For a manager in the Major Leagues, strategy is everything. It can sink the ship or keep it afloat on the surging tides that head for a team over the course of a 162-game season.
What buried former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was the inability to manage a bullpen. In other words, knowing when to choose one arm over the other and when to pull a starter. If you ask any Cardinals fan, that's high on the list of reasons why he was fired a year too late.
On Sunday, interim manager Mike Shildt was faced with a strategy test in his bullpen. The Cardinals and Cubs were tied at two in the top of the sixth inning and there was a chance for a breakthrough, so Shildt pulled Miles Mikolas from the game even though he had only thrown 74 pitches through five innings.
There are a few things to know here before we go any further. First, the Cardinals bullpen is having a very hard time at the office, giving up at least a run in nine consecutive games. On Saturday during game 1 of the doubleheader, they turned a 3-2 nail-biter into a 7-2 Cubs cruise. Other than Bud Norris, everybody in the bullpen is struggling, and that includes young phenom Jordan Hicks. It may not be a good idea to go to them for 12 outs.
Second, Jedd Gyorko was asked to pinch hit for Mikolas. The utility infielder was out sick on Friday and Saturday's, but then was available to take a crucial at-bat on Sunday. Jose Martinez had doubled and Jose Quintana intentionally walked Yairo Munoz to get to Mikolas' spot-and that's when Shildt went to Gyorko.
What happened? Gyorko grounded back to the pitcher, and the inning was over. During the bottom half of the inning, Mike Mayers gave up a home run to Kyle Schwarber, and then embattled reliever Brett Cecil gave up three more runs later in the game. A game that the Cardinals once led 2-0 ended with the Cubs scoring seven unanswered runs.
Let's get the elephant out of the room first. The offense is painfully inconsistent and shouldn't escape blame here. They put up a couple runs and then took their foot off the gas pedal. The secret salsa went stale and the run-scoring operation came to a halt. This definitely played a role in Shildt's decision to pull his starter.
Mikolas has been the Cardinals best starter and an innings-eating machine, but he was pulled before throwing 80 pitches in a must-win game. Now, the fun thing for fans to do is to examine the move based on whether it worked out or not. That's not the right move here. In order to get to know Shildt, one must evaluate his moves and if they are sound or not.
Here's why I don't like the move, even if I understand the tendency behind it. Gyorko is sick and slumping at the moment, 3-24 in his last ten games. If Martinez was on the bench and you had a chance to break through, I can roll with that decision to punch a hole in the game. Gyorko isn't a good bet — at less than 100 percent — to get the job done. If you are going to pull Mikolas, do it for a hotter hitter.
The rotation badly needs to put in more innings for this team. They are a Walmart dock worker sneaking off the work site before they clock out for the night. Couple that with the bullpen's inefficiency, then the right move was to roll the dice with Mikolas at the plate and see if he can pitch one or two more innings.
Gyorko may get a hit, but the bullpen will more than likely blow it. Take the pitching and hope it gets you there.
These are the big-boy moves that Shildt is going to be faced with in these final 60+ games. I don't doubt the fact that the interim tag can come off before the end of the season, but the veteran baseball mind has to know when to leave a guy in and when to go to the bullpen. If you are going to be good at the job, be better than the last guy was.
The loss was a crippling one for the Cardinals. They had to go into Wrigley and score three wins. Instead, they walked away with two before heading into Cincinnati's hornet nest this week. It wasn't as embarrassing as the 2003 Wrigley debacle, but it was a stinker nonetheless.
Time is running out on playoff hopes for the season and for the front office to develop a trade deadline strategy, but Shildt's work as manager is just getting warmed up.
He has the experience and respect going into the room, but can he truly make a difference and convince the brass that the job should be his? That's the storyline for the rest of the season.
Shildt had some good looks in his first week as manager, but Sunday's decision to pull Mikolas wasn't one of them.
Thanks for reading,
