Cards win 5-0. Sweep series. Climb back to .500. Now tied for 2nd place.
Game Result
Sonny Gray throws like a #1 starter, tossing 7 shutout innings in a tidy 89 pitches, with 8K. The Cardinal offense put up fence posts early, mostly with the speed game, as Scott scored from first on hits twice. A late, key hit by Walker padded the lid and sat Helsley down. A strong all around effort results in a 5-0 shutout.
Pre-game Notes
- The Cardinals play today, going for the series sweep of the Pirates PLUS climbing back to the .500 mark.
- Herrera caught a partial game yesterday in Memphis. He DH’ed today, so hasn’t caught on back-to=back days yet. Be nice to get his bat back in the line-up. His rehab OPS is 1.000
- Rom pitched 3 rehab innings last night at Palm Beach. Clean line with 4 K’s.
- Walker took a walk yesterday. He actually laid off 4 low and outside pitches in a row. It all starts somewhere, and laying off is probably the crucial step for him.
Line-up (and roster) Machinations
- Keller for the Pirates, Gray for the Cardinals.
- Generally, I’d expect everyone in the bullpen up for this game. Libby carried 7 innings, with Matz and Graceffo picking up 1 each. They seem a bit unsure about how Matz will respond on back-to-back outings, and short rest with the day game may make them hesitant to use him. On the other hand, they will be looking for left-on-left match ups with Cruz and Reynolds, whom they seem to prefer to turn around to the RH side.
- Arenado a late scratch, with Gorman taking his spot. Back spasms. Good thing they don’t travel til tomorrow, an off day.
- Standard alignment, otherwise, with Pages at C. He seems to be showing signs of wearing down.
The Game
An inning-by-inning breakdown, with score card entries and observations along the way.
T1 – Gray starts out well. Backward K. 4-3. 4-3.
B1 – Nootbaar gets a single, but Winn GIDP 5-4-3. Donovan lines out. Couple of hard-hit balls off Keller but to no avail.
T2 – F9. Backwards K. Single. P6. Another quick inning for Gray. Must be getaway day.
B2 – Willson flies out. Burleson pops out. Gorman draws another walk. Walker K’s. You’ll be surprised to hear he swung and missed on breaking ball low and away.
T3 – 5-3. P3. K. Another quick inning for Gray.
B3 – Pages K’s. Scott walks. He tries to steal but Nootbaar foils that by lining a single into right center. Scott scores from first on a single! Speed on the bases is really handy. Nootbaar takes second on the throw. Winn trades places with him with an RBI double taken the other way. Donovan pops out. Contreras walks, but Burleson K’s. Cards now up 2-0.
T4 – Another backwards K. Then a catcher’s interference complicates things. Bart walks for a further complication. A pop-out and a K ends the inning, though. Gray at 52 pitches. Interestingly, Gray was 91-92 early in the game but just ripped off 94-95 pitches. Hmmm.
B4 – Gorman leads off with a single. Walker GIDP. As another step of his development, he is attacking first pitches to avoid getting strung out on outside sliders down in the count. He GIDPs. Pages F8.
T5 – F8. K. K. Gray continues to roll. Cards still up 2-0.
B5 – Scott singles. Noot F8. Winn doubles down the line, scoring Scott from first again. There’s that speed on the bases thing, again. Donovan F9. Contreras K. Cards now up 3-0.
T6 – P3. 4-3. Cutch singles. L8 to end the inning.
B6 – Burly 4-3. Gorman K’s. Walker backwards K. He had the discipline to take a pitch he couldn’t do anything with. Just got painted. Right process even if results weren’t good.
T7 – 4-3. K. 3-1. Gray really smoked ‘em today. 7 IP. 2 H. 1 BB. 8 K. 0 ER. Wow!
B7 – Pages singles. Barucki in for Keller. First pitching change today. Late. Scott GIDP. Don’t see that often. Noot doubles for his 3rd hit today, but Winn pops out.
T8 – Leahy in for Gray. Single. Line-out. Single. Not a great start, with 3 hard hit balls. But a K and a weak ground out end the uprising. Cards still up 3-0.
B8 – Ferguson in for Barucki. Donovan singles. Contreras with a backwards K. Baker PH for Burleson. Baker delivers, doubling Donovan to third, but Gorman loses the left-left matchup with a K. Ferguson out, Holderman in. Walker with a 2-RBI single (107 mph EV) up the middle to salt the game away. He reversed a 101 mph FB. Pages K’s. Cards now up 5-0.
T9 – Roycroft in for the non-save. He tops out a 98.1 on the FB. K. F7. 5-3. Clean inning, shut out win, 5-0.
Post-game Notes
- So, if you had to pick one (and only one) star for the series, who would it be?
- Random thought/question. Would you trade, straight-up, Victor Scott for O’Neil Cruz?
- Gorman is walking more (a lot), striking out a bit less. Good signs. His bat speed has really fallen off, though. I wonder if that will normalize after a bit.
- Not bad to have 2 consecutive 7 IP starts. I realize the Pirates’ offense aint that great, but still a really nice job all around.
- On to Washington, D.C., coming off a series sweep, a 5-1 homestand and back to a .500 record.