In the fifth inning of last night’s game, when Jose Martinez’ long fly into right-center bounced high off the wall and two runs scored, someone somewhere must have invoked the name of Pete Kozma.

Kozma, as you have probably heard, was the Cardinal bench player who drove in the winning runs in Game Five of the 2012 Divisional Series between these two teams.  Washington had held a 6-0 lead in that one at one point.

But 7-4 would be as close as St Louis would come.  They did load the bases with two out in the eighth inning – which is, I suppose, as much as you can hope for when you’ve fallen behind 7-0 in the first inning.  But, instead of letting Harrison Bader – who had drawn a walk and hit a line drive out – swing, Mike Shildt gave the at bat to Matt Carpenter, who ended St Louis’ last viable scoring opportunity of the season with a routine grounder to second.

One inning later, the ghost of Pete Kozma was exercised, and the Washington franchise (which had started out all those years ago in Montreal) was on its way to its first ever World Series.

With their 3 fifth-inning runs, the Cards at least made a game of it.  Those three runs also doubled the totality of the St Louis offense through the first three games.  Throughout, Washington pitching was dominant – holding the Cards to a .130/.195/.179 batting line, posting a 1.25 team ERA, and striking out 48 Cards over 36 innings.

It was a frustrating ending to a surprising season, but let’s not have any tears for the Cardinals.  This is not a veteran team seeking one last whiff of glory.  Far from seeing their window closing, the St Louis window is just opening.  This team counts no fewer than 16 high-ceiling players currently under 26 who got varying degrees of exposure to the pressure of the pennant chase and subsequent playoffs.  By contrast, there are only 9 players over thirty who made notable contributions to this team in 2019.

Watching some of the ups and downs of this team, one might forget how bright their future is – especially on the mound.  Jack Flaherty (who turned 24 yesterday) and Dakota Hudson (25) emerged during the course of the season to provide the foundation for the rotation for years to come.  Ready to join them as soon as next year are elite arms in Carlos Martinez and Alex Reyes (still just 25).  Both pitchers have battled injury issues over the last few years, so both will play under that shadow for a while.

Right behind them, though, are several other impressive prospects.  The list of potential starters include Ryan Helsley and Genesis Cabrera – both very successful out of the bullpen during the playoffs, Daniel Ponce de Leon and Austin Gomber (who also missed the season due to injury).

It isn’t at all difficult to imagine the Cardinals dominating some future playoff series (perhaps against Washington) in like fashion.

In spite of how it ended, the 2019 season saw several important steps forward for this franchise.  Most importantly, they re-took the division title, and did it standing up to the Chicago team that had pushed them around fairly regularly over the past three seasons.

If not everything, it is something to build on.  For now, that will have to be enough.

Cardinal Minutia

After Adam Wainwright’s effort on Saturday, St Louis threw no more quality starts.  So the 2019 team finished the season losing 33.8% of the time that they received a quality start (they were 53-27 in those games) including losing 4 of 5 in the playoffs.  Of the 19 previous editions of the Cards this century, only the 2008 team wasted good starting pitching at a higher rate.  At 50-26, they lost 34.2% of those games.

The high-water mark in runs scored was 17 in a 17-4 win against Pittsburgh on May 19.  Including the playoffs, St Louis scored 10 or more runs 18 times.

The most runs they scored in a losing effort was 8 in a 9-8 loss to the Giants on September 4.

They gave up ten or more runs 9 times – topped by the 13 they surrendered to the Cubs on May 5.  They did actually win one of those games – a 12-11 conquest of Cincinnati on July 19.

The Cards finished the season with three six-game winning streaks, and three five-game losing streaks.  Their longest stretch of games without losing two in a row was 30 games.  Beginning on August 9 against Pittsburgh (and just off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers) St Louis went 23-7 until they lost consecutive 2-1 games in Colorado on September 10 – 11.  That was pretty much the end of St Louis’ hot streak.  Beginning with those losses (and counting the playoffs), the Cards finished the rest of the season 13-15.

They also went 24 games without winning consecutive games.  This slump occupied most of May.  From the second until the 29^th they were 6-18, finally winning the last game in Philadelphia and then sweeping the Cubs at home.

Their biggest lead in any game this season was 13 runs, achieved twice, on May 9 in the 17-4 win over Pittsburgh and in Game Five against Atlanta (an eventual 13-1 win).  They never lost a game where they led by as many as five runs, but they lost two that they had led by four runs – both to the Cubs in Chicago (6-5 on May 4, and 9-4 on June 8).

The maximum deficit they faced was 11 runs.  That happened twice, during a 12-1 loss to Cincinnati on April 26, and a 13-5 loss to Chicago on May 5.

In the 12-11 win over Cincy referenced earlier, the Cards came back from a 7-run deficit.  They also reversed two four-run deficits – the last of those coming on August 11 against Pittsburgh.  Toward the end of the season, they lost that ability to come back.  The last time they overcame a deficit of three runs came on August 22 against Colorado.  The last 5 times this season they fell behind by three runs (much less by more than three) they lost.

The longest game of the season – both by time and by innings – was the 19-inning marathon in Arizona on September 24, weighing in at 6:53.  The longest regulation game was the 9-8 conquest of Chicago in Chicago on September 21.  That game lasted 4:24.  The longest home nine-inning game lasted 4:05.  That was how long it took San Francisco to win that 9-8 game on September 4.

The fastest game the Cards played this season took just 2:11.  It was the night before the 4:05 game against San Fran, as Flaherty shut out the Giants 1-0.  The fastest road game also involved Flaherty pitching against the Giants.  This was his 1-0 loss on July 7 – the day before the All Star Break.  That game took 8 minutes longer (2:19).

All the Cardinal regular season games combined lasted 30,767 minutes.  If you watched every minute, it would have cost you 512 hours and 47 minutes (more than 21 days) – an average of 3:09.9 each.  The 9 playoff games added an additional 1823 minutes – that’s another 30 hours and 23 minutes.

The largest crowd St Louis played to was 53,070.  That was in Los Angeles against the Dodgers – the Cards lost that game 3-1 on August 6.  The largest attended home game was a Sunday afternoon game against Pittsburgh.  That May 12 game drew 48,555 – and the Cards lost 10-6.

Overall, St Louis played 82 times before crowds in excess of 40,000.  They won only 40 of those games.

The three smallest crowds of the season were the three games played in Miami, June 10-12.  They drew 6,585; 6,308; and 7,001 respectively.  No other game drew less than 13,000.

The smallest home crowd was the 35,819 that showed up on the evening of Monday April 22 to watch St Louis thump Milwaukee 13-5.  Overall they played 39 times to crowds of less than 30,000.  They won 25 of those.

The home attendance finished at 3,480,393 – an average of 42,967.8.  The total road attendance was 2,385,586 – an average of 29,451.7.

