Game Recap - Sept 14 - Blue Jays slap down Cardinals, 7-2

09/14/2024 06:12 PM

Cardinals' mistakes (walks and errors) open floodgates and turn a pitcher's duel into a romp for the Blue Jays

Top-Line Results

Cardinals' mistakes (walks and errors) open floodgates and turn a pitcher's duel into a 7-2 romp for the Blue Jays. Walker homers for lone bright spot.

Pre-Game Notes

• Been tracking Quinn Matthews journey through MiLB. He has an incredible four stops this year. Palm Beach, Peoria, Springfield and now Memphis. I see he has struggled with the automatic strike zone at AAA. But overall, talk about a bottle-rocket arc to his development track. Guys that move that fast are worth noticing. Their chances of impacting the major league roster are usually good. He will be a guy I will seek out on the backfields next February to watch.
• I noticed that Tink Hince was removed from a start last Wednesday, due to injury concern (again). He sure looks like a premium talent stuff-wise but health and durability concerns seem to dominate the narrative.
• Saggese seems to be better defensively than advertised. His minor league scouting report had him at a 45 (slightly below average) with the glove. Haven't seen that part yet.

Line-up (and roster) Machinations

• Gibson toes the rubber for the Cardinals. Berrios for the Blue Jays. He seems to have had a nice bounce back after starting his time in Toronto kind of rough.
• Expecting Liberatore and Fernandez to be down tonight. King too, perhaps. He hasn't pitched much in September. They've been leaving 3-4 days between appearances for him.
• Sags at 2b again. Noot in CF. Pages at C. Walker brings up the rear, batting ninth, playing RF.

The Game

T1 - Winn leads off with a K. He looks worn out. Good player but appears tired. Burly out 6-3. Goldy lines out to short.

B1 - 6-3. 1-3. 1-3. That was quick.

T2 - Arenado F8. Donovan works a 10 pitch AB, but grounds out. Sags out 1-3. All the Cardinals batted balls have been 90 plus, so good contact, but poor results.

B2 - F9. P6. K. Gibson is very sharp so far.

T3 - Nootbar out 4-3. Pages flies to left. Walker with a big fly! Winn lines out. Cardinals now up 1-0.

B3 - Sharp liner for an F8. Then a HR, followed by a double. Springer pops out. F9 ends the inning. Blue Jays filled the Statcast board with red than inning. Now tied 1-1.

T4 - Burly F8. Goldy out on the odd 4-1, something you don't see every day. Arenado walks. Donovan singles. Saggese K's with RISP, in keeping with the theme of the season.

B4 - 6-3 (on an overturned call). Then a walk. A deep fly to center is out#2. Gibson has gone from sharp to spotty quickly. I've noticed that about him, how it comes apart very fast for him. A sharp liner that Walker snags ends the inning. Still tied, 1-1.

T5 - Nootbar lines out. Pages out 5-3. Walker walks. After getting down 0-2 on balls in the zone, he laid off four down and away off-speed pitches to earn the walk. If he can do that consistently, we'll have something, I think. Winn out 6-3.

B5 - A pop single and a line-out, both to short start the bottom of 5. Gibson at a manageable 71 pitches so far. GIDP ends the inning.

T6 - Burly K's. Goldy 6-3. Arenado lines out.

B6 - 5-3 starts the inning. Gibson back to inducing weak contact again. A single to left. Guerrero up. Boy that .936 OPS would look nice in the Cardinals line-up, wouldn't it? Just sayin...He walks. I dislike walks, but that one was understandable. Another walk. Which is too often the result after the unintentional intentional walk and often is followed by more damage. Bases loaded now. A ground ball to short pulls Winn toward the plate, so he throws home for the force there. Except poor footwork results in a poor throw that Pages can't handle on the bounce. Would have had the batter by 15', but instead an error opens the flood gates. Fernandez in for GIbson, who was cromulent. A force out adds a run, then two straight RBI singles, followed by a ground out turns a 1-1 pitching duel into a 5-1 rout.

T7 - Donovan grounds out, so does Sags. Nootbar closes with a backwards K.

B7 - O'Brien in for Fernandez. Starts with a K, but a triple, RBI single, and walk follow. A short fly brings the inning closer to a finish without damage, but alas a 2-RBI single continues the onslaught. Ground out finishes. Blue Jays now up 7-1.

T8 - Pages pops out. Walker backwards K. Winn out 4-3. It's time for him to stand down, I think. He has shown what he can do, and one of the things he can't is play every single inning.

B8 - O'Brien remains in. Single. K. Backwards K. Ground out. Much more orderly for him.

T9 - Burly doubles. Baker flies out, advancing the runner. Fermin with RBI ground out. Still an out with RISP. Sometimes you can't win for losing. Donovan grounds out to end the game. Cards lose 7-2.

Post-Game Notes (and random musings)

• I find myself wondering what Matt Koperniak would have to do to get a look at the MLB level?
• I am curious to see what the summary review for Pedro Pages turns out to be. He reminds me a lot of a bunch of major league catchers who have had long careers as back-ups or split time guys. Defense is a plus, Offense a little on the minus side but not helpless, intangibles (???).
• Going into the season, I was of the opinion that the Cardinal season would be defined by how well (and how quickly) the younger players ascended. I expected the natural inconsistencies of younger players, the non-linear path of development. What I didn't expect was to end the year with more questions than answers about them. Now I think the questions might be more about whether they have a next level to ascend to. What do they have in Gorman? Walker? Herrera? Thompson (remember him?) Scott? Carlson is gone. Have we seen peak Nootbar? Donovan?
• I saw the Cardinals were 2-19 with RISP in scoring position last night. Wow! I plan to dig deep into RISP splits this winter, looking a pitching tendencies and how they change with RISP and how the results change along with that. I'm starting to flesh out the R scripts now, but will wait until the season is over to get the complete view of data. Will try to answer the riddle - if RISP is so random, how come the results are so consistent and predictable over large sample sizes?