Saturday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins was a contrast of two teams who have almost identical records, but are heading in completely opposite directions. The Miami Marlins took advantage of scoring opportunities and the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t. Watching this team for the past week has made it difficult to not go into an ALL CAPS RAGE.
I hope the St. Louis Cardinals were paying attention to what the Miami Marlins were doing when runners were in scoring position. Given the opportunity, they came through with clutch hits and it started early. The Marlins scored early on Andre Pallante as Otto Lopez hammered a one-out triple in the right field corner and Kyle Stowers singled him in giving Miami an immediate 1-0 lead. Scoring runners in scoring position is possible, Cardinals.
The Marlins added to their lead in the top of the 3rd inning. Joe Mack led off with a single followed by Edwards then reached on a bunt single to third that Bryan Torres couldn’t handle. But, after Lopez grounded into a double play, Miami scored anyway as Stowers came through with a clutch two-out single scoring Mack doubling the Marlins lead to 2-0.
St. Louis had an opportunity in the bottom of the 3rd inning when JJ Wetherholt went the other way smacking a single into left field after Jimmy Crooks and Nathan Church had struck out for the Cardinals first hit of the game. Iván Herrera added his own single to give the Cardinals two baserunners and Alec Burleson was barely grazed on the foot by a pitch which loaded the bases with two outs bringing up the very much overdue Jordan Walker. What did St. Louis do with this opportunity to break out of their 12 inning scoreless streak? Walker struck out on a 3-2 sinker. This has been the St. Louis Cardinals for the past week.
The Miami Marlins took advantage of the Cardinals lack of improving their freefalling RISP numbers by adding to their lead again in the top of the 4th. Jakob Marsee led off with a double. Conine shattered his bat, but grounded out to JJ Wetherholt advancing Marsee for a productive at-bat. Javier Sanojo promptly singled to center scoring Marsee increasing the Marlins lead to 3-0. They weren’t done, either. After Mack flied out, Sanojo stole second and then scored when Edwards came through with a two-out single to left making it 4-0 Marlins.
The Cardinals would FINALLY score a run, but it didn’t happen until the bottom of the 6th inning when they strung together hits for a change. Jordan Walker got it started when he drew a one-out walk. Lars Nootbaar then singled moving Walker up to second. Masyn Winn added his own single as St. Louis began chipping away at the Marlins lead as it was 4-1 Miami after 6 innings.
Andre Pallante did not have his “A” game going Saturday night, but he did pitch deep into the game. He pitched into the top of the 7th inning and was helped by a picture-perfect JJ Wetherholt to Masyn Winn to Alec Burleson double play. He would be removed from the game by manager Oli Marmol after giving up a standup double to Edwards replaced by Matt Svanson. Andre Pallante’s line for the night was 6 2/3 innings giving up 11 hits, 4 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking 1 as he hit the 98 pitch mark. Not disastrous, but not as sharp as Andre has been in his previous June starts. Matt Svanson was unfortunately greeted by a two-out double from Otto Lopez which (of course) scored Edwards who barely beat the throw by Jordan Walker from right upping the Marlins lead to 5-1.
I thought perhaps that fate would begin smiling on the St. Louis Cardinals as JJ Wetherholt hit one of the highest singles in recent history as the Marlins infield and outfield could not decide who should catch JJ’s popup. Lopez called it and then they all just looked at each other as the ball bounced in between them all. I was hopeful the Cardinals would go on a Bender – Anthony Bender who was brought in by the Marlins in relief. Unfortunately, it was just another St. Louis runner left on base when Iván Herrera flied out to center to end the bottom of the 7th.
The Cardinals also wasted a single by Jordan Walker in the bottom of the 8th inning, but that was hardly surprising based on what St. Louis has done for the past week. Did the Cardinals do something inspiring in the bottom of the 9th and make a game of it? Of course not. Hold on a second, personal emotional eruption is coming…
WHY ARE THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS SUDDENLY SO FLAT FOR THE PAST WEEK? WHY DO RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION SEEM TO CAUSE TREPIDATION TO WHATEVER CARDINAL HAPPENS TO BE IN THE BATTER’S BOX? WHY HAS OUR DEFENSE BECOME SO SLOPPY? WHO’S GONNA RISE TO THE OCCASION AND REMIND THIS CARDINALS TEAM WHAT INSPIRED THE “TARPS OFF” RIGHT FIELD CRAZIES IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHO STOLE OUR BATS? Sorry about that, but I feel better now.
The St. Louis Cardinals will wrap up their homestand Sunday by trying to avoid a sweep from the Miami Marlins. The Cardinals will start Kyle Leahy while the Marlins starter has yet to be announced. First pitch scheduled for 1:15pm central time at Busch Stadium with the game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.
