photo: Thomas Saggese (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The St. Louis Cardinals alternated wins and losses in the 3-3 week. Sonny Gray and Lars Nootbaar suffered injuries that may stretch into the season. Prospect Thomas Saggese drove in six runs on Sunday. Our history feature returns to 2019 spring training.
Spring Training game recaps
Monday, March 4, 2024 – Cardinals 0 at Nationals 1
The St. Louis Cardinals were blanked by the Washington Nationals in 1-0 road loss on Monday. Sonny Gray started and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings, allowed one hit and struck out one. Gray left the game in the second inning due to a hamstring injury.
Kyle Leahy secured the final out of the second. Leahy was followed by Steven Matz, JoJo Romero, Giovanny Gallegos, Tink Hence and Ryan Loutos. Romero gave up the lone Nationals run.
Six different St. Louis hitters had one hit apiece. The only extra base hit was a double by Willson Contreras.
On the base paths, Victor Scott stole his second base of the spring.
In the field, Contreras made an error on a pick off and Masyn Winn had a fielding miscue.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024 – Cardinals 5, Twins 4
At Roger Dean, the Cardinals edged the Twins on Tuesday by the score of 5-4. Starter Miles Mikolas pitched four innings, gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits and struck out four.
Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless fourth. O’Brien was followed by Ryan Fernandez, Andre Pallante, Nick Robertson, and Max Rajcic. Fernandez and Pallante each surrendered a run.
St. Louis’ offense scored five runs on eight hits from eight different Cardinals. Paul Goldschmidt hit the first spring home run for the Cardinals, a solo shot. Goldschmidt had two RBI, one from the long ball and one on a sac fly. Dylan Carlson doubled home two. Jordan Walker drove in one run.
On the base paths, Michael Siani stole his first base.
Ivan Herrera made a fielding error. Siani had an outfield assist at home plate.
Wednesday, March 6 – Off day
Thursday, March 7 – Cardinals 3, Astros 6
The Cardinals lost to the Astros in a 6-3 contest at Roger Dean Stadium on Thursday. Starter Kyle Gibson pitched three innings, gave up four runs (all in the first inning) on five hits and struck out three.
Piggyback starter Matthew Liberatore threw three scoreless innings. John King, Keynan Middleton, and Andrew Kittridge followed Liberatore. King surrendered two runs, one earned.
The Cardinals offense scored three runs on seven hits. Again, no Cardinal had multiple hits. Jordan Walker and Matt Carpenter hit solo home runs. Alec Burleson had the other RBI.
Masyn Wynn made a fielding error.
Friday, March 8 – Cardinals 7 at Nationals 6
The Cardinals edged the Nationals in West Palm Beach on Friday evening. Starter Lance Lynn pitched two innings, gave up four runs on three hits, struck out two and walked three. He left early due to his ejection by umpire Angel Hernandez.
Brycen Mautz secured one out and Kyle Leahy finished the scoreless third. Following Leahy were Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, JoJo Romero, and Zack Thompson. Gallegos surrendered one run and Thompson yielded one run.
Victor Scott was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Thomas Saggese was 2-for-3. Michael Siani was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Nolan Gorman plated three. Jordan Walker had an RBI.
On the base paths, Walker stole his first base. Scott stole his third base.
In the field, Saggese made a throwing error.
Saturday, March 9 – Cardinals 3, Mets 9
At home on Saturday, the Cardinals fell to the Mets by the score of 9-3. Starter Steven Matz pitched two innings, gave up four runs on five hits and struck out two.
Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless third. Relievers who followed were Wilking Rodriguez, Ryan Fernandez, Andre Pallante, Nick Robertson, Sem Robberse, Alex Cornwell, and Ryan Loutos. Robberse surrendered four runs. Loutos yielded one run.
St. Louis’ offense scored three runs on six hits. No Cardinal had multiple hits. Thomas Saggese had two RBI and Pedro Pagés drove in one.
In the field, O’Brien and Luken Baker each made a throwing error.
Sunday, March 10 – Cardinals 12, Marlins 8
The Cardinals defeated the Marlins in a 12-8 slugfest at Roger Dean Stadium on Sunday. Starter Gordon Graceffo pitched 2 2/3 innings, gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits.
Chris Roycroft followed Graceffo on the mound. The remaining relievers were Drew Rom, John King, Andrew Kittredge, and Tekoah Roby. King surrendered one run. Roby yielded two runs.
Victor Scott was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Thomas Saggese was 4-for-4 with six RBI. Alec Burleson was 2-for-2. Ivan Herrera had an RBI. Matt Carpenter drove in a run, Nolan Arenado had an RBI and Luken Baker had an RBI.
On the base paths, Burleson stole his first base. Nolan Gorman and Victor Scott were caught stealing.
Jordan Walker made a fielding error. Herrera had a passed ball.
Spring Training Big Picture
The Cardinals completed their second full week of spring games. Their record was 3-3 in six games played. St. Louis’ record to date is 6-7-2.
The top offensive players by OPS in the last seven days are: Pedro Pagés (2.334), Thomas Saggese (1.827), Michael Siani (1.533), Matt Carpenter (1.232), Nolan Gorman (1.205), César Prieto (1.196), Jeremy Rivas (1.000) and Jordan Walker (.983).
