On Tuesday, outfielder Ryan Ludwick collected his ninth final-at bat winning hit in the last three-plus years for the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals number two hitter Ryan Ludwick saved a number of people with his game-winning 434-foot home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night.
He saved his manager, Tony La Russa, from second-guessing for leaving a tiring 35-year-old Chris Carpenter in the game to pitch the eighth. That move backfired when the visiting Washington Nationals plated the tying run, potentially taking a win away from the Cardinals ace, whose 118 pitches thrown were his highest count in a game post-2007 elbow surgery.
Ludwick saved Carpenter, who exhibited considerable anger upon his return to the dugout in the middle of the eighth, obviously frustrated in having yielded the second run. Instead of a defeat, the home run gave Carp his fifth win of the season in six decisions and his sixth victory in seven career decisions against the Nationals/Expos franchise.
The right-fielder saved his team, still struggling to score runs. The Cardinals managed to squeak out the win despite putting just three men in scoring position during the entire game.
The offense once again made a middling opposing starter look like Bud “Chuck” Norris. Nats starter John Lannan came in with an unimpressive career 21-32 record, but held the St. Louis bats to five hits in six innings. He actually lowered his season ERA to a still-hefty 6.02 in the process.
Ludwick himself didn’t need saving as he has now hit safely in 16 of 18 games at Busch Stadium this season.
In an indication of the closeness of Cardinals wins this season, researcher Tom Orf pulled out this tidbit. Tuesday night was the fourth time that the Cardinals scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth at home this season alone after doing it just five times in total over the previous two years.
Others on the Cardinals have been tagged as being clutch hitters, yet in terms of results with the game on the line at the end, Ludwick is the undisputed king.
Orf notes that Ludwick’s Tuesday blast was his team-leading ninth game-winning hit in his club’s last at-bat since 2007. Eight of the nine occurred at home, including four walkoffs. Five of the nine game-winners were home runs.
Ryan Ludwick last at-bat game-winning hits, 2007-present
| Walkoff | Road-Last AB | Home-Bot-8th | ||||||||||||||||||
| Inn | Opp | Sco | Hit | BI | Final | Inn | Opp | Sco | Hit | BI | Final | Inn | Opp | Sco | Hit | BI | Final | WP | Save | |
| 6/20/2007 | 14 | KC | 6-6 | HR | 1 | 7-6 | Wells | |||||||||||||
| 7/28/2007 | 9 | Mil | 4-6 | 1B | 1 | 7-6 | Springer | |||||||||||||
| 7/29/2007 | 8 | Mil | 4-5 | BB | 1 | 9-5 | Franklin | |||||||||||||
| 5/10/2008 | 9 | Mil | 3-3 | 1B | 2 | 5-3 | Springer | Franklin | ||||||||||||
| 5/17/2008 | 10 | TB | 8-8 | HR | 1 | 9-8 | Franklin | |||||||||||||
| 8/5/2008 | 11 | LA | 4-4 | HR | 2 | 6-4 | Garcia | |||||||||||||
| 4/24/2009 | 8 | ChC | 3-3 | 1B | 1 | 4-3 | McClellan | Franklin | ||||||||||||
| 4/18/2010 | 8 | NYM | 3-3 | HR | 2 | 5-3 | Wainwright | |||||||||||||
| 5/18/2010 | 8 | Was | 2-2 | HR | 1 | 3-2 | Carpenter | Franklin |
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Yes, Ludwick is not an enigma or mental case, like some other regulars. He is not a star, but is dependable. He makes nice catches. And he is not cheated at the plate. He takes his rips and sometimes hits them a long way. The Cards are lucky to have Eric’s little brother.
Albert is trying………. Holiday’s ineffectiveness is putting zero pressure on him. That’s a surprise to me. Albert is straining to stay back, and stay closed. This effort is robbing him of his power because it requires constant restraint which is very inhibiting to a fluid stroke. Who knows how this story ends.
Holiday’s leg kick, with all its vulnerabilities is being exploited by everyone now. He refuses to make adjustments. His swing is geared to hit the balls middle in and down. He can’t touch the ball at his waste and in…….or low and away. The solution oddly enough is lowering his right elbow. The pitchers aren’t going change until he does. He has been measured.
Colby struck out 3 times in a row…….on the same pitch. He will be hitting 6th by the end of the week……….likely sitting against lefty’s………..