The hottest game of the year was Game Two of the Division Series – a 3-0 loss to Mike Foltynewicz in 94 steaming degrees.  The hottest game of the regular season came in Cincinnati on July 20.  St Louis lost that one 3-2 in 94 degrees.  The hottest home game checked in at 92 degrees.  That was a 3-0 win against Milwaukee on August 19.  The Cards were 10-3 when the game time temp sat at 90 degrees or higher.

The coldest game of the year was played in Pittsburgh on April 1.  The Cards outfought the Pirates 6-5 in 11 innings in 37 degree temperature.  The coldest home game of the year was the First Game of the Championship Series.  The Cards were almost no-hit in 45 degree weather.  The coldest regular season home game also came against Pittsburgh on May 11.  The Cards lost that game 2-1 in 49 degrees.

The Cards played four games in temperatures under 50 degrees and lost three of them.

The average temperature of all Cardinal games was 75 degrees – 77 at home and 73 on the road.

In going 50-31 at home, St Louis won 15 series, lost 8 and split 3 others.  They were 41-40 on the road, winning 11 series, losing 13 and splitting 2.  With chances to sweep 15 series, they pulled off the sweep 9 times.  They were 5 of 8 at home, and 4 of 7 on the road.

In danger of being swept 14 times, they wriggled off the hook in 9 of those series.  They were only swept once at home – although they were in danger of being swept five times.  On August 3 and 4, Oakland came into Busch and swept a two game series from St Louis.  We were swept 4 times (in 9 opportunities) on the road.

The Cards finished the season 8-8 in rubber games.  They were 6-4 at home and 2-4 on the road.

Of their 52 series, St Louis won the first game 29 times.  They went on to win 21 of those series, losing 7 and splitting one.  When pushed to a rubber game after having won the first game of the series, St Louis was just 3-6.

Of the 23 series where they lost the first game, they came back to win 5 and split 4, while losing the other 14.  When they lost the first game, but came back to force a rubber game, they were 5-2.

St Louis played 23 series against teams that had won their previous series.  The Cards were 6-16-1 in those series, winning 27 games and losing 41.  They had 23 other series against teams that had lost their previous series.  The Cards were 17-3-3 in those series, going 53-21 in the games.  They also played 5 teams that were coming off a split of their previous series.  The birds were 3-1-1 in those series, winning 10 games and losing 6.

They had the opportunity to sweep 4 teams that had won their previous series.  The only one they actually managed to put the broom to was – surprisingly enough – the Dodgers.  The Cards won four in a row from them April 8-11 after LA had just swept a three-game series in Colorado.

Six series sweeps (in 9 opportunities) came against teams that had lost their previous series, and they closed out both sweep opportunities against teams that had split their previous series.

On the other hand, teams winning their previous series had 9 opportunities to sweep the birds, and managed to do so in 5 of those opportunities.  Teams that had lost their previous series had 5 opportunities to sweep St Louis, but could never manage that last win.

St Louis was 2-8 in rubber games against teams coming off series wins, and 6-0 in rubber games against teams coming off losing series.

Injuries of Note

Every teams suffers through injuries during the course of the season.  In terms of games missed, here are the players who missed the most time and a note about what that impact might have been:

First is Brett Cecil – who missed the entire season with carpal tunnel syndrome.  The impact here is hard to gauge.  Brett has been mostly a disappointment, and it’s likely that Andrew Miller would have gotten his innings anyway.

Alex Reyes also missed most of the season with injuries – even if he spent most of that time on the Memphis injury list.  This could have been very significant.  Had Alex stayed healthy (including not punching out the dugout wall) he might have started to put his game back on track.  When the major league team went through something of a crisis regarding its fifth starter, Reyes might have taken hold of that opportunity.

Jordan Hicks (85 games missed).  If Reyes wasn’t the team’s most significant injury, then that title falls to baseball’s hardest thrower.  Jordan was the team’s closer – and growing well enough into that role – at the time his season ended due to TJ surgery.  Most teams don’t have the pitching depth to lose their closer and still win their division.

Mike Mayers (83 games).  Mike missed a bit more than half the season with a lat strain in his right shoulder.  Mayers is another who can pop the fastball, but has never managed to pitch consistently well at the major league level.  I’m not sure his absence was much noticed.

Jedd Gyorko (51 games).  A right calf strain delayed the start of Jedd’s season.  When he finally joined the team, he was stuck on Shildt’s bench – with all the minimal playing time that implies.  Things imploded for Jedd in early June when a lower back strain sent him back to the injured list.  Before he could make it back, he suffered another calf strain and ended up getting surgery on his right wrist.  Before the trading deadline, he was sent to the Dodgers.  In the 55 games he spent on the active roster, Jedd made it into only 38 games – making just 9 starts. He had only 56 at bats as a Cardinal.

Jedd, of course, had been a thirty home run guy in the past.  For a team that suffered through frequent offensive struggles (including in the playoffs), Jedd’s bat might have made a difference.  It is not clear, though, whether he would have gotten many opportunities – even if he was healthy.

Carlos Martinez (44 games).  The Cards caught a break when Carlos’ right rotator cuff was only strained.  He slotted in at closer for the rest of the season after Hicks went down.  Healthy, though, Carlos might have been part of the rotation – and might be next year.

Yadier Molina (37 games).  The indispensable Cardinal missed more than a month of games to two turns on the injured list with a problem with the tendon in his right thumb.  Yadi was healthy for the playoffs and hit the last Cardinal home run of the season.

Luke Gregerson (32 games).  A right shoulder impingement cost Luke the first month or so of the season.  He was on the active roster for 12 games before being released.

Tyler O’Neill (32 games) and Lane Thomas (28 games).  Two young outfielders who were starting to carve out roles for themselves before injuries (a right elbow ulnar nerve subluxation for O’Neill, and a broken hand for Thomas) curtailed their seasons.  These are two intriguing bats that figure prominently into the Cardinal future.

Marcell Ozuna (28 games).  Ozuna, of course, missed a chunk of games with fingers that he broke during a base-running mishap.

The last Cardinal to miss significant time with an injury was Matt Carpenter, who went on the shelf for nearly a month (23 games) with a right foot contusion – the result of multiple foul balls off of the same spot on the foot.  I’m not sure that anything could be more representative of Matt’s season than this.

Minor League Breakthroughs

(Players on the Major League roster for at least 100 games who played part of the year in the minors)

Giovanny Gallegos (9 games in the minors, 153 with the Cards).  Gallegos was something of a national sensation out of the St Louis pen for much of the summer.  He faded somewhat at the end of the season as his innings piled up, but Gallegos will go into spring training next year with a prominent spot in the bullpen.

