POLITASPORTS

Yesterday I asked for a heart pumping, blood pressure raising, nerve racking affair, and boy did the Cardinals and Dodgers deliver! Scherzer came in having just thrown his worst two starts of the season, it seemed to carry over. Too bad for the Cardinals Roberts did not leave him in long. Mad Max gave up the mound in the 4th inning having allowed one ER, 3 hits, and 3 walks. He also threw several wild pitches, one leading to the only Cardinals’ run of the game. He left with runners on 2nd and 3rd one out, and yet the Cards could not get even one man across. The Cardinals only run was a gift from Scherzer. This should be the take-away from last night’s game for Cardinals fans. Their bats were dead. Yes, Dwight Schildt made some suspect decisions, leaving Wainwright in to bat in the 5th with a runner on, only to yank him after facing two batters in the bottom? Seems like a wasted opportunity at the plate. And of course bringing in Reyes. Cardinals nation seems most upset about Reyes, but where is the indignation for Arenado who played more like AreNADA. He did nothing, all game, absolutely NOTHING. If this is your star player, no wonder it took a 17 game win streak to sneak into the playoffs.

The Cardinals could not generate one timely hit. They stranded runners in every inning and went 0-11 with RISP. O’Neill and Arenado should be taking the brunt of the heat from the fans after their lackluster performances last night at the plate. At least O’Neill managed to get on base and even steal second, getting himself into scoring position. Arenado didn’t sniff at touching a bag all night. He chased poor pitches and watched hanging off-speed pitches pass through the zone. It was a disaster of a night for the former MVP candidate. September may have saved his stats, but October confirmed his ordinariness. Hopefully he can salvage his status as an elite player in his sophomore go-round in St. Louis. Yadier Molina is the only other Cardinals’ starter that never touched 1st base. Yadi is coming back for his final season, lets hope he is not the everyday option behind the plate. Sentimentality is nice, when looking through old photo albums (these are “books” that contain developed pictures taken with film. Go to grandma’s house, she’ll have a bin full) but not when watching your team play ball. The Miami Heat continue to extend Udonis Haslem, a Heat lifer that was signed as an un-drafted free agent in 2003 for his hometown team. He has been a Heat ever since, signing consecutive one year contracts since 2017. But he has become a “player-coach” and mentor, not relied upon to get any significant minutes. Last year he appeared in only one game. If this is the reasoning behind bringing Yadi back, to mentor the next generation at catcher? To make a few appearances in the dog days of summer, maybe, on occasion, catching for Wainwright? Fine, he is a Cardinal, give him a nice farewell, but his days of being a starting major leaguer are behind him.

Wainwright pitched a great game. In 5-1/3 innings he made one mistake, that Turner sent over the wall into the Dodger bullpen. Had the Birds’ bats offered even the slightest support, this outcome would’ve been much different. Instead they stranded so many people you’d think they worked for the Biden withdrawal team. Waino outdueled Scherzer, who looked discomforted all night. Scherzer received more help from the Birds’ bats than did Wainwright throughout the night. O’Neill and Arenado made some incredulous swings at pitches way out of the zone. Scherzer wasn’t throwing darts, he was tossing cornhole and they still couldn’t connect. Question calling on Reyes in that critical moment, that is a legitimate concern, but don’t give the heart of the order a pass. Reyes started the season on a tear as a shutdown closer, but he got hit with the yips and never recovered. Going back to him in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, in the “series” deciding game? Perplexing is the nicest description. McFarland was throwing well, besides the walk to Bellinger he got two fairly routine fly outs and appeared confident enough to get out of the inning. No rational reason to make a change, especially with a capricious closer.

Some will say “congratulate the Birds, they fought hard” and though that is true, with achievement comes expectation. Though this team was left for dead only one month ago, they awakened to go on a run not seen in over 100 years in baseball. Having done that, going out with a whimper after one game was anticlimactic. This was never going to be an easy game for the Cardinals, but they could’ve made it much more difficult for the Dodgers. As the game wore on, with every Cardinals runner left deserted on their white square island, one began to sense that the home team was going to drive a stake through the hearts of the reanimated Red Birds. That spike was a 406ft walk-off bomb by Chris Taylor. The off-season has begun, lets hope the front office is able to make the modifications needed to go from W1LDCARD participants to World Series partakers in 2022.