After a tie in their first spring game and a loss in their second, the Cardinals' third preseason game finally gets them a tally in the win column. Today the Cards defeated the Mets 9-8.
Starting pitcher Kyle Lohse struggled in his first start yesterday. Todd Wellemeyer followed in Lohse's foot steps today as both pitchers try to clean off the rust from the off-season. Wellemeyer went two innings giving up three runs on four hits. He also struck out two and walked nobody.
The bigger pitching story for the Cards today was the relief crew. Josh Kinney, Jason Motte, Trever Miller and P.J. Walters combined for five no-hit innings. The only downfall to this group of guys was Kinney having trouble finding the strike zone. Though he did pitch a ho-hit inning of work, he also walked the bases loaded. Hearing things like that make visions of Izzy reappear; even if it is only preseason. Just get it all out of your system now.
Jason Motte had a particularly solid outing. Motte made it seem much simpler than it was after the game. Motte has been working on refining his slider to add an alternative to his speed of light fastball. "I tried to get ahead of guys, throw strikes and keep my slider down," Motte explained. "That's about it. I was just trying to keep it down. Wasn't really trying to do too much with it." I can only imagine how hard it has got to be to try and hit Motte's slider; especially after watching a couple 100+ MPH fastballs go by.
Offensively the Cardinals had a successful day as a whole, manufacturing nine runs on 12 hits. The only negative from the batting section of today's box score is the big 0 for 5 for the Big Cheese...Colby.
Next on the Redbird's agenda is the Nationals at noon on Saturday. It will be a crucial game as the Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter will be back on the hill after only four starts in the last two years combined. I hope that Carp will pick up where he left off before the injury bug took a big bite out of him and he will be able to return to dominance this season. Only time will tell...
So how many teams have a "crucial" game in the preseason? Only the Cards of course, due to their lack of any offseason acquisitions. To this team Carpenter is a "new" acquisition, let's hope he's the old Carp and he stays healthy. If so, then we have a chance this year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with MZS - Only the Cards have crucial preseason games. Other teams already know for the most part who will be playing where. The Cards have way too many variables.
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