The St. Louis Cardinals started off the second half of the season with a series win over the San Fransisco Giants.
The St. Louis Cardinals began their second half about as well as can be expected with a series win at home over the San Fransisco Giants. The Cardinals won Saturday 3-1, Sunday 2-1 but dropped Friday’s game 7-2.
Let’s discuss the good, bad, and ugly of it all.
The Good
Kwang Hyun Kim had an amazing weekend as his family visited from South Korea and were able to see him pitch on Saturday. Kim pitched six innings, giving up three hits, two walks, and struck out one. He looked confident on the mound and obviously benefited from getting some of his mom’s home cooking.
KK’s family is in the 🏠
For the first time in his MLB and Cardinal career, they’re getting to watch him pitch in person! pic.twitter.com/lrsAHS2XUe
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 17, 2021
Paul Goldschmidt is continuing to heat up. He hit his 14th homer of the season Friday off former Cardinal Dominic Leone. The blast went 440 feet. On Saturday, he hit his 15th of the season, a 409 foot homer off Anthony DeSclafani.
The bullpen loves to see it! pic.twitter.com/EKBbR1gkqW
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 18, 2021
Tyler O’Neill knocked an opposite-field, 374-foot dinger off DeSclafani. It was his 16th of the season and it would be great to see him heat up again.
Paul DeJong also seems to be heating up. The shortstop hit his 13th homer of the season, a 407-foot blast off Johnny Cueto in the third of Sunday’s game.
Need a run?
Better call Paul! pic.twitter.com/Jzlp9zIAqA
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 18, 2021
Harrison Bader hustled out a single off John Brebbia to score Jose Rondon with the winning run.
Wade LeBlanc had a pretty good outing Sunday going five innings, giving up five hits, including one homer to Darin Ruf. He did strike out three. He also had a pretty great defensive play in the game, as well. Ryan Helsley, who turned 27 Sunday, pitched an inning, while walking one he ultimately struck out two. Genesis Cabrera pitched an inning, earned the win to move to 2-3 on the season. He gave up a walk and struck out two.
Giovanny Gallegos was impressive Sunday pitching the eighth. He struck out the side.
Alex Reyes has 24 saves on 24 attempts to begin his career. He earned his 21st save on Saturday striking out one, giving up one hit and one walk. He then earned his 22nd save on Sunday by walking two, but he ultimately got out of the inning with some nifty pitching. It is great to see Reyes have such success as the closer. One would suspect he wants to go back to the rotation as soon as next year, but he is doing great as the team closer.
The Bad
The Cardinals have an issue getting guys to actually score a run after getting on base. The Cardinals left 13 on base on Friday. They only left four on base Saturday and had five on Sunday.
Luckily, the Giants had the same issue. The Giants left five on base Friday. They left eight on board Saturday and 10 on Sunday.
The Cardinals need to continue to move along the base paths once they are on. It’s terribly frustrating to see this struggle continue as it reflects the team’s overall struggle to get runs and ultimately wins.
John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, hopefully, has a hitter or two on his wish list for the trade line, in addition to pitching help.
The Ugly
Friday’s game was ugly. The team’s ace-apparent Adam Wainwright dropped to 7-6 on the season with the loss. Not what you want to see from Waino.
Wainwright pitched six innings giving up five hits, four runs, a walk, and two home runs, to Mike Yastrzemski and LaMonte Wade. He did strike out seven. Luis Garcia pitched a third of an inning giving up two hits and two earned runs. T.J. McFarland pitched two-thirds of an inning giving up a home run, another off the bat of Yastrzemski. Justin Miller pitched an inning. Junior Fernandez pitched the ninth and gave up a hit and a walk.
The Cardinals remain tied for third with the Cubs, each having a 46-47 record. The Cubs come to Busch for an important four-game set. Jake Woodford takes the mound for the Cardinals against Alec Mills. This is a huge series for both teams. Here’s hoping for a Cardinal sweep of the Cubbies.