Yairo Munoz (6 games in minors, 150 with the Cards).  Yairo makes this list because he was officially optioned to Memphis for a few games.  But Munoz has played most of two full seasons for the Cards.  Of course, since he sits on Shildt’s bench, it’s OK if you’ve never heard of him.

Tyler Webb (17 games in the minors, 145 with the Cards) Less publicized than Gallegos, Webb followed a similar track.  By season’s end, he had become one of Shildt’s most trusted releivers.

Harrison Bader (18 games in minors, 135 with the Cards) Bader went into the season as the starting centerfielder and spent nearly a month in Memphis trying to re-discover his swing.  An elite defender, Harrison hit notably better when he returned.

Dominic Leone (60 games in minors, 102 with Cards).  Leone was another on the opening day roster who found himself spending a chunk of the season in Memphis.  Leone was actually one of the Cards’ most effective relievers when he returned.  I was surprised that Shildt didn’t carry him on the post-season roster.

Tommy Edman (61 games in the minors, 101 with the Cards).  Edman was perhaps the story of the year.  Not even a highly regarded prospect, Edman forced his way into the lineup, and will figure prominently into the 2020 plans.

The game was still scoreless when Victor Robles opened the bottom of the third with a ground ball single up the middle (just out of the reach of shortstop Paul DeJong).  After pitcher Stephen Strasburg bunted Robles down to second, Cardinal pitcher Jack Flaherty struck out Trea Turner.  The Nationals did have the lead run at second, but now there were two outs.

During his remarkable second half run, batters were only 15 for 109 (.138) when batting with two outs against Jack, with only 6 of the hits being for extra-bases (4 doubles and 2 home runs).  The two home runs were the only two-out runs batted in against Flaherty since the All-Star Break.

But Flaherty and the Cardinals had now run into the scorching hot Washington Nationals – a team that is currently getting every meaningful bounce and exploiting every opponents’ mistake.

Jack’s first-pitch fastball to Adam Eaton tailed back across the plate, and Adam bounced it off the plate and into centerfield for the first run of the game.  There followed in rapid succession Anthony Rendon’s soft flyball down the left-field line that Marcell Ozuna couldn’t keep in his glove, a walk to Juan Soto, and a wild pitch that moved Rendon and Soto into scoring position.

Already ahead 2-0, Howie Kendrick all but iced the contest, as he stroked a fastball the other way – perfectly placed into right-center.  And Washington had four, two-out RBIs.

They wouldn’t stop there.  In the fifth inning, John Brebbia would serve up two more two-out RBIs on doubles by Kendrick and Ryan Zimmerman.  In the bottom of the seventh, Zimmerman would single home the final run of the game – again, with two out.  In their 8-1 win (box score), the Nationals would drive in 7 of the runs with two-outs.

For the evening, Washington was 4 for 18 before there were two outs in the inning.  They were 7 for 15 with 5 doubles and 3 walks – a batting line of .467/.556/.800 – before St Louis could get the final out.

This hasn’t really been a problem all season.  Again, according to baseball reference, St Louis tied with the Cubs for third fewest runs allowed after two outs in all of baseball.  But now 9 of Washington’s 13 runs in the series have been driven in with two-out hits, and the Cards are backed up as deeply as they can be.

Fifteen years ago, the Cardinals were slugging it out with the Houston Astros (then part of the National League Central) in the League Championship Series.  The winner (which eventually turned out to be the Cards) seemed like they would be facing the Yankees in the series – New York had jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Boston (with Game Three, by the way, being a historic butt-kicking as the Yankees piled it on to the tune of 19-8).  It was hard to imagine a team more dead in the water than the 2004 Red Sox.

And then it was 3-1, Yankees.  Then 3-2.  Finally of course, Boston – Curt Schilling’s bloody sock and all – overcame the Yankees and their 3-0 lead and, in fact, never lost again as they swept the series that year in four games from St Louis.

To date, that is the only time a team has rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.  All season, this team (the Cards) has claimed that it is special.  Few conceivable achievements could mark it as more than special than to match the Red Sox’ feat.  Should they manage that, it’s interesting that their world series opponent would be either the Astros or the Yankees – the two teams that lost those Championship Series’ back in ’04.

But first, of course, they will actually have to win a game against Washington.  A good first step toward that would be to score their first run sometime before the seventh inning.  We’ll see.

Jose Martinez

Inserted into the lineup to provide a little offensive spark, Jose Martinez did contribute a couple of hits and scored the only Cardinal run last night.  Jose is 4 for 6 now on the series, and actually has a five-game hitting streak built mostly on pinch-hit at bats.  Martinez is 6 for his last 8.

Dexter Fowler

Dexter Fowler is the second member of the usual lineup (Matt Carpenter was the first) to lose his spot because of the team’s offensive difficulties.  Dexter was hitless in four at bats last night (with three strikeouts) and is 0 for 15 since the first inning of Game Five against Atlanta.  Fowler is 2 for 33 (.061) during the playoffs.  Harrison Bader will get tonight’s start in center.

Wong and Edman

Spark plugs all season long, Kolten Wong and Tommy Edman are the other two members of the starting lineup who have gone hitless through the first three games of the Championship series – they are both 0 for 10 against Washington.

With a team batting line of .121/.167/.143 over their last 96 plate appearances, there are no shortage of bats that have been missing in action recently.  The Cardinal season has reached the point where there are no more tomorrows.  Some of these guys will hit tonight, or they will be playing golf by the weekend.

NoteBook

The 8-1 final was as badly as St Louis has been beaten in a while.  It was, in fact, their largest margin of defeat since August 5.  They lost to the Dodgers that day 8-0 – the first game of a three-game sweep.

The seven run deficit they took into the sixth inning was also the largest seventh-inning deficit in a Cardinal playoff game since they trailed San Francisco 7-0 after six on their way to a 9-0 loss in Game Seven of the 2012 Championship Series.  The Cards, of course, had led that series three games to one at one point.

Throughout the first two games of the Championship Series, I have been unable to stop thinking about Mike Foltynewicz and Max Fried.  Folty and Fried, of course, are the two Atlanta pitchers who pitched in the first inning of the last game of the Division Series.  What must be going through their minds as they’ve watched the Washington Nationals snuff out the offense that routed them on Wednesday afternoon?

Folty and Fried allowed the Cards 10 runs in that one inning.  In 18 innings at home against Washington, that same Cardinal lineup has scored 1 run.  St Louis collected 5 hits (3 of them doubles) and 4 walks from the 14 batters that came to the plate in just that one inning in Atlanta.  Sixty-two Cardinal batters have come and gone in the first two games of this series.  They have a total of 4 hits (1 double) and 3 walks – a team-wide batting line of .070/.145/.088.

If nothing else, St Louis is getting proficient at tipping their caps.

