This team is populated mostly by members of a team last season that would not give up when they were down by 10 games in the standings or down by 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning against one of the best closers in the game.  Yes, this team has its issues with hitting with runners in scoring position.  Yes there are players on this team such as Matt Holliday who look like they are trying so hard that they are paralyzed by the effort when they need a big hit with runners in scoring position. 

Yes, with the exception of Kyle Lohse, every starting pitcher in this Cardinal’s rotation is either making his first postseason start of his career (Lynn) or pitching with surgically repaired arms that do not allow them to throw with the type of stuff they once were used to (Wainwright and Carpenter).  Their bullpen is also filled with young guys with little experience in the regular season not to mention the postseason.  There seems to be just about every reason in the world why this Cardinal team should not have advanced this far, nor should they have any chance at making it any further than this series.  These are the exact reasons why the Giants and the rest of baseball should not want to face this Cardinals team. 

There is just something about this group that does not make any sense.  They are too good when they should not be, and by that same token, they can at times disappoint everyone by performing worse than expected.  There is no telling what this series against the Giants could have in store, considering the Giants are a similar type of mysterious miracle team also after coming back with three victories on the road in Cincinnati.  One thing is for sure, it should be an exciting and roller coaster ride for fans of each team.  I have no idea what is going to happen, but the possibility of anything happening is going to make this series one to watch for sure.

Getting Ready for Game 5…

Well this would not be the Cardinals if they would have come through in Game 4 to win the series.  This is the same team that clinched the Wild Card on the last day of the season last year, went to Game 5 in the NLDS and Game 7 of the World Series.  At least this season, the Cards were able to have a little time to breathe when they clinched a berth in the wild card game on the second to last day of the season.  So with this extensive track record of waiting for the dramatic moment, why wouldn’t they make this series go to the fifth game?  While all these things seem to point towards a Cardinal’s victory, I am not so sold on this.

Tomorrow, the Cardinals will turn to Adam Wainwright who at least in experience and on paper would be the best option for the Cardinals as a starting pitcher for this game.  He pitched very well against the Nationals in the first game of this series, and he has been nothing but clutch for the Cardinals in the postseason since he started as a rookie closer for the team in 2006.  With all this experience should make us feel more comfortable about this game, the simple truth is that while Adam Wainwright has a better than average chance of delivering a solid start, but the more depressing realization that I have come to over the last 4 games of this series is that tomorrow it may not matter how well Wainwright pitches in the fifth game of the series.  The simple and depressing truth is that this team is not built to win a game that is some kind of low scoring pitcher’s duel. 

In Game 4, Kyle Lohse did everything the team would ask of him.  He gave up only one run on an Adam LaRoche homerun early in the game, and pitched his butt off for the rest of the game until it was time for Boggs to come into the game in the 8^th inning.  The difficult reality of the situation is that Adam Wainwright will probably not do any better than Lohse did in Game 4 or for that matter, the chances are not too good that he will do better than Wainwright himself did in the first game of the series which they lost in another low scoring contest. 

I thought that the two games in between the two Cardinal losses in this series were a good omen that the St. Louis offense would be back to the high flying version that we saw and grew to love early in the season.  Game 4 was the perfect reminder of the lesson we had already learned over and over again with this team during the 2012 season.  The unfortunate reality is that this offense is as capable of extreme lows as it is capable of the types of outbursts that we saw in the middle two games of the series.  This team is maddeningly inconsistent offensively and there seems to be just as much chance as the Cardinals scoring 12 runs tomorrow night as it is likely that they will be shutout.

This team is built to win by getting ahead early.  Unfortunately, their offense does not have many days where they score 4 or 5 runs.  I have no doubt that Wainwright will be solid, but in the best case scenario, Wainwright will throw his 8 innings while giving up only a run or two, but there is a good chance that this will not be enough to win the game.  The Cardinals will be leaning on an offense that is anchored by Matt Holliday who strikes out looking while complaining about calls as if he were a leadoff man who is trying to work a pitcher and find a way on base with a walk.  They have an offense that although Descalso and Kozma are capable of getting a few hits here and there on mistakes, are marginal major league talents when it comes to hitting against a top starting pitcher like Gio Gonzalez.