Most of the starting pitchers over the past week did not have good outings. This is not unexpected in spring training. The exception was Miles Mikolas. Sonny Gray left with an injury in his second inning on Monday.
The relief pitching over the last week has been mostly fine. John King has had some issues.
The Cardinals have two notable injuries among position players. Two starting outfielders, Tommy Edman and Lars Nootbaar, are questionable in terms of availability for opening day. This will necessitate some substitutions in the outfield that were not expected.
As for pitching, Gray is also a question mark to make his first start in the regular season.
The third full week of Grapefruit League action starts with a home date with the Nationals on Monday. Subsequent opponents will be the Red Sox, Twins, Mets, Marlins, Nationals, and Astros.
Spring Breakout coming
The Spring Breakout game between the Cardinals and the Marlins, featuring top prospects from both organizations, will be played on Friday, March 15 at Roger Dean Stadium. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. Central and will be televised by MLB Network, ESPN+ and MLB.TV.
In the second Spring Breakout contest, to be held on Sunday, March 17 at 9:05 a.m. CT at The Dean, the Cardinals will face their Astros prospect counterparts. It can be viewed on MLB.TV.
The Cardinals rosters for both Spring Breakout games, which are slightly different between the two contests, can be found here.
News and Notes from Cardinals Spring Training
This section features spring training news items each week that do not require extensive coverage.
- The Spring Training broadcast schedule is available here. Bally Sports Midwest is telecasting 12 games this spring, down from 15 most years. The total number of Cardinals games broadcast by Bally Sports Midwest plus other video outlets has also declined.
All games will be available in some medium however, as the remainder of the games not televised by Bally Sports Midwest or the TV outlets of opposing teams will be picked up in audio form by either KMOX or the Cardinals Radio Network. This includes all 30 games in Florida plus the two scheduled games in Arizona against the Cubs.
- Regular season single game tickets are now on sale. Tickets can be purchased online here or on the Ballpark App.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
There are no trade or acquisition rumors to report.
Transactions
There are no new transactions to report.
Injury Report
- CF Tommy Edman (arthroscopic wrist surgery) is delayed in his return from surgery. Edman has not advanced enough in his hitting to play in any spring games. The outlook for his availability on opening day is doubtful.
- LF Lars Nootbaar (two non-displaced rib fractures) injured himself trying to catch a fly ball in the outfield. At minimum he will be out of spring games for at least two weeks. His availability for opening day is questionable.
- RHP Sonny Gray (right hamstring) was forced to leave the game on Monday in the second inning when he felt a tweak in his hamstring. Imaging revealed the hamstring strain to be mild. Gray has reported improvement each day in his hamstring. He has thrown from 60 feet and has engaged in some lower body activities. It is unclear whether the right-hander will be able to make the Opening Day start in Los Angeles. Competing to be his replacement if needed are Matthew Liberatore, Zack Thompson and Drew Rom.
Looking Ahead
St. Louis (6-7-2) has completed the second full week of Grapefruit League games.
The third full week of spring games begins on Monday, March 11. The Cardinals play the Nationals, the Red Sox, the Twins, the Mets, the Marlins, and the Astros.
The Cardinals Spring Training schedule can be found here.
A like to the Spring Training broadcast schedule is provided in this report.
The last spring training game in Florida will be against the Astros in West Palm Beach on March 24. The Cardinals will then travel to Arizona to play the final two spring games against the Cubs on March 25 and 26.
The regular season begins on March 28 with four games against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. They end the road trip in San Diego with a three-game set beginning April 1.
St. Louis’ home opener is on April 4 against the Marlins.
Blast from the Past
Blast from the Past continues to review past spring trainings from which rosters and stats are available.
The website Baseball Cube has spring training stats going back to 2006. Last week we looked at the 2017 season. This week we jump to 2019 spring training.
The Cardinals’ roster consisted of 80 players, 46 position players and 34 pitchers. The entire roster can be found here.
The primary position players were Yadier Molina, Paul Goldschmidt, Kolten Wong, Paul DeJong, Matt Carpenter, Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, and Dexter Fowler. Other notable players were Tyler O’Neill, Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, Andrew Knizner, Matt Wieters, Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Jedd Gyorko, Lane Thomas, Nolan Gorman, Luken Baker, and Edmundo Sosa.
Starting pitchers were Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, and Dakota Hudson. Notable relief pitchers were Alex Reyes, Jordan Hicks, Andrew Miller, Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera, John Gant, Daniel Poncedeleon, Tyler Webb, John Brebbia, Austin Gomber, Jake Woodford, and Mike Mayers.
St. Louis’ 2019 Spring Training record was 12-5. The first game was on February 23 and the final was played on March 24.
The top hitters by OPS were Scott Hurst (1.039), Jedd Gyorko (1.029), Edmundo Sosa (.957), Randy Arozarena (.952), Paul Goldschmidt (.939), and Tommy Edman (.903).
None of the top six pitchers in spring 2019 are still with St. Louis.
Top starters ERA: Dakota Hudson (1.25), Michael Wacha (1.92), and Jack Flaherty (2.12).
Top relievers ERA with at least 10 IP: Chris Beck (1.59), Mike Mayers (2.61), and Tyler Webb (2.77).
The Cardinals played seven teams during the spring: Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Philadelphia Phillies.
St. Louis opened the 2017 season on March 28 in Milwaukee against the Brewers. The home opener was April 5 against the San Diego Padres.
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