Luvofthegame
09-27-2006, 01:28 PM
By Bernie Miklasz
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/27/2006
October has arrived early. To the Cardinals, the final days of the regular season suddenly feel like the postseason. The tension is extreme, the pressure intense. The infield dirt is quicksand. The outfield walls are closing in.
Baseball Heaven? No, forget the franchise's dopey marketing slogan.
Instead, welcome to Baseball Hell.
And this may explain why Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has seemingly lost his mind -- or, at the very least, misplaced his common sense. Though La Russa has won a spectacular percentage of first-round playoff games, his team's October flops in Oakland and St. Louis are the stuff of legend. So if it feels like October, then it must be code red at Busch Stadium.
Tuesday night at Busch, with Chris Carpenter leaking oil, and the smoke of an overworked and overheated engine all but billowing around the pitcher's mound in the seventh inning, La Russa let his ace laboring starter burn up a 5-2 lead, and a crucial game.
And the alarming cracks in the Cardinals' foundation opened wider, as they lost to the hard-charging San Diego Padres 7-5. The Friars put the Cardinals into the fryer. It was another jolt for 40,443 hopeful but shaken believers. The crowd was rocked nearly as hard as spectators were on July 19, the night that dangerously volatile winds ripped through Busch, causing thousands of fans to scramble for shelter.
Call 911 -- the Cardinals are in an emergency situation. Their once-invincible 7-game lead in the NL Central has been chopped to 1.5 games. And their stalker, the Houston Astros, trailed by 8.5 games as recently as Sept. 19. Seven is the unlucky number. The Cardinals have lost seven in a row, and the Astros have peeled seven games off the Cardinals' advantage in seven days.
Call 911 -- La Russa needs assistance. What was he possibly thinking on Tuesday night? What was he watching? How could La Russa fail to see that the valiant Carpenter was spent -- pressed beyond the limits of effective pitching?
After a rugged, losing start at Houston last Thursday, Carpenter tried to rebound against the Padres. Carpenter was in the right place; he had a 1.46 ERA at Busch going into this crucial assignment. It wasn't a sharp performance for Carp. Still, backed by two homers from Ron Belliard and a two-run single by Jim Edmonds, Carpenter carried a 5-2 lead into the seventh.
With one out, the Padres loaded the bases on a single, double and walk. The walk, to Adrian Gonzalez, came on Carpenter's 108th pitch. Adam Wainwright began warming for the Cardinals. But Wainwright wasn't ready yet, and besides, lefthanded hitters are batting .295 against him this season. The Padres had two LH bats (Josh Bard, Russell Branyan) due up.
On Carpenter's 109th pitch, Bard doubled in two runs to slash the Cardinals' lead to 5-4. OK, was that it for Carpenter? No. La Russa held his ground and Carpenter did, too. He punched out Branyan on a called-strike 3-2 pitch that appeared to be out of the strike zone. It was Carpenter's 116th offering.
The RH swing of Mike Cameron was next in line, and he's a money player, batting .322 with runners in scoring position and two outs. Wainwright kept tossing in the bullpen. La Russa stayed with Carpenter, who notched two quick strikes. On the next serve, Cameron rifled a two-run double into the right field corner to put the Padres up 6-5.
So why did La Russa stick with Carpenter? La Russa had to see the drop in velocity, the 89 mph readings on the radar gun. The manager had to know that hitters are batting .226 against Carpenter this season through his first 105 pitches in a game, but .278 thereafter.
"I think he's the best guy we've got in that situation," La Russa said. "He got two strikes on Cameron, didn't he?"
Three strikes is an out. Not two.
And even La Russa acknowledged that Carpenter was pushing and straining to finish off hitters. That isn't a positive for a pitcher.
"I think he puts so much on his shoulders, if you watch, he's trying too hard," La Russa said. "He's getting out of rhythm and making mistakes."
Does any of this make sense to you?
If the manager sees his No. 1 pitcher straying from form and making mistake pitches, isn't that even more of a reason to go get him? Doesn't it confirm that Carpenter was on fumes?
Carpenter was pitching from his heart. That's all he had left. And to a point, I can understand why La Russa would want to ride him. But even Joe Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, knew when it was time to stop a punishing, debilitating heavyweight brawl -- Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali in the epic Thrilla in Manila. Futch prevented the battered Frazier from leaving the corner for Round 15. And Futch didn't have a fresh, hard-throwing righthander ready in the bullpen.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/27/2006
October has arrived early. To the Cardinals, the final days of the regular season suddenly feel like the postseason. The tension is extreme, the pressure intense. The infield dirt is quicksand. The outfield walls are closing in.