If you have been watching, you will know that first Anibal Sanchez (in Game One) and then Max Scherzer (in Game Two) took no-hitters into the seventh inning.  These efforts – with just enough offense – have given Washington a daunting 2-0 lead in the series that shifts back to Washington tonight.

What must Folty and Fried have thought, especially during Game One, as Sanchez blew through 7.2 effortless innings, looking more like he was tossing darts at the pub than pitching in the Championship Series.  His most stressful moment of the evening may well have been finding a seat on the team bus.  Certainly the Cardinals didn’t cause him any concern.

All the while, the repeated formula was simplicity itself.  Strike one on the outside edge, and continuously throw the ball slower or faster than expected.  After the game, I believe it was Kolten Wong that said that Anibal never threw the ball over the middle.  Watching the game, that wasn’t really true.  Sanchez made his share of mistakes in the heart of the zone.  It was the hitters’ inability to time the pitches correctly that was the difference.  Sanchez gave up a series of line drive foul balls when Cardinal batsmen were geared too fast, and about a dozen sky high lazy flyballs when the pitches were coming in just a fraction faster than expected.

I think his fastest pitch of the night was about 93.  It was simply amazing watching this team get jammed with 88-mph fastballs.

On their way to dropping the first two games of the series, St Louis batsmen have gone 0 for 9 when they hit the first strike.  Hitting that first strike is usually a gold mine for the hitter.  According to baseball reference, across all the major leagues, batters slashed .355/.414/.643 – a 1.057 OPS on the first strike of an at bat.  Against the Braves, St Louis was 18 for 34 (.529) with 6 doubles and 2 home runs (.882 slugging percentage) when they hit the first strike.

But they could never get comfortable against Sanchez.  Not even for one at bat.

Jose Martinez

The lone offensive spark in the series, Jose Martinez has worked his way back into the starting lineup – at least for tonight.  He broke up Sanchez’ no-hitter in Game One, and drove in St Louis’ only run of the series with a double in Game Two.  He is 2-for-2 against Washington.  The rest of the team is 2 for 55 (.036).

Jose has actually been swinging the bat better for a little while now, it’s just hard to notice because he never starts anymore.  Jose has started only once since the first game of a September 1 double-header.  He is 8 for his last 14 (.571) with 2 doubles and 2 triples (1.000 slugging percentage) – but that covers his last 10 games.  He currently holds a four-game hitting streak – all in pinch-hitting opportunities.

Needless to say, no one else on the team has been trending up.

Paul DeJong

Paul DeJong chipped in with two singles in his very first playoff game.  Since then, his slump has taken back over.  One for six in the series so far, DeJong has had 21 plate appearances since that first game, managing 2 singles, 1 double, 1 walk (intentional) and 10 strikeouts – a .150/.190/.200 batting line.

Paul Goldschmidt

Paul Goldschmidt was 3 for 4 against the Braves with a home run when hitting the first strike.  He has yet to hit the first strike in the first two games against the Nats – evidence of how precisely Sanchez and Scherzer have been locating that first strike.  Goldy will jump on that pitch when it’s where he’s looking for it, but won’t chase it when it’s on the corners.

Yadier Molina

One of the season’s signature moments was Yadier Molina’s game-tying eighth-inning single in Game Four of the Division Series that prolonged St Louis’ season.  Yadi is 0 for 10 since that hit, and is just 3 for 28 (.107, all singles) over his last 8 games.

Against Atlanta, Yadi swung at the first strike in 17 of his 22 plate appearances, going 2 for 5 when he managed to put that pitch in play.  He has only swung at the first strike twice in 6 at bats against Washington, without putting either pitch in play.

Matt Carpenter

Matt Carpenter’s playoffs are following a similar arc.  Matt floated a dramatic game-tying eighth-inning single in Game One.  Like Molina, he is hitless in 10 at bats since.  In Carpenter’s case, this has cost him – at least for today – his place in the lineup.  He is 0-for-6 against Washington, 1 for 11 in the playoffs, and 2 for 19 (.105) over his last 8 games.

In 5 of his 6 plate appearances in this series, and 11 of 15 in the playoffs (73.3%), Matt has ended up in two-strike counts.  During the season’s second half, 61.4% of Matt’s plate appearances ended up in two-strike counts.  He batted .169/.275/.270 in those at bats.

Kolten Wong

Kolten Wong – as you know – was sidelined for the last ten games of the regular season with a hamstring issue.  He has jumped back into the starting lineup at the start of the playoffs – and while he has had some moments, his performance overall looks like someone who has missed a week and a half of at bats.  He is 0-for-6 against the Nationals and 5 for 26 (.192) in the playoffs overall.

Dexter Fowler

When Dexter Fowler came to the plate for the second time in that big first inning of Game Five, with the bases loaded and one out, he was riding an 0-for-13 streak (he had walked that first time up).  Dex took a ball and then jumped Max’s first strike, pulling it fair over third base for a two-run double that helped bury the Braves.

He is 0-for-11 since then.  Early in the playoffs, Fowler hit into some hard luck, hitting balls hard, but at people.  Lately, he has just been making routine outs.  He is 0-for 7 (with 3 strikeouts) against Washington, and 2 for 29 (.069) for the playoffs.

Over his last 23 games (counting the playoffs) Dexter is 10 for 87 (.115).

Marcell Ozuna

Marcell Ozuna is another member of the starting lineup that hasn’t managed a hit since that big first inning in Atlanta.  Marcell is 0-for-8 in this series, and hitless in his last 11 at bats.

Pitching Keeps Cards Afloat

However the series against Washington turns out, the Cardinals can be very proud of the way their pitching has shown up.  Going back to the last game of the regular season, the Cards have 6 quality starts in their last 8 games.  The team ERA over these critical games is a sparkling 2.25 – 1.78 by the rotation.  Unfortunately, as often as not they have been running into pitching on the other side that has been equally effective.  St Louis is 4-4 in those 8 games.

Miles Mikolas

As has become a Cardinal tradition this year (see the notes below), St Louis has wasted some pretty good pitching in the first two games of this series.  Miles Mikolas was the starter – and loser – of Game One, in spite of the fact that he went six innings giving just 1 run.  Miles has made 2 starts and 1 relief appearance in the playoffs so far, recording a 1.50 ERA over 12 innings.  Over his last 9 games (8 starts and 1 relief appearance) Mikolas holds a 2.64 ERA over 47.2 innings.

Adam Wainwright

Similarly, Adam Wainwright nearly matched Scherzer in Game Two.  He allowed just 1 run through 7 innings.  Waino has given the Cards quality starts in both of his playoff outings.  Adam has a 1.80 ERA during the playoffs – and an 0-1 record.

