2015 St. Louis Cardinals Game Recaps & Scores

2015.08.14 Cardinals vs. Marlins Recap: Jaime Garcia throws an almost-shutout for the Birdos' 74th win

Hotme Hotcia.

By lil_scooter93 Aug 15, 2015, 12:13am EDT

pre game

marlins lineup:

Dee Gordon	4
Martin Prado	5
Derek Dietrick	7
Casey McGehee	3
Cole Gillespie	8
J.T. Realmuto	2
Ichiro Suzuki	9
Adeiny Hechavarria	6
Tom Koehler	1

cardinals lineup:

Matt Carpenter	5
Kolten Wong	4
Jhonny Peralta	6
Jason Heyward	9
Yadier Molina	2
Randal Grichuk	8
Stephen Piscotty	7
Mark Reynolds	3
Jaime Garcia	1

game

Y esta palabra, este papel escrito

por las mil manos de una sola mano,

no queda en ti, no sirve para sueños,

cae a la tierra: allí se continúa.

No importa que la luz o la alabanza

se derramen y salgan de la copa

si fueron un tenaz temblor del vino,

si se tiñó tu boca de amaranto.

No quiere más la sílaba tardía,

lo que trae y retrae el arrecife

de mis recuerdos, la irritada espuma,

no quiere más sino escribir tu nombre.

Y aunque lo calle mi sombrío amor

más tarde lo dirá la primavera.

This was my favorite game of the year.

When Jaime Garcia is at his best, his pitching is beautiful. The Adam Wainwrights, the Clayton Kershaws, the Jose Fernandezes, the Carlos Martinezes of the world all have the ability to overwhelm hitters at the plate; they all have the potential to take complete control of a game. None of these great or exciting pitchers are able to do this as gracefully as Jaime Garcia. His pitches cut, drop, have life, and he can locate them to near-perfection. The man has got style and tonight it was on full display. When Pablo Nerudo wrote sonnets, he was not writing about a lover, he was quite obviously writing about watching Jaime Garcia pitch.

You don't need to be told the story of Jaime Garcia. Tommy John surgery. Rotator cuff surgery. Thoracic outlet surgery. Each one possibly career-ending, all three most certainly so. And yet, here we all are watching Jaime take a Maddux into the ninth inning, coming out of the game after putting two men on one out into the bottom of the ninth. His wonderful night would end after 96 pitches giving up only one unearned run, one walk, six hits, and six strikeouts. Many at the beginning of the season doubted he would pitch at all this season, some thought never again. That just makes games like this all the more wonderful.

Garcia has pitched well all season, though. His biggest hurdle, after health, was his own offense. Tonight this was not the case as the team was able to scrape together three runs for the tough lefty. Matt Carpenter is the offensive player of the game, contributing two RBI in two very different ways. Carp would get things rolling in the bottom of the fifth, placing a perfect bunt single in front of third base to score Mark Reynolds from third with two outs. Reynolds would be in on the scoring again two innings later, singling Randal Grichuk home from third to give the Cardinals a two to nothing lead. Carpenter, in an effort to make damn sure we all knew he was back, hit his eighteenth home run of the season, each home run adding to his now season high total and to the cups of water thrown in his face by El Gallo.

Trevor Rosenthal closed things out in the top of the ninth. After giving up a base hit that allowed a run to score, Rosie settled down to induce a flyout from Realmuto and a popup from Ichiro to earn his thirty-sixth SAVE™ of the season. The Cardinals are now 74-41.

stray thoughts:

Carlos Martinez built a water cup tower again. Michael Wacha tried to knock it over again. El Gallo was very protective of it. Then Adam Wainwright made Carlos flinch and knock over his own tower. Waino laughed and Carlos begrudgingly began to fix it. A few innings later Mark Reynolds threw a ball in and almost hit the tower again. After Jaime Garcia, this water cup tower was my favorite part of the game.
Matt Carpenter needs to keep hittin' dingers because Carlos Martinez throwing water in his face will never get old.

Please, oh, please, never stop doing this, you guys. pic.twitter.com/5yubsXGoyh
— Dan Doelling (@daniel_doelling) August 15, 2015

The reason the run the Marlins scored in the ninth was unearned is because the runner wasn't going to try to score until Jason Heyward bobbled the ball. The funny thing is, the reason the runner didn't try to score was probably because Heyward's presence in the first place. An inferior outfielder probably would have been tested in that situation. But Heyward bobbling the ball allowed the runner to score anyway. In conclusion, errors are weird.
Randal Grichuk tagged up from first on a ball hit to deep right field and was safe.
A reporter asked Jaime how long it has been since he has felt this good. His reply: Never.
He later clarified that he might have felt this good after his Tommy John surgery six years or so ago, but this is the best he has felt in a while.
Jaime Garcia is the best pitcher on the Cardinals. People forget that.
Here is the translation for the Neruda poem above for the curious:

Translation: pic.twitter.com/VJVLyG8OcO
— Scooter Simon (@lil_scooter93) August 15, 2015

post game

LIL SCOOTER'S LIL PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Jaime Garcia racked up .358 WPA, and that is after losing .095 as a hitter. He wins this revered LSLPOTG award this week. Matt Carpenter leads the hitters with .130 WPA for the honorable mention.