This team is capable of striking out 8 times in a row like they did in the last game, but they are also capable of big things.  Tomorrow night’s game is going to be a challenge for this Cardinals team.  I have found myself wanting to give up on this team so many times, and yet they have proven me wrong over and over again.  They seem to come through when their backs are against the wall, and that is reason enough to watch this game with excitement and hope.  There is even the chance that this team could surprise all of us once again and win a 2 to 1 game with clutch hitting at the end of the game.  The beauty of this season and this team is that tomorrow we will likely learn something about these guys that we did not know today.  I just hope that this is something that we want to learn.

Chris Carpenter’s Leadership Key For Cards

By now, we all know the story.  Last season, the Cardinals were 10 games back and left for dead in the National League Wild Card race, and yet they came back and made the playoffs.  They lost the first game in Philidelphia in the NLDS after losing a three run lead, and yet they came back to win the series on the shoulder of Chris Carpenter in Game 5.  This resiliency continued though the World Series, and the magical season was complete.  Now let’s flash forward to this season.  We all remember the news of Chris Carpenter’s demise.  He was going to spend the next year rehabbing and hope that he might be able to pitch again next season.  Nothing was guaranteed, we were hearing, and yet here we are.

With Carpenter ready to start game 3 of the 2012 NLDS, the Cardinals have to feel pretty good about themselves.  They are coming off of a game where they scored 12 runs and dominated the young Washington Nationals team.  This came after another crushing loss in Game 1 where the Cardinals wasted a gutsy start from Adam Wainwright and a complete loss of control by Gio Gonzalez, and yet they responded in Game 2 just as we knew they could.  This season has been frustrating at times for Cards fans, but this team just has that feel to them.  It feels like anything can happen with these Cardinals every time they take the field.  They can never be counted out, and in large part, they have taken this mentality from their ace pitcher.

Chris Carpenter is no longer the young pitcher with tremendous stuff that he once was during his former Cy Young form.  He no longer throws as hard as he once did, and every pitch he throws, we are all holding our breath and hoping all the ligament grafts, anchors, nerves, and scar tissue hold together enough for him to be able to throw yet another pitch, but is there anyone else we would rather have on the mound as a Cards fan as the team ventures into enemy territory and need to win 2 out of 3 games against the best team in baseball this season than Chris Carpenter?  My personal answer is definitely no.  I don’t care if he is that car that you bought 20 years ago that has a new engine, wheels, brakes, and bumpers.  While the parts may not be the ones you fell in love with so long ago, the spirit and the mentality will always be there.

Today’s game is going to be a tough one.  I have no doubt that they will take a few hits.  This game will probably not go as smoothly as Game 2 went.  This Nationals team is just too good for that, but I can all but guarantee that Carpenter will keep the Cardinals in the game long enough to have a chance.  This Cardinals team may not be the same as last season.  They are missing the leadership of LaRussa, the power of Albert Pujols, and the leadership and clutch ability of Lance Berkman.  They are dealing with a rookie shortstop who has not been viewed as a prospect in years, and their bullpen has no left handed reliever who can be counted on to get outs consistently.  This team has so many deficiencies, and yet they are here with a chance to make another run.  Chris Carpenter may not have been the face of this team.  He was not the workhorse pitcher that lead by pitching, but how could anyone on the team feel sorry for themselves or believe they had no chance when they saw their ace working his butt off to get back long after he had been left for dead.  Without Carpenter, this team would not have made the playoffs, I have no doubt, and it has nothing to do with his pitching.  Today, I know that Carpenter must be smiling somewhere in Washington DC because today he gets to lead by doing what he enjoys most.  Who knows how many pitches are left in that old arm of Carpenters, but I can’t wait to see them today.