NoteBook

On the other end the masterpieces by Sanchez and Scherzer were Cardinal starters Mikolas and Wainwright – who tossed quality starts of their own.  In 7 playoff games, the Cards have gotten 5 quality starts – and have now lost 4 of them.  All of their playoff losses so far have come in spite of a quality performance from their starter.  For the season, they are 53-27 when their pitcher gives them a quality start – meaning they are losing the game 33.8% of the time.  The only Cardinal team this century that has done worse was the 2008 team that lost 34.2% of the time their pitcher threw a quality start.  They were 50-26 in quality start games.

With playoff baseball in St Louis comes the frigid weather.  Friday’s game – played in 45 degree cold – was St Louis’ second coldest game of the year.  On April 1 in Pittsburgh, they beat the Pirates 6-5 in 11 innings in a game time temperature of 37 degrees.  Friday was the coldest game in St Louis since April 8 of last year, when they lost a 4-1 game to Arizona in 43 degree weather.  I wonder if you had chatted with Paul Goldschmidt then about relocating to St Louis what his answer might have been.

Even against the standard of playoff games, 45 is frigid.  St Louis hasn’t played as cold a playoff game since Game Three of the 2006 World Series.  With Chris Carpenter on the mound, they beat Detroit 5-0 in 43 degree weather.

History With the Umpires

Bill Miller will get the plate in Game Three in Washington.  It will be the fifth time that Miller has had the plate during a Cardinal playoff game – with St Louis winning three of the first four: 2-1 in Game Two of the 2002 Division Series against Arizona; 7-1 in Game Five of the 2011 Championship Series against Milwaukee; and 3-1 in Game Three of the 2012 Championship Series against San Francisco.

The lone Cardinal playoff loss with Miller behind the plate came in Game Five of the 2013 World Series – a 3-1 loss to Boston.

All of those games were played in St Louis.

Counting the playoffs, they are now 27-22 lifetime (1-3 this year) with Miller calling the game.

Game Four, on the other hand, will belong to Phil Cuzzi who has seen St Louis lose two of three playoff games from that vantage point.  The only one of the three played on the road was the first one – a 2-1 loss in Houston in Game Four of the 2005 Championship Series.  He was behind the plate for St Louis’ 3-0 loss to Madison Bumgarner in the opening game of the 2014 Championship Series, and for St Louis’ 4-0 win against Chicago in the opening game of the 2015 Division Series.

They are 24-15 lifetime (2-1 this year) in Cuzzi’s games.

If we get to Game Six, Fieldin Culbreth with have the plate for a Cardinal playoff game for just the second time.  He was there for Game Four of the 2006 Championship series when the Mets trounced the Cards 12-5.

St Louis is 24-17 when Fieldin has the plate – including a loss the only time he had the plate for one of our games this year.  He was behind the plate on September 28 when the Cubs hung an 8-6 loss on the birds.

The other umpires in this series have never called a Cardinal playoff game until this year.  Our history (counting the first two games of this series) with them is as follows:

Mike Muchlinski – 10-13 (1-2 this year); Chris Conroy – 11-9 (3-1 in 2019); and Chad Fairchild – 19-12 (2-0 this year).

It was the second inning of Game One of the Division Series last Thursday, and Marcell Ozuna was leading off.

Through seven major league seasons and 931 regular season games, Marcell had never had a whiff of the playoffs before.  But now, here he was, standing in against Atlanta lefty Dallas Keuchel.  The very first playoff pitch he would see would be Keuchel’s signature sinker.  Ozuna cut loose and took a hack at it – and tapped it easily back to Dallas for the first out of the inning.

Over the five games of the series, Marcell would come to the plate 22 more times.  He would never again swing at the first pitch.  Brave pitchers would tempt him with all manner of sliders and breaking balls, hoping that he would chase.  But Marcell is seeing the ball very well out of the hand these days.

After that initial groundout, Marcell went on to punish Atlanta the rest of the series, going 9 for his last 20, with 3 doubles and 2 home runs.  He drove in 5 runs in the five games – including the winning run twice.

Watching Marcell at the plate, one would guess that he would be one of the team’s more aggressive hitters.  The menacing way that he waves the bat at the plate, resembling a serpent looking for his first opportunity to strike.  And, certainly, when he does jump at a pitch, the swing itself is nothing less that pure aggression unleashed.  But, in spite of the visual evidence to the contrary, Marcell doesn’t chase the first pitch thrown to him any more than an average hitter – and profits significantly when he is taking that first pitch.

During the season’s second half, Marcell took the first pitch thrown him 73.1% of the time (163 of 223).  He hit .252/.380/.481 with 8 of his 9 second half home runs in those plate appearances.  He was just a .140/.183/.246 hitter when he did chase the first pitch.  His season numbers (.256/.361/.503 in 382 PAs when taking the first pitch and .217/.257/.414 in 167 PAs when he swung at the first offering) followed a similar arc.

In watching Marcell over the last two seasons, I’ve come to see this as a barometer of his comfort at the plate.  When Marcell is taking, he is dialed in.

Goldy, too?

I don’t think that, during his uneven regular season, we got to see the real Paul Goldschmidt – the Goldschmidt who was a constant thorn in the side of the Braves.  During 680 regular season plate appearances, Paul only took the first pitch 473 times – a 69.6% that was right about at the team average of 69.9%.  He hit .300 in at bats in which he chased the first pitch, and only .241 when taking.

Atlanta was subjected to a different Goldy.  In 23 playoff plate appearances, Paul watched that first pitch go by 18 times (78.3%).  He went on to go 8 for 16 in those at bats (.500) with all of his extra-base hits (4 doubles and 2 home runs – a 1.125 slugging percentage).  He had one single in 5 at bats when he swung at the first pitch.

As with Ozuna, Paul appears his most comfortable the more selective he is.

But DeJong Not So Much

The other everyday Paul in the lineup – Paul DeJong, on the oter hand, is at his best when he goes up swinging at the first pitch.  In fact, he hit .500 during the series when he swung at the first pitch.  Unfortunately, he only swung at 6 of his 20 first pitches.  For the season, Paul hit .277 when he swung at the first pitch, but did so only 21.7% of the time – about 10% lower than average.

DeJong likes that fastball early in the count, and (as the season has progressed) pitchers have learned that challenging DeJong early in the count doesn’t usually work out for them.

The 14 times DeJong didn’t swing at the first pitch during the series, he managed 1 single in 12 at bats (with 2 intentional walks) and 8 strikeouts.

The Washington pitching staff will present its own challenges – especially when they face Patrick Corbin and that elusive slider.  But several of the hitters in the meat part of the Cardinal order are seeing the ball very well right now.  We are looking forward to an interesting series.

The Trading Deadline Revisited

On Monday April 29 – when these two teams first met in Washington – few would probably have predicted that St Louis and Washington would be the last two teams standing in the National League.  The Cards were in the midst of their hot start, and carried a record of 17-10 into the series.  They currently held a 2.5 game lead over the Cubs.  But even though their record was second best to the Dodgers (LA was 19-11 at that point), St Louis had missed the playoffs during each of the previous three seasons, and the Cubs and Brewers were still expected to be the teams fighting it out for the playoff spots in this division.

