2015 St. Louis Cardinals Game Recaps & Scores

2015.07.24 Cardinals vs. Braves Recap: Greek god Grichuk, Cooney lead way to victory

How do we make our victory!?

By lil_scooter93 Jul 25, 2015, 2:04am EDT

pre game

braves lineup:

Cameron Maybin	8
Pedro Ciriaco	4
Nick Markakis	9
Chris Johnson	5
A.J. Pierzynski	2
Jonny Gomes	7
Joey Terdoslavich	4
Andrelton Simmons	6
Manny Banuelos	1

cardinals lineup:

Kolten Wong	4
Matt Carpenter	5
Matt Holliday	7
Jhonny Peralta	6
Jason Heyward	9
Yadier Molina	2
Randal Grichuk	7
Mark Reynolds	3
Tim Cooney	1

game

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.

And thus begins the story of Randal Grichuk.

Grichuk is an incredibly fun player, yet an incredibly frustrating one, as well. His line tonight shows exactly why this is. In his first at bat of the night, with Yadier Molina on first, Grichuk smashed a home run into deep left field, the exit speed of the ball at a brisk 99 mph. He followed that up by singling in the bottom of the fourth, stealing second base, then scoring on a Mark Reynolds single, adeptly avoiding the tag by Pierzynski, even after getting a poor jump. He also worked a walk late in the game, a rarity for him, as his walk rate is 5.9% on the season.

Then, there is the frustrating part of the equation. With the team clutching a two-run lead and Heyward on third and Molina on first with no one out, Grichuk struck out swinging through a David Aardsma slider. The Greek god has an Achilles Heel, and it is decent right handed breaking pitches. This is a main factor in Grichuk's 30.8% strike out rate, but with his defense and power, the highs seem to outweigh the lows at this juncture.

The other key part of the game is Tim Cooney earning his first major league win. Cooney cruised through seven innings tonight, throwing only seventy-four pitches with fifty-three being strikes. He did give up two runs due to five hits and a wild pitch, but limited the damage with zero walks and five strikeouts in was a very solid outing for the young southpaw.

The game got interesting when Kevin Siegrist came in the game in the ninth to close it out in the overworked Trevor Rosenthal's stead. After Pierzynski worked a two out walk to put runners on second and third, Siegrist decided enough was enough and stuck out the vile Jonny Gomes swinging at perfectly located 95 mph heater at the top of the zone, giving the Birdos their fourth win in a row, 4-2.

stray thoughts:

In last Friday's recap, I quoted a stanza from an old Norse poem, so in keeping with the theme this week, the stanza above is from none other than The Illiad. I occasionally have to add some high brow to this frathouse, lest we lose our incredibly appropriate title.
Matt Carpenter doubled and walked tonight. He also struck out, but hopefully this is a sign of him returning to become fire.
Yes.
— Did Grichuk walk? (@DidGrichukWalk) July 25, 2015

This is so wrong. pic.twitter.com/7C697l9uKq
— Scooter Simon (@lil_scooter93) July 25, 2015

I mean, I had to include the frathouse part, as well, right?

post game

LIL SCOOTER'S LIL PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Grichuk had .213 WPA on the night, barely edging out Tim Cooney. Plus he got rid of his soul patch and hit a dinger, so he wins this prestigious award.

The Isringhausen Curve

Saturday at 6:15pm Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez square off in what should be a narrative-filled, yet sill really fun game! See you then!