DeRosa shows he belongs
Despite some Cardinals fans pining for a benching or even leaving him off the playoff roster entirely, third baseman Mark DeRosa was one of the few bright spots for the club in their 5-3 NLDS game one loss Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
With three hits, DeRosa became the 16th Cardinals player to do so in an Division Series game. Fernando Vina is the only one with four hits, accomplished in game two of the 2002 NLDS. Jim Edmonds’ four three-hit NLDS games is tops on the Cardinals and second to Andruw Jones’ five such games in MLB history.
DeRosa has been consistently great in the first round. His all-time LDS average of .415 is second-best all-time, with only Hall of Famer Cal Ripken’s .441 better.
Stand by me
Posters here already know my opinion that leaving the 14 Cardinals runners on base was the single biggest factor in Wednesday night’s loss.
Not once in their long post-season history had the Cardinals left 14 runners on base in one game. Their previous playoff record was 13 stranded in game seven of the 1982 World Series, a game which they still won by a 6-3 score.
Other post-season games with high runners stranded counts include 12 in game five of the same 1982 World Series (a 6-4 loss), while they left 11 on base ten different times. The most recent was in game three of the 2006 World Series (a 5-0 win over Detroit).
Walk on by
Albert Pujols tied Barry Bonds for the MLB record of three post-season games with two intentional walks. Albert still has something to strive for as Bonds had three intentional free passes in one of those games.
It was the sixth time a Cardinals player has been intentionally walked twice in a post-season game. Along with Albert’s three, Jack Clark in 1985, Harry Walker in 1946 and Marty Marion in 1944 are the others.
Double down again
As if Cardinals fans didn’t suspect it already, catcher Yadier Molina officially owns MLB’s highest rate of grounding into double plays this season. He added another to finish off the first inning threat on Wednesday night, not included here, when he was inexplicably batting sixth in the order.
Listed below are all MLB players with at least 20 GIDP during the 2009 regular season, ranked by highest rate of GIDP. Pujols finished tenth.
| Player | GIDP | AB | Team | AB/GIDP |
| Yadier Molina | 27 | 481 | STL | 17.81 |
| Mike Lowell | 24 | 445 | BOS | 18.54 |
| Kevin Kouzmanoff | 25 | 529 | SDP | 21.16 |
| Ivan Rodriguez | 20 | 425 | TOT | 21.25 |
| Evan Longoria | 27 | 584 | TBR | 21.63 |
| Miguel Tejada | 29 | 635 | HOU | 21.90 |
| Hunter Pence | 25 | 585 | HOU | 23.40 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 23 | 552 | SDP | 24.00 |
| Jose Lopez | 25 | 613 | SEA | 24.52 |
| Albert Pujols | 23 | 568 | STL | 24.70 |
| Yunel Escobar | 21 | 528 | ATL | 25.14 |
| Michael Cuddyer | 22 | 588 | MIN | 26.73 |
| Troy Tulowitzki | 20 | 543 | COL | 27.15 |
| Alexis Rios | 21 | 582 | TOT | 27.71 |
| Ryan Zimmerman | 22 | 610 | WSN | 27.73 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 22 | 611 | DET | 27.77 |
| Brandon Phillips | 21 | 584 | CIN | 27.81 |
| Robinson Cano | 22 | 637 | NYY | 28.95 |
| Carlos Lee | 21 | 610 | HOU | 29.05 |
| Jhonny Peralta | 20 | 582 | CLE | 29.10 |
| Orlando Cabrera | 22 | 656 | TOT | 29.82 |
| Billy Butler | 20 | 608 | KCR | 30.40 |
As always, thanks to Tom Orf for sending along these factoids.
Brian,
I believe it was the Dodgers that left 16 men on base last night. The Cards left a measly 14, which is still a record for them in postseason play.
DD, corrections made, thanks. I feel so much better now…
That game last night was kind of like a heavyweight fight between two fat, slow, white guys. There was a lot of punching going on but not many landed with any force.
