Will Leitch’s two month Twitter conversation AT the Cardinals: Denouement (The Playoffs)

by on November 9, 2012 · 1 comment

Sometime in mid-August (ok, August 12 to be exact – it’s right there on the Tweeter box) Cardinal fan Will Leitch began a dialogue “with” the Cardinals. Er, maybe AT the Cardinals is more appropriate. The first installment was posted Wednesday and the completion of the regular season was posted yesterday.

With Will’s permission, and maybe he’ll chime in with some of his own feedback and insight upon review of his 140 character or less outbursts, we present to you a review of the Cardinals’ season from mid-August until the unfortunate end – as told by @williamfleitch.

Please allow a little time for the post to load after the jump, the fancy Tweeter boxes take a little bit to load, but are worth it.

This last post covers Will’s conversation with @Cardinals during the playoffs.

This is where the conversation gets a little cross-ways. Perhaps the person running the Cardinals’ Tweeter machine *was* in fact rocking back and forth on the floor – but so long as the players weren’t, no harm, no foul, right? For the record, I was rocking back and forth on the floor.

Mike Matheny got his Tony La Russa on right away in the one-game playoff, using his itchy bullpen phone finger to get Lance Lynn in the game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Kyle Lohse had done fairly well to that point, but Matheny made the change and Lynn got the last out of the inning.

Daniel Descalso made a loud out to right field in the sixth inning, snagged at the top of the wall by Jayson Werth. Just two nights earlier, Yadier Molina hit a similar ball in the second inning that was caught by a leaping Jason Heyward.

The Cardinals answered their tough Game One loss with a resounding 12-4 victory, touching up Jordan Zimmermann for five runs in only three innings. No mention from Will of Jaime Garcia, who was lifted from this game early with shoulder injury, and subsequently from the playoff roster.

Once again, if you’re not reading Will’s tumblr – The Will Leitch Experience – I recommend it. This list aligns pretty well with my thinking – or did, for the 2012 club. Yadi will likely remain at the top for a while.

A Game Two 8-0 victory put the Cards one game from moving on to the NLCS – the exclamation points are really flowing with the hugs now!!!!

Matt Holliday struck out looking against Drew Storen in the eighth inning. It was bad.

I don’t think Holliday was throwing a fit over his failure to avoid strikeout – I think he was just emoting “I really, really love robots!”

I’ll give you two guesses. No, one. Ok, here it is.

Marc Rzepczynski indeed struggled through a tough 2012 season for him, but on this night, he retired his only batter faced – Brandon Belt – and stranded Giant runners at first and second bases to preserve a 6-4 lead. That lead would hold for a Cardinal victory in NLCS Game One.

Post-gaming and still up at 7am to give the @Cardinals hugs? How is young William, anyway?

The Cardinals messed themselves in Game Two, behind errors, a not-so-sharp Chris Carpenter, and quiet bats. Shelby Miller did have a strong first inning, in the seventh, then ran into some trouble (and runs) of his own in the eighth.

2012 rotation stalwart Kyle Lohse was excellent again, leading the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory in Game Three.

A Game Five victory to put the Cards within one game of the World Series earned them 5 Twitter exclamation points. This is important, there will be a quiz.

Having a runner on second base, one of few Cardinal runners all night, brought Shelby Miller to the plate – and Shane Robinson was deemed the best option to try to drive in the runner. Matt Adams, you were missed.

Is there anything cuter than a young child in a Cardinals hat and/or gear? I submit there is not. I know from experience, because I subject my child (and wife, by extension) to the same. I just wish they hadn’t disappointed William.

The NYC Redbirds are a dedicated bunch of Cardinal fans in … New York City, that meet up at Foley’s (@FoleysNY) to watch baseball games. It has become THE Cardinal bar in New York City, and I plan to visit soon.

Will’s right, you know. No complaints. They won a lot. Wish they could’ve gotten a handful more, but hey, have you seen the young starters?

Hope everyone has enjoyed this, thanks very much to Will Leitch for letting us chronicle his obsession.

Hugs!!!

Writing about the Cardinals and other loosely associated topics since 2008, I've grown tired of the April run-out only to disappoint Cardinal fans everywhere by mid-May. I do not believe in surrendering free outs.
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