Reflections from Game 2

Well, long story short, there really are not many things that could heal all the Cardinals issues more than 12 runs on the scoreboard.  I wrote earlier about how pathetic and depressing this Cardinal offense has been lately, and mere hours later, they put up more runs in one game than they had scored in the 5 games before that.  Is this a sign of something to come or just another blip on the screen of these Cardinals through a long season that has been filled with similar blips in the midst of other longer strings of meager offensive outputs?  The Cardinals future in the playoffs will hinge on the answer to this question.

The Cardinals will be moving forward now without Jaime Garcia which instantly makes either Lance Lynn or Shelby Miller the new most pivotal and potentially important pitcher on the Cardinal staff.  Is Miller really ready for that kind of responsibility?  Lance Lynn has developed himself into the type of talented short or long relief pitcher that is difficult to take out of the bullpen.  Last season, the Cardinals won the World Series because Lance Lynn was the type of late inning pitcher who could take over a game.  They also won because they had Fernando Salas who was able to stop bleeding in the middle innings as it came up.  Lynn has been this pitcher for the Cardinals this postseason.  He is versatile enough to throw to one batter with plus stuff as well as stretch out to cover multiple innings effectively.

Not since Rick Ankiel have the Cardinals put a pitcher this young in a position where they may need to make a start in the playoffs, and we all know how disastrous that situation went for Ankiel and the rest of the team.  I am worried that putting Miller in the starting rotation is too much too soon for a young starter with exactly one regular season start under his belt.  I know that he has the type of big time, talented arm that the Cardinals need in the wake of Garcia.  I just hope that he is ready to step up, either that or the Cardinals may need to keep scoring 12 runs a game…

NLDS Game 1 Disaster

I guess there are two ways to look at the first game of the NLDS this season.  On one hand, the Cardinals found themselves in the exact same situation last season when they lost an early lead from Lance Berkman’s three run homer in the first inning to fall behind the Philadelphia Phillies who were 2011’s National League East Division champions.  With the heroic help of Chris Carpenter, the Cardinals were able to come back in that series to win in Game 5 and the rest was history.  That, unfortunately is about where the comparisons between last year and this year’s game 1’s end.  The Cardinals lost Game 1 not due to the superior play of the Nationals or any great explosion in the bullpen, but despite all the help in the world that an inexperienced National’s team could offer.

All the talk going into this series that was a positive for the Cardinals spoke to the experience of this team which was able to have a magical ride through last year’s postseason compared to the relative inexperience of the Washington Nationals.  Any edge here was forfeited with a win in St. Louis during Game 1, however.  While the series is still far from over, and one game does not equal the experience of an entire postseason, imagine the difference in the clubhouse after this game had the Nationals lost the game.  The Nationals team would have looked around to see that their young ace let them down by falling apart in a situation where the game looked much larger than he was able to manage.  And imagine if the Cardinals had been able to add on another few runs after Zimmerman’s error.  They would be looking at the offensive face and first draft pick of their franchise as a defensive liability that cannot be trusted.  It is not difficult to imagine a young team having some doubt creep into their mind, and doubt like this could be crippling.  As it stands now, the Nationals made every mistake imaginable in their first playoff game, and they still got a win on the road against the defending World Series Champion.  It is dangerous to give a young team with the talent of the Nationals that kind of confidence as well.

In speaking of Nationals mistakes leading to Cardinal runs, this offense is embarrassing.  With the exception of a Matt Holliday homerun against the Braves, when was the last run they scored without the help of an error or a pitcher who completely lost all control for an inning?  The simple truth is that the Cardinals will not win a game with the amount of offense that they have been able to put together lately.  The Cardinal’s pitching did its job in Game 1 of the NLDS.  It is time for the offense to follow through.  The free runs are going to dry up sooner than later.  It would be nice to see some Cardinal batters provide the firepower for the team to move on despite that.

