On to Missouri!
The Cardinals find themselves in the thick of the battle for a post-season berth, and I'm not sure this was on a lot of bingo cards. It seemed like the most newsworthy thing that happened for them this off-season was letting their Hall of Fame first baseman sign with one of those rich American League teams.
But here they are. They're fourth in the NL in scoring runs, which is a neat trick seeing as how they're below the league average in things like hitting home runs and drawing walks. They also hit into a few double plays. But they sure do get a lot of hits. Getting hits is pretty much what the offense is based on. As you can imagine, this does come in handy when there are people on base, and they do indeed get enough hits to actually have men on base.
The Cardinals are just a little better than the league average at run prevention, and one assumes that much of this can be attributed to their very good defensive play. Their pitchers, the starters in particular, don't bother striking out hitters (only the hapless Colorado pitchers have fanned fewer hitters.) Sonny Gray, who the Jays won't be seeing, is the only starter who strikes out more hitters than the league average - the rest are all well below that mark. But they don't hand out any free passes (fewest in the NL) and they keep the ball in the park (the entire staff has allowed just 51 HR - insert your own Bowden Francis joke here.) This was the formula that worked for Whitey Herzog's fine teams in the 1980s - but that was a different time, and perhaps more importantly, it was a very different ball park. And Ozzie Smith is retired. I'm surprised it still seems to work so well.
The Blue Jays hitters, of course, have struck out less often than any team in the major leagues. We should expect to see some Balls In Play over the next few days.
Matchups
Mon 9 June - Berrios (2-2, 3.67) vs Palante (4-3, 4.91)
Tue 10 June - Bassitt (6-3, 3.56) vs Mikolas (4-2, 3.96)
Wed 11 June - S.Guy (?-?, ?.??) vs Liberatore (3-5, 3.82)
The Cardinals find themselves in the thick of the battle for a post-season berth, and I'm not sure this was on a lot of bingo cards. It seemed like the most newsworthy thing that happened for them this off-season was letting their Hall of Fame first baseman sign with one of those rich American League teams.
But here they are. They're fourth in the NL in scoring runs, which is a neat trick seeing as how they're below the league average in things like hitting home runs and drawing walks. They also hit into a few double plays. But they sure do get a lot of hits. Getting hits is pretty much what the offense is based on. As you can imagine, this does come in handy when there are people on base, and they do indeed get enough hits to actually have men on base.
The Cardinals are just a little better than the league average at run prevention, and one assumes that much of this can be attributed to their very good defensive play. Their pitchers, the starters in particular, don't bother striking out hitters (only the hapless Colorado pitchers have fanned fewer hitters.) Sonny Gray, who the Jays won't be seeing, is the only starter who strikes out more hitters than the league average - the rest are all well below that mark. But they don't hand out any free passes (fewest in the NL) and they keep the ball in the park (the entire staff has allowed just 51 HR - insert your own Bowden Francis joke here.) This was the formula that worked for Whitey Herzog's fine teams in the 1980s - but that was a different time, and perhaps more importantly, it was a very different ball park. And Ozzie Smith is retired. I'm surprised it still seems to work so well.
The Blue Jays hitters, of course, have struck out less often than any team in the major leagues. We should expect to see some Balls In Play over the next few days.
Matchups
Mon 9 June - Berrios (2-2, 3.67) vs Palante (4-3, 4.91)
Tue 10 June - Bassitt (6-3, 3.56) vs Mikolas (4-2, 3.96)
Wed 11 June - S.Guy (?-?, ?.??) vs Liberatore (3-5, 3.82)