Washington, on the other hand, had just seen superstar outfielder Bryce Harper join their division rivals in Philadelphia over the offseason.  Washington entered play that night just 12-14 and 3 early games behind the Phillies.  About 10% of the way through the season, most experts might have predicted that the Dodgers and Cubs would be preparing to do battle this evening.  But the baseball season is always full of surprises, and the Cards and National are two of the more pleasant surprises for 2019.

As St Louis takes its place tonight among the last four teams standing, I think it’s worthwhile to revisit the July 31 trade deadline.  Famously, the Cards stood pat, adding nothing to their roster in spite of the trading fury all around them.  From most corners of the baseball world, their inactivity drew a kind of quiet raspberry.  As with a shrug, the experts more or less concluded that the Cards didn’t really care about making the playoffs.

Clearly, the front office had a high level of belief in the team they had.  More than that, though, during the final moments of the insanity, the office stated publicly that they were unwilling to part with the promising parts of their future for a temporary fix.

In recent years, I haven’t been exceedingly complimentary of the management team in place.  In many ways, they have consistently misunderstood the real issues that faced their team – and all too often have seemed unconcerned about parting with pieces of their future for the immediate gratification of an “impact bat.”  For the rest of their careers, I think I will cringe every time I see Sandy Alcantara or Zac Gallen appear in playoff games or All Star games as I remember that both of these prime prospects (and more) were surrendered for what will probably be just two years of Marcell Ozuna.

So, to hear from them last July that these intriguing players that represent a fairly compelling future for this franchise are at least somewhat off-limits, is greatly relieving.

We’ll see if they can keep their hands off them over the long off season.

On September 22, the Cards fought their way past the Chicago Cubs in Chicago by a 3-2 score.  The victory completed a pivotal sweep in Chicago that all but ended the Cubs’ post-season hopes, and gave the Cards what appeared to be a stranglehold on the division.  They were 3 games up on Milwaukee with 6 to play – a situation that would require an uncommon combination of Milwaukee hot streak and Cardinal losing streak.

A combination that almost came to pass.

After St Louis won their next game in Arizona (eliminating the D-Backs), the wheels came off.  Four consecutive loses dropped them to 90-71, one slender game ahead of the Brewers.

Now there is one game to play with all the marbles on the table.  Standing on the mound in the streaming sunlight of the last Sunday of the season (facing a Chicago team that was one game away from returning the favor to their ancient rivals), the man wearing the weight of the season on his shoulders was a 23-year old right-hander who had never before (in the majors, anyway) pitched in a game of this magnitude.

Seven innings and 69 pitches later that young monster – Jack Flaherty – walked off the mound in St Louis to a standing ovation.  On the scoreboard, the seven-inning totals for the hated Cubs read 0 runs and only 2 hits.  With 9 runs sitting securely in the Cardinal ledger, the result was no longer in doubt.  Two innings later, St Louis had secured a 9-0 victory and their first division title (and playoff berth) since 2015.

That division title earned the 2019 Cardinals a match-up with the Atlanta Braves.  Pushed to the brink of elimination on their home field, the Cardinals rose up on the bat of their storied leader Yadier Molina to send the series back to Atlanta tied at two wins a piece.  Once again, the Cardinal season would hang on one game.  But unlike the previous moment when a playoff berth had already been assured and the game was in from of a friendly crowd, this game would be pure elimination and played before a raucous crowd at Sun Trust Park in Atlanta.

Six innings and 104 pitches later that same young rising star walked off the mound having allowed just 1 run on 4 hits.  Again the game (a 13-1 Cardinal lead) was no longer in doubt.  St Louis would advance.  Atlanta’s season would end (box score).

In the aftermath, there was much discussion of St Louis’ remarkable ten-run first inning that set playoff records and mostly put the game out of reach before Jack even took the mound.  But the deeper and more important story going forward is a resurgent pitching staff – led by Flaherty – that will be at the forefront of any upcoming series.

Beginning with the last game against Chicago, St Louis has won 4 of its last 6 games, mostly on the strength of a 2.17 team ERA.  The last six Cardinal starters (three of whom have been Flaherty) have contributed a 1.45 ERA and a .195 batting average against.

With lots of elite offenses left in the playoff picture, this will be the great equalizer – if they can continue this pace.

Flaherty

The series clinching performance continues a stunning run of dominant pitching from young Mr. Flaherty.  Dating to the last game before the All-Star Break, Jack has made 18 starts (including the playoffs).  Sixteen of the 18 have been “quality starts,” but that only begins to describe the consistency of his excellence.  In 9 of the 18 starts, Jack has been unscored on.  In 13 of the 18, the opposing team failed to manage 5 hits of Flaherty.

Over the 119.1 innings that cover Jack’s last 18 starts, opposing offense have been left with just 16 runs scored (15 earned) on only 62 hits (8 home runs and 11 doubles are the only extra-base hits he has allowed since early July).  Against his 146 strikeouts in those innings, Flaherty has walked just 26, as he has thrown 66% of his pitches for strikes.  The ERA for this span works out to 1.13, and the last 443 batters to face him are hitting just .151 with a miniscule slugging percentage of .237.

Mr. Flaherty has been a tower when St Louis has needed him most.  This ability to rise to the most stressful occasions gives him a level that statistics cannot quantify.  Jack Flaherty has arrived.

Giovanny Gallegos

With Flaherty’s work done, Giovanny Gallegos took the mound for the seventh, delivering a perfect inning.  Whether it’s the innings load or some adjustments by the batters, Gallegos hasn’t been the dominant force that he was through most of the first half of the season.  Nonetheless, his recent outings have been encouraging.  Giovanny has given 1 run on 4 hits through his last 6 innings (over 7 games).  The last 24 batters he has faced are hitting .190.

Gallegos threw first-pitch strikes to two of the three batters he faced, eventually retiring both.  Brian McCann popped out on the first pitch thrown him, and, after swinging through the first pitch thrown to him, Matt Joyce ended up grounding out on a 2-2 pitch.

In the season’s second half, Gallegos tied Tyler Webb for the lowest batting average against after throwing a first pitch strike.  Batters were 9 for 69 against Giovanny when he threw strike one, and 7 for 54 in that same circumstance against Webb (a .130 average).

Paul Goldschmidt

Certainly one of the offensive heroes of the series was first-baseman Paul Goldschmidt.  If the regular season wasn’t really up to Paul’s usual standards, his post-season, so far, has been all that anyone could have hoped for.  Hitting in all five games, Paul was 9 for 21 (.429) – and it wasn’t a particularly quiet .429.  He slugged .905 during the series, with 6 of his 9 hits going for extra-bases (including 2 home runs).

