There is no doubt this team knows how to hit. What they don't know how to do is score runs. 11 hits are a lot, but the juice right now does not equal the squeeze. That plate appearance by Machado in the seventh was heartbreaking, when he struck out after eight pitches, even though he did come back with a clutch hit in the ninth. Again, Compadres, we have relied on Manny for far too long. There will be a dip in performance at some time. Maybe we can improve here. Cron got two hits, as did Nola. Profar got three from the leadoff spot. Even Azocar got two, plus one walk. If we went by hits, we would be leading the NL West. Sadly, some jackass decided that games were to be decided by runs, so here we are. We got our customary two runs, just good enough to lose. We got one hit from our 2-3-4 guys, who didn't get the memo that the other guys in the lineup were on base. Then the back breaking double play by Hos. It happens. We gave their closer a scare in the ninth, so you can't accuse us of not battling.
Nick Martinez gave us a quality start. Six innings, three runs, the type of performance you want to see from your #5 (and I'd even argue #6) starter. Keep us close, let the offense do their job. The flipside of the coin is that three runs may be one too many, which was the case today. We'll need to tighten the screws a little more. Let's go for a FQS (Friar Quality Start), which translates to, say, two runs over six innings. Then revisit. If your guys can't score two runs, lower it to one. One run in six innings is what our starting pitcher is gunning for today, cool. Still no runs? Gun for seven innings and one run. Then eight and one. All the way down until our pitcher must throw zeros (see Gore yesterday) to even have a chance.
The bullpen has been good, but we'll know more about them as the season progresses. Steven Wilson already gave up the lead in Atlanta with our guys ahead by three, today a dinger to Goldschmidt iced this one. How much we can rely on him remains to be seen. The bullpen needs to be extra fine if we are to hold our opponents to three runs or less, the absolute margin for error at this point. I really believe we could have beaten them if our bullpen had held them down. As far as I'm concerned, Wilson lost this game for us, not Martinez. The way Wilson is going, he will be a mop-up guy if he can't put up zeros. His ERA is at five and climbing, Tim Hill's is at almost seven. But hey, there's always El Paso, if people can't pitch in America's Finest City.
Games with the Cardinals are always fun. For a long time, the Cards greased us at will. I remember Whitey Herzog's teams in the 1980s with their rabbits (Coleman, McGee, Smith, Herr) setting the stage for their one big smasher, Jack Clark. We know about Ozzie's history with the club, but we can't blame the Cardinals for that. In the 1980s, the Cardinals were doing some serious teambuilding, while we kicked that habit around 1985. I have always admired former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, and his autobiography White Rat is still my favorite book written by any manager. Herzog was always a straight shooter and got down hard on himself for a long time. People may not remember Whitey's Kansas City Royals teams in the 1970s, but I sure do. That might have been an even better team than the Cardinals of the 1980s. George Brett, Frank White, Dennis Leonard, McRae...talk about team building! Whitey's only sin was to meet the New York Yankees in the playoffs every year. Look at Whitey's record with the Royals, and you'll know why he's in the Hall of Fame.
There's Tony La Russa, but we'll talk about him in another post. Game one goes to the Cards. Get used to it, guys. There will be no easy games on this entire road trip. Come back tomorrow and give them a series. Keep the faith. On Memorial Day, I'll have a scotch and soda for the troops. Cheers.
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