Baseball Heaven? No, forget the franchise's dopey marketing slogan.
Instead, welcome to Baseball Hell.
And this may explain why Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has seemingly lost his mind -- or, at the very least, misplaced his common sense. Though La Russa has won a spectacular percentage of first-round playoff games, his team's October flops in Oakland and St. Louis are the stuff of legend. So if it feels like October, then it must be code red at Busch Stadium.
Tuesday night at Busch, with Chris Carpenter leaking oil, and the smoke of an overworked and overheated engine all but billowing around the pitcher's mound in the seventh inning, La Russa let his ace laboring starter burn up a 5-2 lead, and a crucial game.
And the alarming cracks in the Cardinals' foundation opened wider, as they lost to the hard-charging San Diego Padres 7-5. The Friars put the Cardinals into the fryer. It was another jolt for 40,443 hopeful but shaken believers. The crowd was rocked nearly as hard as spectators were on July 19, the night that dangerously volatile winds ripped through Busch, causing thousands of fans to scramble for shelter.
Call 911 -- the Cardinals are in an emergency situation. Their once-invincible 7-game lead in the NL Central has been chopped to 1.5 games. And their stalker, the Houston Astros, trailed by 8.5 games as recently as Sept. 19. Seven is the unlucky number. The Cardinals have lost seven in a row, and the Astros have peeled seven games off the Cardinals' advantage in seven days.
Call 911 -- La Russa needs assistance. What was he possibly thinking on Tuesday night? What was he watching? How could La Russa fail to see that the valiant Carpenter was spent -- pressed beyond the limits of effective pitching?
After a rugged, losing start at Houston last Thursday, Carpenter tried to rebound against the Padres. Carpenter was in the right place; he had a 1.46 ERA at Busch going into this crucial assignment. It wasn't a sharp performance for Carp. Still, backed by two homers from Ron Belliard and a two-run single by Jim Edmonds, Carpenter carried a 5-2 lead into the seventh.
With one out, the Padres loaded the bases on a single, double and walk. The walk, to Adrian Gonzalez, came on Carpenter's 108th pitch. Adam Wainwright began warming for the Cardinals. But Wainwright wasn't ready yet, and besides, lefthanded hitters are batting .295 against him this season. The Padres had two LH bats (Josh Bard, Russell Branyan) due up.
On Carpenter's 109th pitch, Bard doubled in two runs to slash the Cardinals' lead to 5-4. OK, was that it for Carpenter? No. La Russa held his ground and Carpenter did, too. He punched out Branyan on a called-strike 3-2 pitch that appeared to be out of the strike zone. It was Carpenter's 116th offering.
The RH swing of Mike Cameron was next in line, and he's a money player, batting .322 with runners in scoring position and two outs. Wainwright kept tossing in the bullpen. La Russa stayed with Carpenter, who notched two quick strikes. On the next serve, Cameron rifled a two-run double into the right field corner to put the Padres up 6-5.
So why did La Russa stick with Carpenter? La Russa had to see the drop in velocity, the 89 mph readings on the radar gun. The manager had to know that hitters are batting .226 against Carpenter this season through his first 105 pitches in a game, but .278 thereafter.
"I think he's the best guy we've got in that situation," La Russa said. "He got two strikes on Cameron, didn't he?"
Three strikes is an out. Not two.
And even La Russa acknowledged that Carpenter was pushing and straining to finish off hitters. That isn't a positive for a pitcher.
"I think he puts so much on his shoulders, if you watch, he's trying too hard," La Russa said. "He's getting out of rhythm and making mistakes."
Does any of this make sense to you?
If the manager sees his No. 1 pitcher straying from form and making mistake pitches, isn't that even more of a reason to go get him? Doesn't it confirm that Carpenter was on fumes?
Carpenter was pitching from his heart. That's all he had left. And to a point, I can understand why La Russa would want to ride him. But even Joe Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, knew when it was time to stop a punishing, debilitating heavyweight brawl -- Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali in the epic Thrilla in Manila. Futch prevented the battered Frazier from leaving the corner for Round 15. And Futch didn't have a fresh, hard-throwing righthander ready in the bullpen.