Game Recap - Sep 21 - Cardinals outlast Guardians 6-5
Yesterday at 10:28 PM
Walker and Herrera homers power Cardinals past Guardians
Top-Line Results
Miles Mikolas pitched a very sharp 6 innings. Walker with a 2-run HR and Herrera with a 3-run HR helped power the Cardinals to the $.60 drink tomorrow. Romero got walloped for 4 runs in 1⁄3 of an inning to make it closer than needed. Liberatore was excellent in salvaging Romero's blow up and Helsley finishes for the win.
Game Notes
- Assessment of the 2024 season and planning for 2025 has begun in earnest. Will be a fascinating off-season.
- The Cardinals begin an abbreviated 8 game look at some younger players in games that don't matter. They obviously got an early start on this, throwing in the towel in late August. Unfortunately, the results, good or bad, become small sample size theater no matter the outcome.
- I am inferring that Saggese will factor significantly into 2025 plans, based on him being on the same/similar plan as Masyn Winn last year. For him, it is more about exposure than it is results.
Line-up (and roster) Machinations
- Mikolas is on the mound for the Cardinals. Many would just as soon this be his last Cardinal appearance. THAT seems unlikely. I can think of 16 million reasons why.
- The very good Guardians post the not very good Matthew Boyd on the mound today. He of the career ERA near 5. But he is left-handed, so I anticipate very little offense today.
- Sonny Gray is shut down, placed on IL. Leahy up. McGreevy will get Gray's start Tuesday in Colorado. Forearm tendinitis is the report. No structural damage shown on MRI. Sounds like he has dealt with it at least last two starts.
- Donovan and Siani only LH hitters in lineup tonight. Walker, Saggese and Baker in the line-up. Herrera catches. Burleson gets a day off. He has looked gassed the past few weeks.
The Game
T1 - F8. Backwards K. F8. Quick start.
B1 - Winn pops out. Baker pops. Goldy singles. Arenado K's.
T2 - Line out. Single by old friend Thomas. Another single results in hijinks. Walker short hops Saggese on the throw in and it gets away. Thomas tries to score and Winn guns him out. A K ends the inning.
B2 - Herrera K. Donovan 1-3. Walker walks. But Saggese K's. Turns out Cardinals can't hit with runners on anywhere...:-). Still 0-0.
T3 - F8. E-1, MM drops throw at first. F9. 4-3. Pretty good play by Sags there. Nice job.
B3 - Siani out 1u. Winn with a bolt double (108 mph). Throw in gets away but Winn loses track of both the ball and his 3rd base coach, so can't advance. Baker singles, but Winn can't score. Goldschmidt up with first RISP opportunity of the game for either team. Goldy naturally K's. Been that way all year. Arenado out F9.
T4 - MM's velo has been good, up around 95. Lots of hard-hit balls by Guardians as lots of red is shown on the Statcast board. A double by Jose Ramirez starts the inning. He is good. A pop out follows. Then 5-3, followed by 4-3 to strand the runner.
B4 - Herrera walks. Donovan K's. Walker a 2-run HR! His power seems to be coming around nicely. Saggese K's again. Siani walks. Winn out F8. Cards up 2-0.
T5 - 6-3. All the sudden, MM is a ground ball machine. He is around 60 pitches here in the fifth. Jinx. HR by Naylor. Definitely not a grounder. 25th HR allowed by him this year. Seems like more for some reason. Right in line with his career norms. A K follows, then another K. Cards now up 2-1.
B5 - Morgan replaces Boyd. Baker out 6-3. Goldy lines out (102 mph). Arenado singles to extend the inning. Arenado out stealing. What!? He is about the last guy who should be stealing. Ugh.
T6 - 3u. P5. F9. MM at 81 pitches at end of 6.
B6 - Herrera doubles. Herrin in for Morgan. A PB puts Herrera on third with no out. The Cardinals escape without scoring in pretty much the only sequence possible. Donovan pops out. Walker and Saggese K. Still 2-1.
T7 - Kittredge in for MM. K. Single. Single. SB. Pop-out. Ground-out. Lots of traffic, but no damage.
B7 - Siani leads off. Winn reaches on an error made as they tried to start a double play. Cardinals return the favor by running into a double play on a pop out. The ugliness continues. Goldy reaches on error by first baseman, allowing Winn to score. More hijinks as Arenado HBP, then Herrera caps it with 3-run HR! Donovan flies out to end the inning. Lots of ugliness on both sides, mostly the Guardians though. Cards now up 6-1.
T8 - Romero in for Kittredge. Single. Single. 3-run HR by Ramirez continues the ugly play parade. Romero gets a ground out then allows a walk. Libby in for Romero. A bad hop grounder bounces over Goldy's head, scoring another run. 4 ER for Romero in .1 innings. A pop out follows. Libby K's Naylor. He did good to put out the fire. Cards now up 6-5.
B8 - Walker grounds out. Sags K's (again). Siani K's (again). Hels time.
T9 - K. K. K. I'd call that dominance. It did take 12 pitches, so the Russian judge deducted a point for not sticking the landing on an immaculate inning. Cards win 6-5.
Post-Game Notes (and random musings)
- Realizing I have recaps on 3 over the last 8 games. Who did that? Oh, ya. I did. I'll be at 2 of them, since fire season is over, and I can actually travel out of state.
- I'm going to continue to write in the off-season (unless someone thinks this is a bad idea). I committed to 2-4 articles a month, although I might go past that, if time allows. Through the comments section today and next week, I will put out some thoughts on some articles I was thinking of putting together during the off-season. Perhaps people can help me flesh those ideas out. And maybe challenge my own ideas and biases.
- First thought is, I am considering a deep dive on how the Cardinal's might approach 2025 off-season planning. Not how I'd like them to approach (ie. trade Mikolas and $$ for Julio Rodriguez and Logan Gilbert), but how THEY might, given how they approach things. I built a map of the key questions (player talent wise, not front-office wise) I expect them explore in order to cobble together a comprehensive strategy for the whole 40-man roster. A deep dive on each of the 10 question areas would be like 10 articles. Shocking, I know. Too much? Is it possible to string together that many articles and be both comprehensive AND digestable? And what is a reasonable length of an article in the off-season? The first one I've started is 1600 words so far. And I've just scratched the surface. This thread is time-bound, needing to be done before the first GM meetings.
- A second idea, for later in the post-season, is a theory around the idea that the 40-man roster may need to be expanded now that the active roster is 26-man. Can be done anytime.
