The St. Louis Cardinals were having a party, and up until Friday night at Busch Stadium, Michael Wacha hadn't been invited.
He was the only Cardinals starter to not go six innings and frankly, it had to be aggravating. There are your fellow rotation cohorts firing 6-7 innings, and you can barely muster five innings. It's a competition down there, so it was nice to see Wacha silence the critics for at least one start and exact some revenge on the Reds.
Here are my five takeaways, aka things we learned, from the 4-2 victory that put the Cardinals records at 11-8 heading into Saturday's matinee.
5) Tommy Pham and Harrison Bader douse the Reds with speedy defiance. Pham was on base three times and scored a pair of runs while Bader reached twice, stole a base, and scored a run. These two offer the Cardinals steady defense in the outfield (aka not catching balls right above their gut) and the element of speed on the bases. Bader may be a fourth outfielder, but he's making the most of an opportunity.
In other news, Pham's groin looks fine.
4) Matt Carpenter will be fine, or at least I want to believe that. He's making solid contact and hitting into the shift that opposing teams are constructing against him. He went 1-5 with four left on base, but he didn't strike out, so there's that. He was double-switched out, because apparently if Mike Matheny doesn't do that, he doesn't get hair gel to use the next day. That or his cowboy winter coats get taken away.
3) Tyler Lyons may not be throwing 95 mph that often these days, but he's employing a straight-up filthy curveball in relief. He froze Reds hitters a number of times in his 1.1 innings of late game holding. When right, the guy can get lefites and righties out, which makes him a deadly asset.
2) Jose Martinez remains a guy who doesn't like to make an out. He went 3-5 and before his fourth at-bat, I looked up his slash line since September of last year. Here it is: .343 batting average, .450 on base percentage, and a .558 slugging percentage. That's downright sinister. Do we still think the guy is going to stop hitting suddenly? Martinez is a smart hitter who employs the Albert Pujols strategy of taking a pitch where it's supposed to go. He takes the outside pitch to right instead of pulling it for example and can draw a walk. It's very impressive.
1) Wacha is actually 10-1 in his career against Cincinnati, but he didn't look good last Thursday on the road. It was nice to see him go 6.2 innings and show some command in the latter stages instead of fall apart. He should have to earn the starts this year if Jack Flaherty is to be kept out of the rotation. Adam Wainwright may have a shorter leash, but Wacha shouldn't get a free pass. Friday was a good step.
Bonus takeaway: Kudos to Yadier Molina for now owning the most RBI at Busch III. Remember when he couldn't hit a lick when he first got to St. Louis? Things change if the talent is there.
The Cardinals can beat up on the Reds before they face a test next week in the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates. Pad the record, pump up the confidence, and get your parts in order. The Cards can solidify the division with a successful run through Pittsburgh. So far, the rest of the division hasn't posed a real threat. Granted, it's only been 19 overall games, but you can start to get a feel by the 30 game mark what a team may be.
With all that has happened, I'll take an 11-8 record, but go get more. Get greedy.
Thanks for reading,
DLB
