2015.08.07 Cardinals at Brewers Recap: Grichuk homers in route to Cardinal win number 70

pre game

cardinals lineup:

brewers lineup:

game

The Brewers have recently undergone some significant roster changes. Their slow start to the season, coupled with injuries to the likes of Davis, Carlos Gomes and Lucroy turned a team that spend a majority of last season in first place to a trade deadline seller. Aramis Ramirez, longtime thorn in the Cardinals' sides has been moved to Pittsburgh to continue his pesky ways in the National League Central, Gomez is gone, and even bullpen pieces like Jonathan Broxton have found new homes. The team is in a rough way with its typically high-powered offense with the third worst wRC+ in league at 86 and usually steady pitching staff with the sixth highest team ERA (which admittedly isn't the best stat to use for pitching evaluation, but makes the point well-enough).

The Cardinals, on the other hand, have been surging, recently taking two of three from the Reds, sitting a top the NL Central leaderboard, and among the best in most of the pitching categories which helps makes up for the middling offense. The disparity between the two teams was only further exaggerated tonight with the Cardinals de facto ace going up against the Brewers rookie making his third start of the year.

For the first four innings of the game, the differences were not so noticeable. Lynn had not given up any runs, but looked less than dominant, and Tyler Cravey was holding serve. Thoughts began to creep in about the possibilty of being involved in another long, tight game.

But those thoughts were quickly erased in the top of fifth when all Hell broke loose. Here are the cliffnotes:

Double
Double
Strikeout
Double
Walk
Lineout
Single
Dinger
Lineout

Two-out RBI are just back-breakers, but perhaps none more so than Grichuk's two out bomb to right field. To explain the strange nature that is The Chuk, here is the location of the fat cuveball from the first inning that resulted in a harmless popup:

And here is the location of the 91 mph fastball he homered on:

I would never throw that man a fastball, but I am not pitcher, so that is pretty easy for me to avoid doing!

Regardless, that three-run homer from Grichuk put the Cardinals up six to zero. Lance Lynn  was able to hold on for a total of six innings, walking four and striking out seven on six hits and Carlos Villanueva mopped up the game pitching three strong innings of perfect baseball with three strikeouts, securing the Cardinals' seventieth win of the season.

stray thoughts:

• Back-to-back-to-back doubles are just as fun as they sound.
• Matt Carpenter hit one of them, of course!
• I, for one, welcome our new soul-patched Overlord.
• Cheap drinks at On the Run Saturday!

post game

LIL SCOOTER'S LIL PLAYER OF THE GAME:

Lance Lynn wins the WPA battle, leading all players with .163, but I feel like Carlos Villanueva, who pitched a solid three innings of relief, Jason Heyward, who went two-for-four with an RBI and a run scored, or Matt Carpenter, who also went two-for-four and had a run scored, are somewhat more deserving. Oh well. Them's the breaks!

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=wins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-08-07&team=Brewers&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2015-08-07&team=Brewers&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>

On Saturday at 6:10pm watch Jaime Garcia square off against Wily Peralta.