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7:15 p.m.
RHP Adam Wainwright (4-0, 2.68) vs. RHP Luis Castillo (1-5, 3.95)
FS Midwest // KMOX // WIJRLooks like Bauer and Gray will miss this series. So that is good news but Gray was taken down in the last series. Still not good to depend on that. Our pitching needs to get healed up for those 3 double headers next week so this Reds series will be important to not blow out the bullpen. A good day to all and looking forward to PLay Ball.
The Cards are 3.5 games ahead of the Reds, currently. A series win here would go a long way toward putting the Reds out to pasture. The team seems too inconsistent to be able to catch the Cubs, but holding onto 2nd place should be doable if they can avoid a few blunders and keep their pitching staff healthy for a change.
I know it seems weird, but in a 162 game season, 90 wins represents a winning percentage of only .555. Which means in a 60 game season, the Cards would only have to win 33 games to be on a 90 win pace. That would be quite a feat with all the health issues, substitute players, etc. Can they do it? Wouldn’t it be better if the went into the playoffs with the momentum of a winning record? Rather than a .500 second place team?
OPS+ update:
Wong 95
Edman 99
Goldy 163
Miller 151
Dejong 122
Yadi 87
O’Neill 77
Thomas 59
Bader 109Carp 84
Wieters -8
Ravelo 149
Dean -100Team 101
Wouldn’t it be better if the went into the playoffs with the momentum of a winning record? Rather than a .500 second place team?
I don’t know if there’s been a study of this overall, but I doubt that there’s a huge difference either way. The Cards’ two World Series winners this century took very different paths at the end of the season. 2006 started well and basically limped to the finish line, playing about .400 baseball the last two months and barely making it as the Central winner. The 2011 team got hot in September, erasing that Wild Card deficit, but were still a second place team. So both of those examples would not fit your hypothesis.
Of course, to be able to actually DO anything to address this sub-subject would require a highly debatable underlying assumption – that the team has another gear that they can decide whether or not to kick in. My belief is that there is no such gear post-COVID.
They are literally trying everything they can do to win the game each day and will be in that mode the rest of the way. Mo, Shildt and the players have repeatedly been delivering this message. Some of you might wonder if it is a defense mechanism, but I believe it to be true.
Perhaps Ravelo gets another start today, maybe in LF? He’s driven in at least a run in each of his last three starts. O’Neill and Thomas have been a little hit or miss, and Bader looks to have cooled. I’d probably try Ravelo-Thomas/Bader-O’Neill out there against the tough RHP tonight and see if one of them sparks. Of course with Carpenter having a solid game yesterday, he may get the 3B spot so Edman may end up back in the OF.
Isn’t it a general principle that the team that’s healthiest has some momentum going into the playoffs? Maybe that’s a key. Everything falling into place at the last minute.
Given that it’s 9/11 and we are now 19 years on from that horrible day, it seems fitting to post Jack Buck’s speech and poem from the first game back from the break.
Whats the weather like in St. Louis? Overcast here in SW Indiana. Radar shows alot of green stuff north of St. Louis. Any chance this one gets delayed?
I’ll miss most of this one as I will be attending the Evansville Bosse Bulldogs at the Jasper Wildcats football game tonight.
r/Esteemed Rat
If what the weatherman said holds true, it is very unlikely that this game will be delayed or postponed. The rain looks like it’s going to stay west of St. Louis.
Especially with home field advantage not being at the forefront of 2020 playoff competition, a team just needs to get in. Set your pitching up, stay as healthy as you can….and pray like heck you’re going to hit a nice hot streak. Castillo is going to be one tough hombre tonight. Low scoring game….. I’ll call it 3-2 and you can flip a coin as to who prevails.
Rat – I absolutely love those upstart Bosse Bulldogs in tonight’s game vs Jasper. I’m calling it Evansville 37 Jasper 16.
Waino on the bump! pic.twitter.com/0AsvhLstqI
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 11, 2020
Votto tattoos a towering homer way up into the right field rafters with a team member aboard and just like that the Reds lead it 2-0. 442 feet on that tater and I think it’s still ratting around up there as there are no fans to retrieve it .
Castillo sets us down 1-2-3 in the 1st and he has the stuff that no hitters are made up of this evening. As I gaze up at that scoreboard, that 2 run deficit looks like 20-0. Sorry for being a Davey Downer here tonight, gang, but I’m not so sure that the second coming of Ted Williams could touch this Castillo fellow this evening.
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