Holliday set the tone of the game with the bases loaded and no outs, swinging at the same number of pitches that you and I did.
Good analogy. The thing about the first was that after the bases were loaded three guys in a row couldn’t get the clutch hit. Not taking anything away from Luddy for lucking into a bloop. Then Yadi couldn’t manage even a sac fly, jeez, not again…Yes again.
I’m not going to get down on Molina for having a tough year with hitting in the bases loaded situation. He was 1 for 15 this year. Prior to that, he was 14 for 48 with 35 ribbies.
I’m not sure why you are discounting Ludwick’s hit. It fell in, he picked up an RBI and it looks like a line drive in the box score.
Yadi 6th again……………… they pitched around Ludwick to get at that double play chance yesterday. Hard to believe Tony sometimes.
Wainwright is throwing an absolute gem tonight. It would be a travesty for the Cards to not help him out with just a tiny bit more run support.
There we go.
Two may be all the runs Wainwright gets.
Seeing TLR’s negative reaction over Colby getting nailed at third despite driving in the lead run seems to indicate a potential double standard. Albert has these baserunning issues from time to time but always gets praised for his aggressiveness. Why not Colby, too?
It was a pretty wild grab to cut off that throw home.
For all my badmouthing of Rasmus’ performance against LHP this season, he has certainly looked decent at the plate this series.
no outs………..thats not aggressive…………never 1st or 3rd out at third. Can’t see him using Lohse here………….He will go Waino to Franklin. He is just getting Lohse involved…………I hope……..
Fair point, WC.
Wainwright was left in one inning too long there. They got lucky.
He was completely gassed Nut……………………..that is coaching incompetence. Now he will go Miller and then Franklin against Manny……..I hope we score some runs.
That was a rather soul crushing loss, now wasn’t it?
tough loss………….I feel bad for Franklin. Holiday is a stand alone personality, for good or bad. He was moving hard enough to make it a tough catch. A give away won’t go well for St. Louis. Pinero will get shelled on Saturday. If Tony lets it go more than 3 runs, it will be a fitting end to a season.
upon further reflection, this seems true. While the loss is hardly Franklin’s fault, it once again highlights the fact that he does not have the stuff or the nervous system to be a closer. His emotional reaction to the error and subsequent pitch selections left allot to be desired. His salary isn’t prohibitive to qualify him as a set up man. If he goes into 2010 as the closer, even with a new coach, this team will not excel, no matter who is still playing here. Since we all know MH is leaving, I would use Ankiel as a late inning defensive enhancement just to make a statement.
The Cards have a remote chance. Since it is Tony’s farewell, they will announce Carp for game 4, Waino for 5. Smoltz and Lohse will be the pen until that time. Its feasible. 1/6 chance maybe.
Problem is we will need to average 6 runs a game to out hit them.
Well, the Cards certainly out hit the Dodgers tonight, WC. They just didn’t out score them. Lots of stranded runners again.
Seven LOB, same as their average. Just not an average number crossed the plate. 4.5 would have been just fine.
Coach of the Rockie’s in his dugout interview,” we’ll see if we can come back and create some good situational at bats for ourselves”. Enough said.
Another good one……..Bob Brennly…………”boy that Hal McRae must have his hands full. I’ve never seen so many styles of hitting”.
0-9 with RISP is about their average too. Colby will get blamed in Tony’s mind. If he ran against Oquendo’s hold sign he deserves it, only Albert can do that. Tony coveted Holliday for so long and finally got him so BD is probably thinking – what the……..
Bling………Holiday is leaving. Always was. BD was born lucky.
Colby rounded to far because both middle infielders were holding hand on a deep cut off. He was out at third on a good throw let alone the leaping cut, or on a throw behind at second. The play was right in front of him. No outs……..it was a rookie mistake. His head was filled with dreams of glory. I’ve done it.
He said he lost it in the lights……….thats completely believable if you are familiar with Dodger stadium.