The St. Louis Cardinals are working on run of five consecutive starts of seven innings allowing two or fewer runs.
On a day when St. Louis Cardinals second-guessers are out in force following Saturday afternoon-night’s exciting, yet ultimately disappointing 20-inning home loss to the New York Mets, I want to ensure an exceptional outing by 23-year-old left-hander Jaime Garcia is not lost.
The Cardinals’ “fifth” starter looked more like the ace of the staff as he allowed just one soft hit in seven innings of work on Saturday. Garcia collected five strikeouts, yielded just two walks, but took the no-decision as the offense could not solve two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana. Garcia is off to a fantastic start this season, posting an ERA and WHIP of 0.69 and 0.77, respectively, in his first 13 innings. His .116 batting average against leads MLB.
From a team perspective, Garcia is the team’s fifth consecutive starter to go seven innings or more and allow two or fewer runs. In fact, in their most recent turns, four of the five starters yielded no unearned runs.
With Adam Wainwright set to start Sunday night in the conclusion of the Mets series, another long outing is needed to preserve the depleted bullpen coming off the 20-inning marathon.
Cardinals, five consecutive starters, seven or more innings, two earned runs or fewer
| Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Adam Wainwright | 4/12/2010 | HOU | W 5-0 | GS-8 ,W | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Brad Penny | 4/14/2010 | HOU | W 2-1 | GS-7 ,W | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Kyle Lohse | 4/15/2010 | HOU | L 1-5 | GS-7 ,L | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Chris Carpenter | 4/16/2010 | NYM | W 4-3 | GS-7 ,W | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Jaime Garcia | 4/17/2010 | NYM | L 2-1 (20) | GS-7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
The current feat is something that hasn’t occurred for the team in over 17 years.
It happened twice in 1993 with Rheal Cormier, Bob Tewksbury, Rene Arocha and Donovan Osborne participating both times. Joe Magrane and Allen Watson were the other starters, in April to start that season and later in August, respectively.
| Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Rheal Cormier | 8/6/1993 | CHC | L 4-6 | GS-8 | 7.2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Bob Tewksbury | 8/7/1993 | CHC | W 4-1 | GS-9 ,W | 8.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Donovan Osborne | 8/8/1993 | CHC | L 1-2 | GS-8 ,L | 8 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Allen Watson | 8/9/1993 | PIT | W 7-3 | GS-7 ,W | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Rene Arocha | 8/10/1993 | PIT | W 4-2 | GS-8 ,W | 8 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Bob Tewksbury | 4/6/1993 | SFG | L 1-2 | GS-8 ,L | 8 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Rheal Cormier | 4/7/1993 | SFG | W 6-2 | GS-7 ,W | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Donovan Osborne | 4/8/1993 | SFG | W 2-1 | GS-7 ,W | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Rene Arocha | 4/9/1993 | CIN | W 8-2 | GS-8 ,W | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Joe Magrane | 4/10/1993 | CIN | W 2-1 | GS-8 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Thanks to Tom Orf for the research.
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After 20 innings for Molina yesterday, Yadier is back again tonight. Its a little surprising.
Maybe TLR views a Sunday night game as too important to be left to Anderson. If he gets a start, it will be on the road, in a lower pressure situation.
Cardinals: Ryan Ludwick is not a terribly fast runner. Please stop sending him in questionable situations.
TLR wants the best chance of getting Wainwright deep into the game, which is with Molina catching.
Nutlaw, this is one of the risks in batting Ludwick second. Rasmus has better legs, but based on his current struggles, he might not have been on base ahead of the big bats to get thrown out.
Yeah, and I also wouldn’t want to see two lefties back to back in the lineup. However, Ludwick isn’t exactly an OBP machine, though he’s serving well enough tonight!
The streak in the article only counts earned runs, so it’s still alive. Wainy can’t give up another though.
This is one of those offensive dry spells that ends with a prodigeous deluge of runs.