MM is starting to take flack. Probably rightly so. To be honest watching other teams hit makes me long for the road. Watching Molina dig in……and Ludwick starting to dance again…shu and his glove fetish with and his fain attempt at being a doubles hitter. Freese is the only technically sound hitter on the team.
What does Wainwright have to look forward to tomorrow? Maybe some one makes a mistake and we drive something out.
Holliday was cool with the Athletics, a hot hitter Aug-Sept 09. Holliday will figure out a solution during 2010.
Rasmus did not hit for high averages at AA and AAA. He will improve his BA, but it may take the next couple of years to get there. In the interim, there will be hot streaks and cold spells, with strikeouts. This is only to be expected.
I dont have high hopes for hits out of LaRue, Mather, and Ryan. For a team struggling to score, 3 dead bats among 13 hitters are a lot to carry. As the season goes by, they could give way for Anderson, Jay, and Greene.
Looking at OPSes, Freese is only .022 ahead of Holliday. Expectations are low for Freese, whereas Holliday is getting $16MM, so fans hope for more. Maybe they will see it during June.
Likewise Pujols does not have bad numbers, but fans are used to him being incredible. They are spoiled.
The hitters who have most cooled are Ryan and Schumaker. TLR has found solutions. Return of Lopez enables benching of Ryan. Schumaker can battle toward respectability from the 8th slot.
Felipe stole a base last night and adds spark to the top of the lineup.
Texeira is averaging .213 with the Yankees. Brady Sizemore .211 with the Indians. Are they vulnerable to pitchers? Washed up? Do they need swing advice from Freese?
In a long season, even very good hitters will go through dry spells.
WC wrote, “Albert is trying………. Holiday’s ineffectiveness is putting zero pressure on him. That’s a surprise to me. Albert is straining to stay back, and stay closed. This effort is robbing him of his power because it requires constant restraint which is very inhibiting to a fluid stroke. Who knows how this story ends.”
Its early WC, both of these guys will hit before it is all said and done. Albert is fighting staying back, that you are right on about. Matt IMO, is being handcuffed by all balls in, it doesn’t matter if its up or down. He’ll figure it out.
WC wrote, “Colby struck out 3 times in a row…….on the same pitch. He will be hitting 6th by the end of the week……….likely sitting against lefty’s……….. ”
Everyone wanted the Colby that walked more as opposed to the Colby from last year who rarely walked. Well they got him. You will get more walks and a better OBP, but you will get more K’s as well because he is not going to swing a breaking balls early in the count, or balls just off the outer edge. Great job by Anibal last night pitching him backwards. If you know someone will take the get me over breaking ball every time first pitch throw it every time, and he did. Soft stuff early with the show me hard stuff then finish him out of the zone. Hat trick. 5th, 6th, its all the same and will probaly fluctuate. Pitchers are going to start working David more and more inside like they are doing Holliday and David will start struggling so it remains a game of constant adjustments.
WC wrote, “MM is starting to take flack. Probably rightly so. To be honest watching other teams hit makes me long for the road. Watching Molina dig in……and Ludwick starting to dance again…shu and his glove fetish with and his fain attempt at being a doubles hitter. Freese is the only technically sound hitter on the team.”
Oh WC, you keep looking for perfection in a sea of imperfection. You will never find it. This team is fighting demons this month, but the odds are next month and the one after that they will be riding high with some other team fighting the baseball gods. Its an ever changing landscape of adjustments and counter adjustments. Freese is working the perfect swing in your eyes but his average has dropped over 60 pts in the last two weeks. I wonder when he starts pulling off when he is getting worked in if you will be as kind. MH has not adjusted to the inside stuff yet and he is an experienced Big Leaguer.
WC wrote, “What does Wainwright have to look forward to tomorrow? Maybe some one makes a mistake and we drive something out.”
Adam probably knows there is little room for mistake making at the present on the cardinals so he probably knows he has to go deep into the game and not make many, if any mistakes to have a chance to win tonight. The offense will bust out one day lets hope it is tonight.
All good observations RC. The temptation for DF to speculate toward large mac land is natural.. That very nice Rbi shot yesterday was a beautiful stoke by him. Jest slowed down and kept the head in the zone throw his hand in a timely fashion. AP is trying this now too. Albert is really making a effort to adjust. He seems much happier too. Less turbulence for Holiday up front.