Tommy Pham returns in phamtastic style with a grand slam! & Lance Lynn held the Rangers to one run
By golly, Tommy Pham is a Cardinal again! We had to give a Tommy to get a Tommy back and well, it was a good and exciting move close to the trade deadline yesterday! The good is that Fedde will be a part of the rotation and he is doing really well this season… And the exciting is that we have an offensive weapon with Tommy Pham, who hit a grand slam in his return to St Louis.
It doubled the run total, which effectively buried the Rangers chances of winning today. But it was more like a lot of delicious icing on a very good cake since we were already up 4-1 due to an electric Masyn Winn leadoff home run to start the game after a rain delay of over an hour. So we had a late Midwest game tonight.
After the Winn home run Scherzer really put the lock down and induced three groundouts to keep it at 1-0 after one inning.
After the bottom of the first the Rangers answered with their own solo home run, tying the game at 1 run. It was Wyatt Langford’s sixth home run. It was a rocky inning for Lynn with that home run, a walk, and a single, but he kept it tied!
Old benchmen Carpenter and Crawford had back to back doubles which made it 2-1 but the inning ended with Gorman and Siani strikeouts (and began with a Goldy K).
The Cardinals offense looked better tonight overall, not slumping as they’ve been. Lynn cruised through the top of the third 1-2-3.
The third inning concluded with a Winn line out, a Burleson walk, a Contreras strikeout, a Nootbaar RBI double scoring Burly, and then a Goldschmidt groundout. 3-1 Cardinals!
In the 4th Lynn gave up a sharp line drive single to Lowe but that was it. Scherzer retired the Cardinals 1-2-3.
Lynn answered with another 1-2-3 in the 5th. At this point the Rangers decided to pull Scherzer and put in Cody Bradford. Siani singled off Bradford, then stole a base! He was then advanced to third on a Masyn Winn ground out, and then scored when Burleson singled!
At this point the offense was truly a team effort with RBIs by Winn, Crawford, Nootbaar, and Burleson, which was really good to see after a week long slump. 4-1 Cardinals.
But the grand story of the 5th inning was far from over! There was only one out and Contreras singled on a liner to left. Nootbaar struck out. Goldschmidt got on base with a walk, which loaded the bases. Matt Carpenter was lunch hit for by returning Redbird Tommy Pham.
Well as you know he returned in style and made Mozeliak look like a genius for bringing him back in to the fold. Tommy Pham hit a grand slam. And that made it a top 5 maybe top 3 but probably the best game I’ve seen so far this year. I feel like this team just got a whole lot more fun to watch with Pham helping the lineup and another good if not great (at least for our rotation) starting pitcher.
The team morale seemed high tonight and I hope they keep it rolling into tomorrow.
That was it for the offense tonight, as Fernandez, Roycroft, and Leahy shut down the deflated Rangers and the Cardinals had put up an 8 run performance on the scoreboard.
The Cardinals won 8-1! They seemed like a playoff team today. One can only hope at only three games over .500 but that was one of the most fun games I’ve seen all season and we needed a little more razzle in our dazzle.
Although it may seem like Tommy Pham was the player of the game, it was really Lance Lynn, who has been a bit underappreciated I must say. He hasn’t been asked to be much more than a #4 or #5 starter at this late stage in his career and he’s a fun dude in interviews and he gives it his all. He has improved his hr/9 back in St Louis by a LOT, and maybe his K/BB ratio isn’t as good but he’s going to be about where a good back end starter needs to be so no one can complain.
So with that out of the way, the WPA player of the game was Lynn but Tommy Pham was the star of the game tonight, a phamtastic homecoming reminding us that baseball can be dramatic and emotionally satisfying in some of the best ways, allowing us to enjoy this multifaceted sport in a myriad of ways with such random events on display at times wondrous.
Mozeliak (and Marmol) is looking like a genius after that Tommy Pham pinch hit grand slam. If you look at Pham’s statline this season it’s not exciting whatsoever, until you look at his splits…he is absolutely mashing lefties with an ISO over .200! Whole punishing them with a .377 OBP.
Both Carpenter and Pham went one for two and the management made both vets look good tonight. Crawford went two for four. And that Winn leadoff home run kinda set the tone from the get go.
Tune in tomorrow for the series finale, where the just under .500 Rangers try to win the series vs the just over .500 Cardinals. It’s an afternoon game with McGreevy on the mound for some reason, 1:15pm start time. Then Thursday it’s a night game vs the Cubs with Sonny Gray on the mound! Our new #2 Fedde toes the rubber Friday. Go Cardinals!