How many times can you put into words that an offense is struggling?
The St. Louis Cardinals went into PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Friday night with the hopes of extinguishing nasty memories from a sweep there in April. Instead, they scored a single run, managed seven hits, and continued the Greg Holland loss of control tour in the United States.
Here are five takeaways from a loss that put the Cardinals at 26-22.
5) John Gant is about as boring as a turkey sandwich at LeGrand's, but he pitched well Friday. Mixing and matching his heat with his breaking pitches, Gant lasted 5.1 innings and gave up three runs. Perhaps if there was some offense behind his efforts, he wouldn't have blew a fuse in the sixth inning. Nevertheless, I'll be happy to see Alex Reyes take his spot.
4) Kolten Wong struck out with Dexter Fowler on third base. I know, hoping for Fowler and Wong to get a hit in the same inning is too much. Wong's average dropped to .175. He's 3-39 recently and his bat is basically comprised of frozen ice at the moment. He offers gold glove caliber defense at second base right now, but he needs to offer more at the plate. What happened to that bat from last year? He's getting the playing time.
3) Two hit perspectives. Jedd Gyorko is like the new Paul DeJong. He doesn't go many games without hits and likes to hit home runs. He had two hits on Friday night, as did Marcell Ozuna. However, Ozuna looked absolutely lost in the field. I wonder who misplaced the Ozuna who won a Gold Glove last year? It says a lot about who gets that award as well. Ozuna looks nothing like a premier outfielder. Ozuna and Fowler are two of the laziest outfielders in the league right now.
2) Tommy Pham hit a home run, but is 1-21 recently. I am not worried about the guy. I am sure he is worried enough for at least 50 Cardinals fans. He was probably in the cages after the game, swinging at pitches while running backwards on a treadmill. No one works harder.
1) Holland. Look, I'd like to find the high road so I can travel it one more time with this once was great closer, but the road is gone. Holland has looked terrible in his last four appearances. While he got three outs last night, he gave up two runs. It looks like at the top of his windup, he flashes the baseball at the hitter too. Maybe he always did that. Maybe it's new. I don't know. If he cares about his career, he'll take a trip to Memphis to work on things. He came into a 6-0 game and made it worse.
This one wasn't on Mike Matheny. Maybe it's more on John Mabry, who must be communicating with his hitters via MySpace at the moment. If the bats continue to flounder, Mabry will be gone before July 1 hits the calendar. You can take that to the bank, ladies and gents. All the Pirates had to do was throw another rookie at the Birds on Friday and the stone worked its magic.
The Cardinals have looked very beatable since a sweep of the Chicago Cubs earlier this month. Remember that time when Fowler and Wong walked wins? Yeah, it's like ancient history. They'll teach it in school during summer classes next month.
Thanks for reading,
DLB
