This team treats me like a yo-yo and I keep coming back for more. This week’s version will likely be short, as I missed lots of action while globe-trotting for work. At any rate, here goes this week’s Spitballs:
- If you are religious in any way, believe in anything at all, pray or meditate or wish or hyperventilate – whatever you do, do it – for Chris Carpenter’s health. ESPN called it a right triceps strain. Translated into actual Cardinal injuries and the information allowed to leave that clubhouse, that could mean anything from a hangnail to his arm actually fell off once he was out of camera-sight. Let’s hope for the former.
- Adam Kennedy just made the Felipe Lopez move look a little brighter.
- I don’t have the energy (nor the resolve) to look it up now, but I’m sure I could find somewhere that the Cardinals lead the major leagues in pop-ups on the infield with runners in scoring position. I’m pretty sure they also lead the league in outs made on 3-0 and 3-1 counts.
- I’m sorry Brad Thompson. If it makes you return to pitching well, I will delete the post in which I exalted your prior achievements cleaning up Cardinal messes.
- With all possible injury issues and the loss aside – Cardinal starting pitchers are really on a roll.
- It will be interesting to see what happens with Adam Wainwright’s rehab schedule, once the severity of Carpenter’s new injury is determined. All information to date has indicated Waino was headed to the pen – I can see that changing pretty rapidly in the next 48 hours.
- Waino got lit up Friday night in Memphis – here’s hoping it was control, and not stuff, that got him in trouble. Those finger/joint injuries can tend to linger, especially for someone who is arguably being rushed back before he should be.
- Friday night’s game was winnable. That being said, did anyone really think the Cardinals had a chance to win once Ryan Franklin was trotted out in the tenth? I’d be lying if i said yes. So what does Frank do? Pitches a solid tenth inning. Obviously blinded by Franklin’s unusual performance, and clearly not expecting to have to plan beyond the tenth, Tony ran him out for the eleventh to finish the job. Good work. The guy can barely string together two outs and you’re trying to squeeze two innings out of him. At some point it has to be determined who sucks more, the bullpen or the manager continually throwing them into these situations.
- Friday sucked, but at least they were in it. Could’ve (in theory) gone either way. Saturday’s game was one of those “restore faith” kind of games, as the Birds beat up on Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano. Tonight’s game was a “lose faith again” kind of game, as the Cards had plenty of chances, possibly lost an ace (again), and had their usually stellar defense abandon them in a crucial situation. I hate being a pessimist – it’s just not generally in my nature, and other folks have that routine down – but it might be time to start focusing on Milwaukee (or, more immediately, Florida) and the Wild Card.
*sigh* (good golly I’m getting tired of ending these Sunday posts like that)
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Sounds like Carp is planning on making his next start. Excuse me if I’m skeptical, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Tony’s comments sound like they are going to play it safe rather than risk ruining Carp for good, so any signs of discomfort and Carp is probably shut down.
I guess this could just be a result of rushing back and not being fully conditioned like you would be in spring training. Start throwing pitches that put different strains on your muscles than they are used to and they bark back at you. Hopefully that’s all it is and he’ll be right back out there.
With Milwaukee winning again today the pressure is really building for the Cards. Will be interesting to see how they respond knowing that the Brewers have won. The Marlins seem to live by the long ball, so keeping the ball down and getting the grounders will be huge. Let’s just hope Pineiro has another good outing.
I’d likely be a hypocrite if I said I was disappointed that he was hurried back – but at the same time, there is no room for error in this case. The Cards absolutely have to shut him down until they are 100% positive that he is well. They have far too much invested in Carp over the next three years to be messing around with his long-term health.
As mentioned in my post – I’ll be interested to see how this affects Wainwright’s rehab. Does he get an extended pitch count next time out now?
I think we’ll see more good things from Pineiro tonight – and you’re right – the focus should now be on Milwaukee and sticking with them (not to mention Florida, who they can distance from the next few days).
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