2011 Revisited: Treading Water

We started this series earlier in the year but let it drop as the season got started.  However, this is about the time five years ago that things got interesting, so let’s jump back in the time machine and take a look at what was going on as #11in11 really got started.

Treading Water

We keep waiting and hoping for the Cardinals to catch fire, to pull away from the pack and start to pile win on top of win.  So far, it’s two steps forward, two steps back in the second half, and this weekend, while generally positive, just reinforced that trend.  Recaps:

Thursday (6-2 win at New York)
Hero: Jake Westbrook. He had the advantages of a larger than normal park, playing in Citi Field, and the heat of the day game possibly sapping the opposition, but even with all of those advantages, he went eight innings and allowed only two runs.  He’s said before that he heats up as the weather does, and the weather doesn’t get any hotter than what we have now.  (If it does, please don’t tell me.)  His August and September ERAs have been good the last three years, so perhaps he’ll be a plus down the stretch.

Goat: Nick Punto.  While we still give him credit for playing hurt, going 0-5 in the leadoff slot isn’t really helping the offense much.  Was able to score a run, which is good, but struck out three times.  That’s something the team will have to keep an eye on, to see if he’s hurting the team more by playing than by being on the DL.

Notes: Albert Pujols went yard, stirring his bat just a bit and giving the team an early lead. Jon Jay had two hits and continued to put pressure on other members of the team (as we’ll discuss later). Daniel Descalso filled in at shortstop in a late lineup switch, when Ryan Theriot found out he could reduce the suspension to one game if he served it immediately.  It’s something (Descalso at short, not Theriot suspended) that we might see more going forward.

Friday (6-4 win at Pittsburgh)
Hero: Albert Pujols.  Four hits, including another first inning home run.  It’s pretty obvious Pujols will make it to 30 home runs again this season.  He’s at 60 RBI, which means that he’s still got an outside shot at 100 of those.  However, the third leg of his personal triple crown looks less and less likely.  He’s at .276 after Sunday’s 0-5, meaning he likely needs to hit around .338 (assuming 550 at-bats) over the rest of the season just to reach .300.  While that’d be great, I think we’ll see the first blemish on AP’s baseball card this year.

Goat: Ryan Theriot.  0-5 in the leadoff slot, dropping his average to .274.  It dropped another point over the weekend and his OBP is .319, which is not really what the Cards had in mind when they were exchanging offense for defense.  (As has been pointed out a lot this weekend, Brendan Ryan now is hitting .264 with an OBP of .324 and is continuing to play stellar defense.  Perhaps this swap didn’t work out exactly the way the Cardinals planned.)

As I mentioned on Gateway To Baseball Heaven last night (and fair warning if you click that link, our guest wasn’t able to make it and Bill had some conflicts, so it’s 30 minutes of a C70 monologue), I thought it was pretty telling that Descalso started at short on Saturday, even though there was no reason for Theriot not to be out there.  He’d just sat out Thursday, so it wasn’t that he needed the rest.  It wasn’t a lefty on the mound.  And yet Descalso was starting and Tony La Russa made the comment this weekend that it was tough not to put Daniel out there on a more regular basis.  That has to concern Theriot a bit.

Notes: David Freese had a couple of hits, including a home run.  Lance Berkman continued to be the best free agent signing of the offseason, having two hits and raising his average to .288 to go along with his large number of home runs.  Chris Carpenter wasn’t completely on his game, giving up four runs, but pitched eight innings and made pitches when he needed to.  He pitched around his troubles, but this is the kind of game he’d have lost earlier in the year due to no run support, so maybe things are evening out a bit.

Saturday (9-1 win at Pittsburgh)
Hero: Jaime Garcia.  After so much talk about how Garcia struggled on the road, he’s thrown back-to-back solid outings away from Busch.  This time he didn’t quite get through the eighth, but still allowed only one run and limited the damage of eight hits by only walking one and striking out five.  When Garcia can get into the eighth with less than 100 pitches, you know it’s a good game and Garcia seems to be able to do that more than most anyone currently in the rotation.

Goat: Matt Holliday.  The whole team got into this game, so it’s tougher to name a Goat, but Holliday, while having a hit and a walk, did strike out three times as well.  Kind of a rough stretch for Number 7, as he’s only hit .231 since the break with two doubles his only extra-base hits.  Not that it’s a concern at all, but when it’s coupled with the other slumps on the offense, it can hurt.  Not so much this weekend in Pittsburgh, though.

Notes: Yadier Molina and Berkman both went yard in the Cards’ big inning.  Good to see some production from Molina, who has been scuffling for a while. PJ Walters had a very nice outing in relief, continuing to show that he can handle some of the less-stressful innings, saving some of the bigger guns for later or closer in games. Skip Schumaker had a couple of hits in the leadoff slot and, while I still wouldn’t want him there regularly, he’s made the decision of what to do with Allen Craig when Craig returns.  Early on, you’d have thought Craig would play a lot at second.  Now, Skip’s made you at least think about that call.  Of course, if there’s an open slot in the outfield….

Sunday (4-3 loss in 10 at Pittsburgh)