I thought about that too, bb, and it gets into one of my pet peeves. If the pitcher’s error is what causes the runs to score, then why aren’t they charged against him? He is responsible either way…
My position has always been that ERA measures his performance as a pitcher not a fielder. Errors and other defensive stats is for the fielding. I tended to get into some lively disagreements in my younger days, that was the subject more than once. One such was the day Hrabosky’s saloon first opened for business, some day I’ll have my son tell about it, I can’t quite recall the details if you know what I mean. I’m quite sure I must have been the first person ever banned from that excellent establishment. They got over it though, and I met up with friends there many times.
Wainwright is starting to use allot more body………..He has some rhythm at playing all the information he is giving up. There is a downside…………….
Rasmus flashes that middle of the order bat!
Its not an accident that Albert is getting pitched up and away. The way to stop it is not hitting it. Its leaving it alone. I got the distinct feeling that both Holiday and Rasmus caught some wind from that 1st pitch gaff.
Brendan seems to respond to job insecurity. He’s probably been going to bed with visions of bus rides dancing in his head. Yet another way Flip contributes.
Has anybody heard if that FX camera/computer system thing is up and running at MLB parks as was planned? The system that was said to facilitate measuring defensive performance.
Well, that’s seven with two earned runs, so the streak continues. If he pitches the eighth and gives one up, does that break it?
Yes, the FX systems are installed in all 30 parks.
For example, here is the link to the Pitch FX data for Carp’s start on Friday.
Edit: Yes, if he gives up another ER, the streak would be broken.
I trust we are going to see a pinch hitter……….
how do you do that edit Brian?
Not pinch running for Wainy?
Let’s hope Flip doesn’t hit a single.
WW still under 100 pitches and pen is tired. Keep him in.
WC, I think I am the only one with edit capability… It is listed next to the time stamp for me.
Three walks, a double, and a homer for Ludwick on the night. Wow!
.. and Ludwick is on the bench this week in my OBP fantasy league… Grrr….. Bad decision….
Shucks………I wanted to be able to edit Jumbos posts.
Ludwick is getting his arms extended, slowing his shoulder turn. It s working. Albert is just pressing.
It was about time Ludwick connected.
Strange game. It beats me why Maine would groove one to Rasmus, but thank you.
That complete game was big for letting the bullpen recuperate. I still expect them to be flat and tired after flying to Arizona. I’d assume Penny flew out today so he might be fresh and if he can he the ball down we could be OK.
I think this game also showed this team that they can win even when Albert’s not hitting. I doubt we scored 5 runs and won often last year when Albert took the collar.
Have to admit my heart jumped a little when that ball was hit to Freese in the 9th. But he looks like he has got past those early errors. He’s holding up well so far on offense too. I particularly like his willingness to take walks.
It nearly goes without saying, but Wainwright lasting the whole game to rest the bullpen when the team doesn’t have a game off until Thursday was huge.
Also, the Cardinals have now won all four of their series thus far this season. Very nice.
CC, in addition to his .400 OBP, Freese came into the day with the highest batting average among NL rookies at .355. Maybe he will be NL Rookie of the Month like Brian Barden was last April – but hopefully have more staying power.
Those were Luddy’s first extra base hits since the opening day triple.
Maybe Brendan and Colby will be hitting their weight soon. Yadi too.
Wild guess says Albert is having some anxiety issues about hitting late in the count. Strikeout anxiety might be a good term for it. In the medical books it is right next to, “thinks he can hit any pitch psychosis”. There is a very real chance that the competitive tactics that bypass most of his game affecting opportunities, is contributing. He probably feels that if given the opportunity, most teams will give him nothing to hit, especially when the count is in his favor.
Waino gets the ” Sir Wainwright” treatment from me…………… If you have MLB TV, look at Ludwick’s swing yesterday and today. A clear difference. He was leading his hands away from his body today instead of pulling them through. That extended his arms causing him to take the ball deeper. A noticeable better result with fewer foul balls as one of the signs of squaring the bat.