The bottom of the sixth, with the bases loaded and two out, was a pivotal moment in the St. Louis Cardinals’ Monday night’s game against the visiting San Francisco Giants. Cards manager Mike Matheny pulled starting pitcher Jake Westbrook despite the right-hander having thrown only 79 pitches and holding a narrow 3-2 lead.
Matt Carpenter pinch hit and delivered a two-run single against San Francisco’s ace Matt Cain that helped propel the Cardinals to an 8-2 win.
The rookie began slowly in the pinch-hitting role, as Carpenter was only three for his first 17 before hitting safely twice and walking in his last three pinch-hitting appearances. The left-handed hitter is still a long way from the team’s rookie pinch-hit record of 20, set by Joe Frazier in 1954.
Still, despite the relatively low quantity of hits, Carpenter has made them count with eight pinch runs batted in. An initial report that they are the most by a Cardinals rookie since at least 1950 was later disputed.
With the definition of rookie dependent on both on at-bats (130 or less) and time in the majors (45 or fewer days active prior to 9/1), definitive rookie-only data pulls are challenging.
Given that, researcher Tom Orf prepared the following list of all 40 occurrences of a Cardinals pinch-hitter having at least eight RBI in a season since 1948. At the right is the year of their career and at-bats in prior years (for some), followed by the players’ ages at the time.
In an oddity, Frazier maintained his rookie status for eight years. After being in military service from 1943-45, he appeared in nine games for Cleveland in 1947. Frazier did not return to MLB until 1954. Still a rookie, he had 13 pinch-hit RBI with St. Louis that latter season.
Though Carpenter had 15 St. Louis at-bats last year, he is still a rookie in 2012. In 1962, Fred Whitfield became the only one to make this list by having his pinch-hits in the same season he first came up.
Eight or more pinch-hit RBI, season since 1948, St. Louis Cardinals
| Year | Pinch-hitter | PH RBI | Career Year # | Previous ABs | Age |
| 2012 | Matt Carpenter | 8 | 2 | 15 | 26 |
| 2007 | Chris Duncan | 8 | 3 | 290 | 26 |
| 2006 | Scott Spiezio | 8 | 11 | 33 | |
| 2004 | Marlon Anderson | 10 | 7 | 30 | |
| Roger Cedeno | 9 | 10 | 29 | ||
| Ray Lankford | 8 | 14 | 37 | ||
| 2002 | Eduardo Perez | 10 | 7 | 32 | |
| Miguel Cairo | 10 | 9 | 28 | ||
| 2000 | Thomas Howard | 11 | 11 | 35 | |
| 1999 | Thomas Howard | 8 | 10 | 34 | |
| 1998 | John Mabry | 8 | 5 | 27 | |
| 1996 | Willie McGee | 9 | 15 | 37 | |
| 1994 | Gerald Perry | 10 | 12 | 33 | |
| 1993 | Gerald Perry | 14 | 11 | 32 | |
| 1992 | Gerald Perry | 10 | 10 | 31 | |
| 1991 | Gerald Perry | 13 | 9 | 30 | |
| Craig Wilson | 11 | 3 | 125 | 26 | |
| 1988 | Curt Ford | 9 | 4 | 27 | |
| 1987 | John Morris | 8 | 2 | 100 | 26 |
| 1984 | Tito Landrum | 12 | 5 | 315 | 29 |
| Steve Braun | 12 | 14 | 36 | ||
| 1981 | Dane Iorg | 8 | 5 | 31 | |
| 1979 | Dane Iorg | 8 | 3 | 147 | 29 |
| 1978 | Roger Freed | 12 | 7 | 32 | |
| 1977 | Roger Freed | 8 | 6 | 31 | |
| 1973 | Tim McCarver | 10 | 14 | 31 | |
| 1971 | Bob Burda | 8 | 6 | 32 | |
| 1970 | Vic Davalillo | 18 | 8 | 33 | |
| Carl Taylor | 12 | 3 | 292 | 26 | |
| 1967 | Bobby Tolan | 9 | 3 | 162 | 21 |
| 1965 | Bob Skinner | 15 | 11 | 33 | |
| 1962 | Fred Whitfield | 8 | 1 | 24 | |
| 1961 | Carl Sawatski | 14 | 9 | 33 | |
| 1960 | George Crowe | 13 | 8 | 39 | |
| Carl Sawatski | 10 | 8 | 32 | ||
| 1959 | George Crowe | 20 | 7 | 38 | |
| 1957 | Joe Cunningham | 13 | 3 | 313 | 25 |
| 1956 | Bobby Morgan | 9 | 6 | 30 | |
| 1954 | Joe Frazier | 13 | 2 | 14(1947) | 31 |
| 1953 | Peanuts Lowrey | 13 | 12 | 36 |
It is good for the career of Carpenter, a natural third baseman, for him to excel in the off-the-bench needs. The Cardinals lack experience among their reserves this season and going forward, this role seems to be the 26-year-old’s niche.
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… and reminding us that the game has a way of quickly balancing out matters, representing the potential tying run, Carpenter hit into a double play in the ninth inning Tuesday night…
1. There is a very good reason for hitting your OBP leader ahead of your SLG leader rather than the other way around. Not that hitting a Matt Holliday second is smart, necessarily. But when you don’t have a #2 hitter, and you have to use middle of the order guys there, its smarter to hit your OBP leader ahead of your SLG leader and dumber to hit your SLG ahead of your OBP. But there are about 120 million reasons not to, I guess.
2. Our D up the middle looks really good this year. Furcal’s declining range is probably the weakest link. That’s saying something. But from my vantage point, we get hurt by it fairly regularly. Too many balls up the middle go through on the SS side of the bag. Perhaps he could be positioned a bit differently, and see if Freese can compensate. Not too many go through between short and third. Just a thought.
