In my opinion, the Cardinals should be in a holding pattern

by Steve Dunford

You have heard me harp and gripe, this six game stretch between the Diamondbacks and the Nationals will be the turning point of the Cardinals season.

The Cardinals whipped up on the Nationals, and former Southern Illinois Miner, Tanner Roark 8-1 last night.  Rookie sensation Paul DeJong hit his sixth homer on the season.  He is hitting .277 and slugging .505.

Tommy Pham, Jedd Gyorko, Yadier Molina, and Greg Garcia picked up two hits.  Mike Leake was stellar on the mound, pitching eight innings allowing one run, five hits and striking out four.

Last night’s game is a microcosm of how the Cardinals have played in the recent stretch.  The defense has been much better.  There stupid mistakes on the bases has been fewer.  With Leake being a pitch to contact guy, solid defense behind him, is the key to his success.

I am going to be honest, I have some notes on a yellow legal pad for the Cardinals to become sellers.  I figured 2-4 would be optimistic, as dismal as they have been playing coming into this stretch of the season.

Now I am going to take a lets see how the upcoming series with the Marlins and Mets go.  The Marlins can put runs up on the board, but have suspect pitching.  The Mets are probably the most underachieving team in baseball,  are a train wreck.

I am going to have to get my yellow legal pad out tonight and prepare for the Cardinals to be buyers.  There is one move I think the Cardinals need to make.  It will cause some of you to do flip flops, and some of you will give me an angry icon, when I share this on social media.

With Gio Gonzales, 7-2 – 2.87, going against Michael Wacha  – 4-3 4.50, I am pessimistic of St. Louis picking up another win.

Here is my take on Wacha.  He has had stamina trouble his whole MLB career.  No matter what happens tonight, move him to the bullpen.  He could have closer stuff.

In what was the first of the year a seven inning shortened game with Rosenthal in the 8th and Oh in the ninth, is not the case.  Both have been terrible.  I might have to break out the Charlie Brown cartoon again for both of them.

A month ago, I would not have said this, but Brett Cecil has been the most reliable arm out of the pen as of late.  I would like to pull up the stats since he switched his number to 27, Jhonny Peralta’s old number.  That is when the tide turned for him.

If Wacha needs to be replaced in the rotation, I would go with Luke Weaver or Jordan Swagerty.  Marco Gonzales did not look fully recovered in his only start.   Michael Mayers (pronounced Myers, which is the second pitcher the Redbirds had by that name) has been awful.  He had the disastrous start on ESPN last year against the Dodgers.  In his one appearance out of the pen he gave up one run on one hit and was hit hard.  I know it is a small sample size, but his ERA was lowered to being north of 24.00.

Hopefully I will be writing my recliner GM strategy as a buyer in the next two days.  Matt Scherzer against Carlos Martinez will be a classic tomorrow night, as John Rooney calls it, the game of the world.

Tonight’s lineup for the Cardinals will be posted below.  Matt Carpenter and Stephen Piscotty have the night off.

CF   Pham

LF   Grichuk

RF   J. Martinez

3B  Gyorko

C   Molina

1B  Voit

SS  DeJong

2B  Mejia

P   Wacha

I will be playing remote control aerobics, flipping back and forth between the NASCAR race.  Racing is on weekly,  the Cardinals are on daily.

Thank you for the positive feedback on the summaries.  I will do them on a daily basis.