Wow, the Cardinals’ front office sure looks good with all these rookies it groomed.
Wow, the Cardinals’ front office sure looks bad with all these free-agent signings it botched.
Both are true as the Cards head into their biggest series of the season — a series that could sway summer in a good way … or solidify yet another June swoon.
Sixty-eight games into this season, the Cardinals are 38-30 and the Brewers are 38-30. The two first-place clubs play Monday-Thursday in Milwaukee’s hitter-friendly park — in a series that’ll be defined by pitching.
Even with the whiffs on free agents Drew VerHagen, Nick Wittgren and T.J. McFarland — the jury is still out on the injured starter Steven Matz — that shouldn’t have discouraged the Cards from making an in-season pitching addition. Perhaps you recall the pleading from this column space in late May, following some injuries and considering how June of 2021 was bungled by a slow hand on arm reinforcements.
Well, the Cards are 10-9 in June 2022, and while you can say they solved the rotation problem with starter Andre Pallante, they have yet to replace and replicate … reliever Andre Pallante.
The Cardinals’ bullpen comes with an emphasis on “bull.” There are three rather reliable relievers — Ryan Helsley, Genesis Cabrera and Giovanny Gallegos. Everyone else seemingly is just a batting practice pitcher lately.
And they have a troubled bridge. Pallante was the main middle man between starters and the back end. Now, leads are being lost … and, as seen Sunday in Boston, deficits are being becoming bloated. Even though Red Sox pitching had its way all day with the Cards, the visitors trailed just 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth. And the Nos. 4-6 guys were coming up for the Cards in the ninth.
But VerHagen allowed a hit, walk and homer, and 3-1 became 6-1.
Sure enough, the Cards battled back in the ninth (albeit against a different reliever that would've started the inning), but the Birds lost 6-4. And they used Cabrera in the game — 26 pitches — and he wasn’t even that great.
Incidentally, please excuse a lack of exuberance regarding Johan Oviedo in the middle-innings role.
So, heading into this Brewers series, perhaps an optimist will say — with Miles Mikolas (Monday) and Adam Wainwright (Wednesday) pitching two of the four games, how much bullpen usage will the Cards really need? But a realist says the Cards are in a bullpen bind, especially considering that Jack Flaherty (Tuesday) is pitching just his second start of the season since his injury recovery.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee bullpen has the fourth-best ERA in the National League (3.52) — the top-heavy St. Louis ’pen is sixth (3.88). And just in time for the Cardinals series, the Brewers will get back their best reliever — who’s maybe baseball’s best reliever. Josh Hader makes the batter’s box Hades. The lanky lefty has a 0.92 ERA and 20 saves.
And in the past three years against St. Louis, his ERA in his 10 innings pitched is 0.00.
And while he was out for paternity leave, his replacement was a guy who would be the best reliever on many other teams. Devin Williams — a St. Louis native — picked up the save Sunday in Cincinnati. His ERA is 2.42, which is fantastic regardless, but then consider that the righty hasn’t allowed an earned run in his past 15 appearances. He whizzes Wiffeballs past whiffs.
Monday’s matchup is one of the best pitching matchups of the entire season — two darkhorse Cy Young candidates, including the reigning Cy Young winner. That’s Corbin Burnes, who’s third in the NL in ERA (2.52), while Mikolas is fifth (2.62). Burnes leads the entire league in strikeouts, with 100, while Mikolas is climbing the charts in innings pitched (fourth, at 82 1/3) thanks to his recent flirtation with a no-hitter.
Burnes pitched well in his last start, but the bat-rattling Cardinals could have an advantage because his previous three starts in Milwaukee’s stadium have been subpar. It sure would be good for the Cards to set the series tone with a win in the opener. But for that to happen, they might need to rely on the likes of Oviedo.
The Cardinals are tied for first place, in part, because of the influx of impact made by rookies. The front office — and those under its umbrella — developed Pallante, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman and Juan Yepez.
But after these next four games, the Cardinals very well could fall out of first, in part, because of the front office’s mistakes regarding pitching.
