St. Louis Cardinals rapidly lose the Arthur Rhodes World Series Bonus

Wait, that proves your point.

I do think it’s bad for the players to skip out like that, but it’s not the crime against humanity that requires a coordinated hit job by the media.

I think they should have been hammering Andrus inside with hard stuff

The type of hits he allowed didn’t suggest this.

With the “Mets marathon game”-type lineup that was left non-strategically peppered with defensive slap-single replacements, the Cardinals weren’t likely going to score any more runs.

It therefore fell on them to preserve the 1-0 lead at all costs, whether that meant walking the bases loaded and playing for double plays, or striking out the side. Hamilton’s strikeout percentage against lefties aside, Motte at least had a chance (albeit slim) of striking out the next three batters. If Motte gives up 2 runs or 10, it wouldn’t matter, the Cards weren’t coming back with the batters coming up in the 9th.

Larussa went for the micromanagement solution, which was extremely unlikely to work (yet would win even more “genius” praise from the media) when what was needed was to bullishly charge forward with Motte for better or for worse.

the only, and I mean the only, criticism I have of the Motte situation last night is that he was pulled.

Kinsler hits a lucky-as-balls bloop that’s an out if it drops a foot or two more shallow, then steals second against a throw that would have nailed him if it were a just a fraction quicker (not criticizing Yadi, that was an amazing throw and he’s probably the only catcher who can deter future steal attempts based on his throws that don’t result in an out), then a soft liner, and a missed cut-off that featured a poor throw and a poor attempt at a catch.

You see things as they are. You hit the nail on the head. I tried to give you a rec but damed if it don’t look like a flag. Don;t know how that happened, I know I hit rec.

observed, objective reality, was that our big bats didn’t show up. And that’s mostly why we lost.

less so with berkman, because his wouldn’t have another PA unless the game with 10 innings. But jeesh. Stop taking out Freese

Another AB from a better hitter would be huge in a one run game like this.

infuriating.

Sac bunting was the right call. You stay out of the double play with a guy who hits a TON of ground balls (his two hits were on ground balls that found a hole in the infield and a hole in Michael Young’s glove).

Punto, however, should know enough to BUNT STRIKES. Especially after watching the previous hitter walk on 5 pitches and knowing that Feliz has a problem with command and hasn’t thrown in 10+ days. The PA is all on Punto — the sac bunt decision was sound.

I don’t know if I’d even bunt with this team. It is a piss poor
bunting team, especially in key situations and against smart pitchers.

A favorite of La Russa all year has been on a lead off double, to bunt
the runner over to third and play for a sac fly. I’m not a big fan of
that either especially with a left hander batter. A ball hit to the right
will do it with alert baserunning and you have two shots rather than one.

A right handed batter and a good bunter I can see because a base hit to
left often dosen.t get it done.

But it’s on Punto not to try to bunt pitches that are not even close to being strikes.

He could have possibly walked there regardless of whether he was given the sign to bunt.

TWO World Series games in which the manager took an important AB away from the NLCS MVP.

He put in Descalso Wednesday night after we went up 3-2 and Freese’s spot was guaranteed to come again. (DD bunted Berkman over w/ 0 outs).

that Pierzynski and Eric Karros were summarily fired in the first commercial break after criticizing La Russa on national television. It’s like they didn’t get the memo about “the genius” or something.

That’s true of any loss, even though it’s especially true of this game.

In aggregate the offense performed poorly, but it’s not really interesting (to me at least) to look at that because it’ll regress. It can be more interesting to look particular moments where the team did not optimize it’s chances with tactical errors or sloppy play. Sometimes it does just come down to not scoring enough runs, or just getting beat, but there was more to this one.

it’s got to be somewhat consistent at all times. for example:

1. when we win, it should almost always be the players. like game 1. tony made some common sense moves that anyone with half a baseball brain should have made, but got the credit for being a genius simply because we won the game. yuck.

2. when we lose, it’s also got to go both ways. larussa made some bad moves last night and should at least be blamed for part of the loss. pujols, jay, punto also share blame for not performing well in their respective situations (and pujols and jay for not hitting well). but not every loss is larussa. this board got blame-larussa happy at the end of the year. example: that ugly loss to the mets at the end of the year. the players should have been held to a higher level there.

3. tony should get credit in rare times when he manages a game perfectly. game 2 of the LDS for example. a great managed game. obviously the players performed, but larussa also handled the bullpen in the correct, creative way and took carp out when needed. larussa should also get credit as a whole for the way he managed the LCS after the game 1 debacle.

They think they’re cool by sounding like assholes. idgi

it’s not really a series until game 4 or 5.

For all the incredibly illogical moves TLR has made in the past, that just wasn’t the problem last night. Cards got beat. There are more games to play.

Are you our designated optimist for the day?

I just want to be clear on what the roles are. . .