Going back to the end of the regular season, Paul has a seven-game hitting streak intact as the Cards await the arrival of the Nationals on Friday.  Four of the seven have been multi-hit games, and two have been three hit affairs.  Paul is hitting .433 (13 for 30) and slugging .867 (4 doubles and 3 home runs) during the streak.

Paul is pretty hot at the moment.

Tommy Edman

With a double and a triple in Game Five, Tommy Edman ended his first playoff series with a .316 batting average (6 for 19) and a .579 slugging percentage (3 doubles and a triple).

Tommy was thrown a first-pitch strike every time up on Wednesday and in 14 of his 21 plate appearances during the series.  Tommy doesn’t really mind if pitchers go aggressively after him.  Edman finished 5 for 13 (.385) with 2 doubles, a triple and a walk in those plate appearances.

Yadier Molina

With his 0-for-5 on Wednesday, Molina officially finished the series with a .143/.174/.143 batting line – he had 3 singles in 21 at bats.  Of course, one of those singles saved the season.

It is, admittedly, difficult to throw a first-pitch ball to Yadi – who is one of baseball’s more aggressive hitters.  But when pitchers can get Molina to take that first pitch for a ball, the at bat seems to go better for them.  That only happened once on Wednesday.  As the last batter in that historic first-inning, Molina took Max Fried’s first pitch for a ball and eventually grounded out on a 2-2 pitch.  Only 5 times during the series did a Molina at bat begin with ball one.  Yadi was 0-for-5 in those at bats.

In the season’s second half, Yadi hit .325 (37 for 114) when his first pitch was a strike, but only .182 (8 for 44) when the first pitch to him was ball one.

NoteBook

The 12-run victory was the Cardinals largest since they slashed Pittsburgh 17-4 back on May 9.  The only other double-digit playoff win by this team in this century was a 12-2 victory over Arizona (in a game started by Randy Johnson) in Game One of the 2002 Division Series.

In playoff games, the 13 runs were the most scored by the Cards since Game Three of the 2011 World Series, when they dumped Texas by a 16-7 score.

The Cards had trailed at some point in seven straight playoff games, dating back to Game One of the 2015 Division Series – their only win against the Cubs in that series, 4-0.

On Thursday evening, as the divisional series between the Atlanta Braves and St Louis Cardinals began, the visiting Cardinals routed a questionable Atlanta bullpen, escaping with a 7-6 win that momentarily gave the Cards the home field advantage in the series.

On Friday afternoon, the Braves did what good teams do after suffering a loss.  They answered with a 3-0 victory.

One of the enduring traits of championship caliber teams is that they are difficult to conquer on consecutive nights.  You rarely see them tagged with a string of defeats.

As the series shifted back to St Louis, it was now incumbent on the Cards to do the same thing.  They had to respond after a defeat.  Finally, after a brilliant stand by a courageous bullpen and the clutch bat of Yadier Molina, they did – fighting their way to a 5-4, 10-inning victory on Monday (box score).  However, that didn’t happen until after St Louis had suffered that second consecutive loss, 3-1 on Sunday afternoon, pushing them to the edge of extinction (box score).

For most of the season, staying out of losing streaks was a significant problem.  The back to back losses to the Braves were the thirty-sixth time the Cardinals were involved in losing streaks of at least two games this year.  Twenty-seven of those streaks graduated to at least three games; four of them went as far as four games, and they finished with two five-game losing streaks.

For the season (including the playoffs) the Cards are an uninspiring 40-33 (.548) after losing the previous game.  Of the 20 versions of this team that have played this century, the 2019 team would rank twelfth in this category.  For the decade (playoffs included) the St Louis Cardinals are 849-629 (.574) after a loss.

The story of the 2019 number, though, parallels the story of the 2019 Cardinal season.  Through the first half, they were a very dreary 22-21 (.512) after losing a game, but they opened the second half doing much better.  From mid-July through September 18, they were an impressive 16-7 (.696) answering a previous loss.

But, beginning with their last road series in Arizona up until Monday afternoon, they had lost 4 of 5 after losing the previous game.  For the most part, it was a pitching staff that allowed 5.6 runs per game through that span that short-circuited St Louis’ attempts to break the losing cycles.

Through seven innings on Monday, it looked for all the world like the Cardinal season would end with the team failing in five of their final six games after a loss.

But the bullpen that I have been expecting to collapse at any moment threw 5.1 stellar innings of relief, stranding 5 inherited runners along the way.  John Brebbia came in with the bases loaded and two out in the sixth and struck out Adam Duvall.  Then, after Brebbia was victimized by a ball lost in the sun (a gift triple for Ronald Acuna Jr.), Andrew Miller came on to strand him.

Pitching in the ninth, Carlos Martinez served up a lead-off double (Acuna, again), but Acuna was stranded as well.  For the game, Atlanta was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position – most of that the work of the bullpen.

The rest was two clutch at bats by Molina, who drove in the last two runs of the game, and the Cardinals will live to play another day.

Now, the Braves will have to answer again, or their season will be over.

Adam Wainwright

Adam Wainwright scuffled a little bit over his last two regular season starts, but on Sunday afternoon he was vintage Waino, tossing 7.2 innings of 4-hit, 2-walk shutout ball, striking out 8.

In so doing, he was more reminiscent of the Adam Wainwright of most of September, who threw 4 quality starts, and went 5-1 with a 2.97 ERA.

Adam has always been elite in a stoppers’ role – pitching in games after a loss.  In the season’s second half, Waino was 4-2 with a 2.93 ERA in 7 after-loss starts.

Over his storied career, Sunday was the fifth time he has started in the playoffs after a Cardinal loss.  Of the five, the only Cardinal win was the only one he didn’t pitch well in.  In Game Five of the 2012 Division Series against Washington, Waino didn’t make it out of the third inning, being battered for 6 runs on 7 hits and 3 home runs.  That was the evening of the historic 9-7 comeback that sent the Cards on to the Championship Series.  Over the other 4 games, Waino has a 1.82 ERA over 29.2 innings, but St Louis ended up losing all three.

Adam himself only took the loss in Game Five of the 2013 World Series, in spite of the fact that he gave just 3 runs over 7 innings to the Red Sox.  In the other three games, Waino left with a lead that was then squandered by the bullpen – a 3-2 loss to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in Game Two of the 2009 Division Series (Adam had given just 1 run over 8 innings); 6-3 to Madison Bumgarner in Game Five of the 2014 Championship Series (In spite of 7 innings of 2-run ball from Waino); and Monday against the Braves.

