OK, I went to the 19 inning marathon yesterday and only lasted 15 or 16 innings. They quit serving beer in the 7th and all concessions are shut down by the 8th or 9th. Add to that the fact the game had taken on all the excitement of a chess match... Enough was enough!!
Keeping in mind the run of 2011 and the fact that you never say never, this team is maddening to watch. Other than a few hiccups here and there, the pitching has been pretty darn good overall. The starting pitching has particularly good, considering we lost Carp early. What is killing us is the middle of the order all going cold at once and all getting hot at once. We beat teams 15-2 and 11-3 then can't muster more than a few runs in the critical games against the Pirates...
I had seats pretty close to the Cards dugout and I can tell you this much. Beltran is hurting. He looks to me like he's a matter of days away from the DL. His right leg is not good. He lips on and off the field. Also, Descalso is not a MLB ball player. Not sure what Matheney sees in this guy but he needs to go and give up the roster spot to a real player. As expected Matheny is making some rookie manager moves. Taking out Craig (probably the best hitting player right now) to have Descalso pinch run was a bone-headed move. It isn't like Craig is a sloth. What made it even more painful is they never sent Descalso to steal???? WTF? Why take your best hitter out of the game, for a pinch runner, if you're not going to have him run? But let's be real, that game wasn't lost due to Matheny. That was a simple case of the 3,4 & 5 hitters choking for a about 12 straight innings against an over-worked, taxed Pirates bullpen... Other than Jay's play in the outfield and Yadi's play behind the plate, that was about as unispired as I've seen guys play ball.
All-in-all, I give them a 50/50 shot at one of the wild card spots and then you see what happens. Even if they don't make it, they have a pretty good foundation for next year and Matheny will be that much better, hopefully, learning from his mistakes...
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"Hunts are best measured by the endurance of the memories they produce..."
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