It's fair to say that most St. Louis Cardinals fans didn't know who Yairo Munoz was before 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night.
They surely do this morning, because the 23-year-old shortstop sent 40,000 fans home happy.
Munoz, who came over in the Stephen Piscotty trade in the offseason that was more known for the heartstring tug than actual prospect value, hit a three-run walk-off home run at Busch Stadium, completing a comeback for the Cardinals in a game they once led 4-0, yet ultimately won 10-8. The blast solved a puzzling night for the Birds, who escaped May with a 15-12 record despite 11 players hitting the disabled list, which is good for 30-24 overall.
It's complicated, so let's talk about it with my five takeaways.
5) Jack Flaherty, like any young phenom with a wicked arm and potential, will dazzle on occasion and leave you hanging on others. He was staked to a 4-0 lead and handed it back, throwing 100 pitches in only five innings. The strain on the bullpen shouldn't be surprising when John Mozeliak and the Cardinals are pushing a youth movement. With young starters, you need backup because they will throw a lot of pitches. Flaherty needed 120 pitches last week in his dazzling start. Tonight, he wasn't sharp in his first truly rough outing.
4) Matt Carpenter hasn't stopped hitting since Minnesota. The OPS sits at .775 after another two hit night for the leadoff man-and it comes at a perfect time. Tommy Pham had a final two weeks of May to forget, so Carpenter's rise coincides rather nicely with the Pham decline. Imagine if they both turn it on at the same time...the possibilities.
3) Dexter Fowler has a pulse, or at least his bat does. He collected two hits and a pair of RBI, raising his average to .180. Sure, when you are pledging .180 as a slow return, it's not a good sign for any hitter, much less a career-reliable guy like Fowler-but you have to start somewhere. The Cardinals need him to hit.
I interrupt this 5 things seminar to inform you that Marcell Ozuna still lacks a Busch Stadium home run as a Cardinal.
2) Munoz smashed the night away with five RBI, but Harrison Bader collected three more hits. He is 10-21 recently, which will keep him in the lineup no matter how hot Fowler gets. Bader gives you all the tools a manager could look for in an outfielder, so it's wrong to sit him. Play him until he goes hitless in two straight games.
1) Munoz can help the Cardinals in a time of need. He has a slick glove at shortstop, but the power is unforeseen. The small sample size nerds may hate me for this, but he went 14-33 in May with two home runs in his last five games. Munoz is the kind of out of nowhere prospect talent that helps the Cardinals build a bridge between injuries. It'd be foolish to expect him to hit this way for another month while Paul DeJong heals, but at least we know he can swing the stick when needed. That home run was crushed to center field, or "Freese's Lawn" as Benjamin Hochman coined it.
The win masked an ugly night for the bullpen, which saw Jordan Hicks run into trouble. Pitching in his fourth game in six days, Hicks ran into trouble in the eighth inning, turning a 5-4 Cardinals lead into an 8-5 deficit. He has become Mike Matheny's new Matt Bowman, and that's not good for the young commodity. Matheny helped burn out Kevin Siegrist, Trevor Rosenthal, Bowman, and now potentially Hicks, who has starter stuff.
However, if you flip that coin, it's hard to place all the blame on Matheny. Most of the pen right now is troublesome outside of Hicks, Bud Norris, and Sam Tuivailala-and it's not easy to manage a pen when your starters are going right around five innings in three out of four nights.
Maybe that Austin Gomber kid can get some action. I hear he's good.
The Cardinals pick up the action tonight at 7:15 p.m. with the hopes of capitalizing on the momentum shift in the series. Maybe they can get it done without tums, beer, and nachos being digested as a coping mechanism.
Thanks for reading.