Dakota Hudson

Dakota Hudson wobbled a bit in the fifth inning of the Monday game, but overall pitched very well, under the duress of the situation.  Hudson was very steady down the stretch.  Including his playoff start, Hudson threw quality starts in 6 of his last 10 outings, putting together a 6-1 record and a 1.86 ERA.  The last 230 batters to face him are hitting .159, and 57% of every ball put in play against him has been a ground ball.

The next step for Dakota will be tighter command.  Hudson has walked 31 batters in his last 58 innings, and only 59% of his pitches in those innings have been strikes.  Only 44 of his 74 Monday pitches were in the zone.

Dakota was 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA in 5 September starts.  Four of those five starts followed a Cardinal loss.  Hudson responded with 3 quality starts and a 1.50 ERA that featured a .146 batting average against.

Carlos’ Big Inning

With the Monday game tied at four in the ninth inning and the Cards facing elimination, they turned again to Carlos Martinez.  The afternoon before, Martinez’ brutal ninth inning had given control of the series back to the Braves.  It was a crucial inning on many levels.  With the weight of the season resting on his shoulders, Carlos was tasked with mentally and emotionally turning the page on the Sunday disaster.  I will admit some concern when Acuna opened up with a ringing double, putting what might have been the winning run in scoring position with nobody out.

But Carlos pitched around it.  More than that, in fact.  You could see him visibly clear his mind of all that noise and focusing completely on the pitch to be made.  That was a very big proving step for Carlos Martinez.

Paul Goldschmidt

In case there was any question about it, Paul Goldschmidt has turned it on.  It’s kind of the eruption the team has been waiting for all year. With his three hits on Monday (all for extra-bases) Goldy has hit in every game of the series – and, in fact, has a six game hitting streak going.  He has multiple hits in three of the six, including a pair of three-hit games.  For the streak, Goldschmidt is hitting .440 (11 for 25) and slugging .960 (4 doubles and 3 home runs).

Marcell Ozuna

Right there with Goldy is the man behind him in the order – Marcell Ozuna.  Marcell hit his first two playoff home runs on Monday, and has two hits in all four of the games.  Ozuna now actually has a five game hitting streak, in which he has two hits exactly in all five games.  Marcell is hitting .455 during his streak (10 for 22) and slugging .864 (he has 3 doubles to go along with yesterday’s homers) and has driven in 5 runs over his last 5 games.

Tommy Edman

Tommy Edman doesn’t stay quiet for very long.  After a couple of hitless games, Edman singled, doubled and walked in Monday’s game.  Tommy was the team’s leading hitter (.350 on 36 of 103 hitting) and slugger (.660 on 6 doubles, 4 triples and 6 home runs) for the month of September.  Starting in 65 of the 74 second half games, Edman hit .308 with 8 home runs.

Tommy hit .328 this season (43 for 131) in 36 games after a loss.

Yadier Molina

Molina hasn’t honestly looked very comfortable at the plate during this post-season.  As he came to the plate with the tying run on second in Monday’s eighth inning, Yadi was just 2 for 15 in the series.

But never count him out.  Molina, of course, tied the contest with an RBI single and then tied the series with a sacrifice fly in the tenth.

Over his storied career, Molina has played in 40 playoff games after a Cardinal loss.  He is now hitting .322 in those games (46 for 143) with 3 game-winning hits.  Yadi may not always come through in those situations (nobody “always’ comes through in those situations).  But with Molina you can always be assured that the moment will never be too big for him.

Matt Carpenter

A recent hot streak brought Matt Carpenter briefly back into the lineup (at Harrison Bader’s expense).  Matt has since cooled off a bit, throwing his presence in the lineup back in doubt.  Matt was 0-for-3 on Monday, and is just 2 for 13 (.154) over his last 5 games.

Hitless in four at bats over the last two games, Matt has played in 20 career playoff games after a Cardinal loss.  He is 14 for 68 (.206) in those games.

Paul DeJong

Paul DeJong’s bat has been trending downward lately.  He was 0-for-4 yesterday.  He had singles in two of his first three at bats in the series, but is 0 for 11 since then with 6 strikeouts.

Paul ended September hitting just .175 (17 for 97).

In the last two games, DeJong sits 0-for-7.  Since the All-Star break, Paul is just 19 for 98 (.194) in games after a loss.

Dexter Fowler

Dexter Fowler started off his playoffs pretty well, with a walk and a single in Game One.  He is hitless in 13 at bats since then.

Fowler hit .183 (17 for 93) in the month of September.

Game Five and Beyond

In pushing the Braves – who were significant favorites – to a deciding game, St Louis has progressed as far as most experts would believe.  Everything that they achieve from this point on will be above and beyond expectations.  Should they survive the Braves, other excellent teams – both National and American – will be waiting.  From this point on, they will be even steeper under-dogs than they already are.  Going forward, expect to see the odds and expectations stacked strongly against them.

Given their playoff history, I can’t think of any team more comfortable in that setting than your St Louis Cardinals.

NoteBook

After winning the first game of the series, the Cardinals got consecutive quality starts from Jack Flaherty and Wainwright.  They lost both games.  This has been one of the strong memes of the Cardinal season – wasting excellent quality pitching.

They are now 52-25 this season when their starter gives them a quality start, losing 32.5% of those efforts.  If that number holds, this will be the second-worst Cardinal record this century when they get a quality start.  The 2008 team lost 34.2% of the time they got a quality start (50-26).

One day after they played in 94 degree heat (tying the season high to that point) the Cards played their hottest game of the year on October 4 in Atlanta – the game time temperature read 95 degrees.  It was the hottest game St Louis had played in since they lost to Cincinnati 8-2 in 97 degree last July 14 (Flaherty started that game, too).

It was the hottest road game played since a 2-1, 10-inning loss in San Francisco on September 2 of 2017.  That game was also 95 degrees at first pitch.

When the series came back to St Louis on Sunday, the temperature was 32 degrees cooler.  At 63 degrees, the Sunday game was the coolest the Cards have played since the last game before the All-Star break in San Francisco (July 7).  Although early July, the temperature in San Francisco that afternoon was a chilly 61 degrees.  They haven’t played in weather this cold at home since May 12.  They lost to Pittsburgh that day 10-6 in 51 degree weather.

Before the Friday shutout, St Louis had led at some point in 7 consecutive playoff games, going back to a 5-4, 10-inning loss to San Francisco in Game Three of the 2014 Championship Series.

The Sunday crowd of just 42,203 was the smallest for a Cardinal home playoff game in this century.  The previous low for a home playoff game was the 43,584 that came to see St Louis win Game Three of the 2011 Championship Series against Milwaukee.  The final in that was 4-3 Cards. 

Wednesday’s game will have umpire Tom Hallion behind the plate.  Tom has never called a Cardinal playoff game, but we were 2-2 with him behind the plate during this regular season.  Lifetime we are 15-14 with Tom behind the plate.