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Lineups
| ST. LOUIS CARDINALS | CHICAGO CUBS |
|---|---|
| Matt Carpenter - 2B | Chris Coghlan - LF |
| Aledmys Diaz - SS | Jason Heyward - RF |
| Matt Adams - 1B | Kris Bryant - 3B |
| Stephen Piscotty - RF | Anthony Rizzo - 1B |
| Jhonny Peralta - 3B | Ben Zobrist - 2B |
| Brandon Moss - LF | Miguel Montero - C |
| Yadier Molina - C | Javier Baez - SS |
| Kolten Wong - CF | Matt Szczur - CF |
| Michael Wacha - RHP | Jake Arrieta - RHP |
Pregame
I was supposed to have the day off dammit! Both from work and from writing the recap... but I'm here! At work! And the game is not being rained out as I had planned! aaaaaaaaaaaa. But that's good, right?
The boss is watching with his camera but I am still writing this. Arrieta is of course one of the best pitchers in all of baseball... well, if you ask a Cubs fan he is a god of course. I'll just leave it at this: he's their ace, no doubt. He has a 3.25 SIERA, and a miniscule ERA again, bested only by the true pitching god "regular season" Clayton Kershaw.
Michael Wacha is the Cardinals 5th starter at this point: 4.29 SIERA, 4.56 ERA. The FIPsters will point out that his FIP is pretty great, so there's that. Maybe not terrible, but still, the 5th starter in my most not-humble opinion.
As I mentioned Monday night, the two offenses are nearly similar results-wise in runs, RBI, etc but the Cubs have a higher OBP and can steal a base or two while the Cardinals have better isolated power, batting average, and slugging numbers.
What Happened
The 2 starting pitchers dealt today. Massive offense suppression going on. In the 5th inning though, the Cardinals were able to get through the armor of Arrieta. Carpenter walked, Diaz singled, Matt Adams walked to load the bases, then Piscotty just put the ball into play and magic happened involving an error and the Cardinals scored 2 runs!
Michael Wacha was on today, great to see! The Mossman or is it Bossman doubled in the 6th, and Yadi put a ball into play, which allowed Moss to score because there was also a wild pitch involved. Also, Miguel Montero got injured. 3-0 Cardinals. Oh! But Matt Carpenter had more to say with his bat, he doubled and knocked in a couple more! 5-0 Cardinals! Oh wait! Aledmys Diaz freakin' homered!! 7-0 Cards!!!
Wacha must've smelled blood in the waters from the first two games because he was at his best today, better than he has been in a long while. 2 hits allowed, only walked 2 batters, .283 WPA on the day.
To be contrary to the good-feels shutout, Wilson Contreras got in on the home run show and hit one out bringing the Cubs to 7-2, only 5 runs down in the 7th inning. Wacha's great day was tarnished but not diminished too much.
The Cardinals held on to win the game and improve to 38-33, digging out of the hole that was caused by losing 5 straight to stupid American League Texas teams, gross. But they swept the Cubs, who cares!
Watch the Cardinals explosive 6th inning
+Pluses+
- Aledmys Diaz and Brandon Moss are badass hitters messing stuff up with their high leverage action
- it is nice to have Peralta back in the lineup, 2 for 5 today
- Michael Wacha! Player of the Game
- 7 runs, 9 hits, and no errors for the Cards!
- Moss 144 wRC+
- Grimm had a very negative WPA
- Heyward 0-4
- Piscotty 0-5 but at least he had an RBI
- Arrieta really wasn't that bad but he was not dominant today
Source: FanGraphs
It must still be June because there's another offday tomorrow. Next game is a late one on Friday night vs the Mariners, enjoy!