It is not difficult to pinpoint the time in the game where it turned from a game that the Cardinals were going to win to one that the team seemed destined to lose.  With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning and Allan Craig up with Molina on deck, the Cardinals were looking good.  They were still up by one run with the chances to add on some much needed insurance runs, but after two feeble ground balls, it felt more like the Cardinals were down by a run than up by one.  Let me make one thing clear here, if that same situation were to arise tomorrow, I would want Allan Craig and Yadier Molina to be the batters who are there with the chance to drive in some runs.  These two have proven over and over again that they are the talented and clutch performers that the Cardinals will need to ride if they are going to score runs in this postseason, but this is all the more reason that the failure of these two was crushing for the Cardinals team.

In speaking of a team’s fragile psyche, no one on the Cardinals seems more fragile and scared than Pete Kozma right now.  Furcal’s injury has forced Kozma to make the transition from struggling minor league shortstop to a major leaguer who is trying to fill the shoes of the starting shortstop for the National League in the All Star game.  His error today after the botched infield fly rule during the Wild Card game is further illustration of this fact.  I would point out his hitting as an issue, but with no one else on the team hitting either, it does not seem fair to point out the rookie in particular.  The truth is that Kozma is playing because he has the best chance to be a defensive anchor for this team at the shortstop position.  It is too much to ask from a young player with marginal talent.

And then there is the young manager who is in charge of steering the ship.  Like Kozma, Matheny may be in over his head.  He has done a pretty good job of leading the team to this point, but I wonder if the Cardinals have gotten this far despite their rookie manager as opposed to because of him.  I know that LaRussa had his own issues with bullpen management, but Matheny needs to know his personnel a little better as well as thinking ahead in a situation more completely.  Mitchell Boggs did a fine job in the 8^th inning.  He got a ground ball which should have been an out before giving up a bloop hit.  Then, with runners at first and third, Boggs got an out on a bunt before striking out the 8^th hitter. 

After getting the big strikeout after blowing a fastball right past the National’s catcher, Boggs had the look of confident determination on his face.  For a man who had to be sent back to the minor leagues last season after filling the team’s closers role with undeniable confidence issues, that was the look and the performance that Matheny had been trying to cultivate in Boggs ever since he took the job as the Cardinal’s manager, and in that moment, he decided to bring in Marc Rzepczynski instead of allowing Boggs to face a left handed pinch hitter even though Matheny had to know that the Nationals had other right handed batters available to pinch hit from the bench.  I wonder what the consensus would be if you polled the Nationals bench at that moment.  Do we really think for a second that they would rather face Mitchell Boggs, who was throwing in the upper 90’s with movement and a hard slider and had the confidence to be aggressive in the strike zone or the Cardinal’s lefty who has had as many games where he gives up runs as games where he is perfect.  I don’t think there is a doubt that the team would rather face Rzepczynski than a pumped up Boggs with good stuff and building confidence.  Shouldn’t that take some part in the decision making process for who to put in the game for Matheny.

And now that we are talking about Matheny, how about his management of the roster in general down the stretch?  We seem to be completely set on Daniel Descalso now at second base with no chance of seeing Skip Schumaker again to start at second base.  I know that Descalso is by far the better defensive player, but in a situation where this Cardinal’s offense is sputtering, no amount of defense is going to make up for the fact that their offense cannot put a run on the scoreboard.  The fact that Matheny could not see this day coming down the stretch has to be his biggest limitation as a manager.  I like Descalso as a player.  He is a solid defender and someone who puts together good at bats when they are needed, but he is not a starting player in the major leagues, at least not right now.  Descalso may one day grow into a productive major league starter, but as of now he needs to be a part of a platoon.  This is pretty bad timing to be realizing this.

The Cardinals may still have a chance to come back and win this series.  They may even have a chance to make a run in this postseason, but they are a team with issues right now that run pretty deep.  A few runs and a good start from Garcia will cure a lot of what ails the Cardinals, and these things are still a very real possibility.  They do need to make some adjustments though as an entire team, and unless they make them tomorrow, they will make them too late.