3. Furcal is the only leadoff hitter we have. For next year that needs to be a priority. And somebody besides our SLG leader to hit second.
4. How about this – Lance’s next start let somebody else pitch the 1st, then bring in the big guy.
After all those wins, now we lose one, and I’m all full of criticism. I’m a bad fan and a bad person. I know, no need to tell me. Hopefully it is thoughtful and constructive criticism.
Super Joe tonight.
Quite a number of balls got past a certain second baseman last night……
I know I am criticizing the Sacred Cow so I will stop. He made a great throw, so that’s all that matters I guess.
I said this on Twitter last night but it just seems to me that you can pick out the weakest pitcher in every series and predictably he will be the one who hamstrings the Cardinals offense. Our hitters can take batting practice off elite pitchers (Kershaw, Cain) but look like Little Leaguers against the Barry Zitos of the world. Maybe other teams will catch on to this and start pitching the batboy and the towel guy, and the trainer………..
I know it is easy to criticize but for me it is cathartic. I imagine (wrongly, of course) that the players read my words and think to themselves that they must do better to please me.
“Quite a number of balls got past a certain second baseman last night……”
Not as many as got past him in the batters box, unfortunatly. 0fer leading off.
That was a rough call in the seventh. A full-count pitch came up and in on Skip. As he tried to get out of the way, he was hit by the pitch, but the umps ruled him out because in their opinion, he tried to swing.
I’m no baseball expert, but if you need a top notch leadoff guy, it seems like there are two ways to go.
The hard way is developing the next Lou Brock.
The easy way is developing the next Ernie Broglio.
Well, if you judge a lead off guy by OBP, the guy with the highest is Matt Holliday. But I doubt anyone is advocating him for lead off. The next highest is Skip, so the decision to bat him lead off last night made sense, he just didn’t execute. Descalso has the better glove at 2B, so playing Skip every day loses you the better D on a staff of ground ball pitchers. The next highest OBP is Lance Berkman, not an option. Jon Jay has an OBP of .376 why not bat him lead off? He can be streaky, I know, but the only other options are David Freese (.377) Molina (.367) Craig (.362) or Beltran (.357).
Furcal is the only guy who has performed at leadoff, but if he is a bit gimpy, then we don’t have anybody, at least against lefties. Skip only had a handful of PAs against lefties this year, so I was skeptical. The arguement for it was that he has hit the guy well in a handful of ABs in past years. bleh.
Jay goes in an immediate slump whenever he is put at leadoff. DD seems to do poorly there as well. And you can’t try a Matt Carpenter because you have to sit down a bopper to do it.
I’m not suggesting putting a middle of the order guy at leadoff. I was making a seperate point about which middle of the order guy should hit second, if you have to have one second.
As to the final four choices, obviously, for leadoff you’d have to take the guy with most stolen bases, right?
If you consider a guy with an OBP of .336 as performing. As for slumps, Furcal has been in one for quite some time. I would put Jay at lead off and see how he does. If he slumps, then put Furcal back I guess. There is no good answer you just have to go with the tides at the moment.
Craig is hitting second at the moment. Leave him there.
Jay would be ok given the choices.
Craig hitiing second behind an ineffective leadoff might set a new record for solos. Like last night. But you’re right leave him there.
At least Mike only has one big contract to work around. Last year TLR had two immovable objects.
I am also not excited about any of the choices, but Jay is no worse leading off than he is anywhere else. His career OBP batting #1 is .353 vs. .356 overall.
If Furcal could get back on track he is really the best option, but he is not cutting it at the present time. He’s faster than Jay and being a switch hitter helps a great deal. He hits better from the right side but his walk rate is better from the left. Jon Jay is doing well from both sides though his OBP is somewhat better against righties. His tendency to streak is worrisome and that is the biggest downside to batting him lead off.
I wonder if a stint on the DL for Furcal might be better for the team in the long run.
Interesting question about Furcal. The long run for him is probably the remainder of this season and next.
You may be right. But if a stint on the 15 day DL could result in some marginal benefit for the remainder of the season, then why not try it? His gimpiness is certainly not helping.
Would mean more Tyler.
So?
e-hem
Allergies?
Brewers coming from behind ahead 3-2 in bottom of 8th. Cinci may never win again.
Craig out with injury.
Jay cf
Carpenter 1b
Holliday lf
Beltran rf
Freese 3b
Molina c
Descalso ss
Greene 2b
Kelly p
I’ve never understood the Greene at 2B and Descalso at short thinking. Greene may have his faults but range isn’t one of them. I guess you could argue range is just a important at 2B as SS but not sure many would agree.
I agree with you 100 percent. Why put them at their less-favorable positions?
In fact, I am going to make a mental note to ask Matheny about that (tactfully, of course).
Thirded. This alignment makes no sense.
Ouch. Already in the top of the first, Pence’s ball eludes Descalso (and Freese) and the Giants are up again.
So if Craig’s “unspecified injury” is something that Mo has to announce to the press, it must be bad. Terrific.
Nothing serious as it turned out. A bone bruise, though one has wonder why the intrigue.
In other words, the med staff has no idea and is hoping for the best.
MCarp is a hand at GIDPs. Two ABs is a row.
Its hard to type with a bag over my head.
zgfl Ndg ZXnu vnsi gbn[ Jbn.
I have no word for this abomination of a game tonight. I turned it off after the 6th inning, but turned it back on to see the last few outs.
Was that Freese who dropped that F bomb in the 9th? I think my neighbors kids heard that.
Ugly, ugly, ugly. I turned it on and it was 2-0. Then it just went downhill. I was doing things around the house and every time I looked back they had scored 4 more runs. I turned it off at 11-0 and they scored 4 more after that!