What a bummer of an Opening Day. For all the beautiful pomp and circumstance that fills Opening Day in St. Louis, the opener seemed like anything but a fresh start. Instead it was more of the sloppy brain-dead baseball that we became accustomed to in the second half of last year.
The Good:
- Chris Carpenter looked sharp. Very sharp. I was a little surprised that he threw 98 pitches on Opening Day, but seven innings with 2 runs and 2 walks while striking out four was a great start to his season. I think the second run should have been unearned. How could Schumaker not have been charged with an error when he dropped the ball at second trying to tag Ludwick? He had him out by ten feet if he just holds onto the ball.
- Matt Holliday was ripping the ball all day, and it was encouraging to see a couple of hits from both Colby and Lance Berkman to start the season.
- Trever Miller came into a tight spot and retired the lefty hitter he needed to. It will be key for him to come in all year and get lefty hitters out.
The Bad:
- Schumaker's dropped ball at second base, leading to the Padre's second run. Like I said, Yadi threw Ludwick out by a good ten feet, and Schumaker can't hold that ball??
- Holliday getting picked off at second. He may have been ripping the ball all day, but come on..... he can NOT get picked off at second in that spot. First and second, no outs......another rally killer
- Jon Jay and Ryan Theriot being unable to complete a routine relay throw from outfield to infield, leading to Chase Headly scampering home with the winning run while Theriot threw high and away to the plate.
The above three represent the kind of sloppy baseball we saw in August and September last year. The Cards gave this game away as much as the Padres won it. Now comes news that Holliday is undergoing appendectomy surgery today. Not sure how long he will be out, but it will likely be an opportunity to get Jay and Craig some ABs.
As far as the infield defense is concerned, yesterday was not a good start for Skip and Theriot. I've said on his site several times that the middle infield defense is my biggest concern heading into the season. While I don't want to panic over one game, I wouldn't mind at all seeing more of Tyler Greene and Daniel Descalso in the middle infield as the season progresses.
Hopefully Saturday and Jake Westbrook will bring better results.
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Comments (8) Add A Comment
That's about right, Ten........and the bad just keep on coming! Looks like we're without Holliday for a few weeks while he gets healed from his emergency appendectomy today! *sigh*
stargatebabe
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Doesn't look any better today. Westbrook just got torched.
SL0001
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I haven't been able to "see" any of the games. How has the defense looked the last 2 games?
stargatebabe
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Other than Skip and Theriot's first game mishaps.......not terrible. I"ve seen Freese make a couple of nice plays, Berkman looked a little out of place tracking a fly ball once, I noticed.
ElevenRingsSTL
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That was ugly. Westbrook is going to have to be MUCH better than that.
ElevenRingsSTL
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Lohse seemed to do pretty well yesterday through the fifth then lost it in the sixth inning. I hope that it's just a conditioning thing after comming off his injury and he will be able to go 7 or 8 inninings like he did the first five yesterday.
That being said a little run support might help the rotation out, don't you think?
SL0001
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I would agree, but I think the run support will come. Albert will start hitting like Albert at some point, and Holliday will return. I like the way Colby and Berkman are swinging the bats, so the runs will come.
Lohse did look pretty sharp, he just had the two big hits to Walker and McCutcheon that killed him. Other than Westbrook, I thought all the starters were pretty good the first time around the rotation. There is a lot of angst about the rotation with Adam out, but I really dont' think that is going to be our downfall. I believe this group of five could turn out to be very, very solid.
ElevenRingsSTL
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I agree with you on the rotation Ten. I was working late last night so I only had the play by play going but McClellen seems to be looking pretty strong. I think that he and Lohse will get stronger as the season goes on and will make it deeper into the games. Carp and Garceia look good and hopfully Westbrook just had a bad opening night.
I know that soon Albert will be Albert again, but I really hope for a speedy recveru for Holliday.
Colby and Berkman are hitting well and Craig seems to be doing a good job of filling in for now.
I'm still waiting for the pluss side we were supposed to get from the switch at short stop, so far it looks like we traded a steller glove for the same bat that was already there.
Skip looked pretty good at the plate the first few games and I hope that he plays out the year like that and doesn't regress back to 2010.
It looked like Skip and theriot had a good DP last night, but the middle defence is still my biggest concern. Anyway, just getting my two cents in. The season is just getting started and I'm sure that the team will improve. GO CARDS!!
SL0001
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