It took a couple days, but the St. Louis Cardinals washed the bad taste from the Opening Day defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday with a 5-3 win. With the temperature sitting almost 30 degrees lower than Thursday's opener, the team put together an early lead and the bullpen preserved it. While the win evens the season record at 4-4, let's look at what today's game taught us.
5) Dominic Leone's arms are immune to cold air-and his right arm was working. The setup man brought over from Toronto was one of only a few Cardinals to brave the 30-degree temperatures without long sleeves. He struck out two and only needed 14 pitches to do so. After a rocky outing in Milwaukee, Leone has improved.
4) The Michael Wacha harness is working. The right-hander has a stress reaction shoulder injury that could flare up at any time, as well as an inability to collect outs the third time through the lineup, so the Cardinals are wisely yanking him early before danger arrives. However, on Saturday, five walks cut short his performance. However, Wacha pitched well in just five innings of work, escaping a huge jam early and striking out five as well with 89 pitches thrown. Of all the starters, keeping a short leash on Wacha is smart.
3) Marcell Ozuna collected three singles, but Jose Martinez's two-run homer in the third inning highlighted a four-run rally, giving the Cardinals their 5-2 lead. Ozuna was brought in to be the man in charge of lineup stability and destruction, but Martinez is making his case for MVP. What if he keeps hitting? It's not an impressive feat anymore; slowly but surely, Martinez's bat is becoming an expected source of weaponry.
2) The Cardinals struck out nine more times, with a fair portion of them coming as a player looked at a third strike. It's a nasty trend early. Tommy Pham and Matt Carpenter were both frozen at the plate in the seventh inning on strikeouts. As a team, the Cardinals have struck out 82 times in just eight games, continuing a trend from the past few seasons. At least they are hitting plenty more than they miss.
1) Did anyone have Bud Norris notching the first save of the season for the Cardinals in 2018 back in October when the 2017 season ended? He's stumping plenty that wanted him gone after a rough spring training, striking out the heart of the Arizona order today in the ninth inning on 17 pitches, which rendered a two-out double meaningless. The former Cardinal killer has struck out seven batters in just four innings of work to start the season.
Imagine for a second how the bullpen will look when Greg Holland and Luke Gregerson (who started a rehab assignment today) return. You'll have Leone, Tyler Lyons, Jordan Hicks (who pitched out of trouble for a hold today), Norris, Holland, and Gregerson for the backend of games. Holland is going to close, but maybe the rotation can get by more days than not pitching five or six innings. The Cardinals bullpen may be their best in years.
Tomorrow, Luke Weaver takes the hill for the Cardinals. Can the Cardinals go over .500 for the first time in 2018? What will we learn from it? I'll have that for you tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
