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After a series of indignities at the hands of their rival going back almost a year, the Cardinals finally said enough is enough last night and fought back by...getting a hit. It was Jeremy Hazelbaker and he homered off of Kyle Hendricks on an 0-2 count to break up Hendricks’s no-no to start off the 9th. It was the only hit they would get all night. Somewhere in the middle of all this hoopla, the anger from watching his pitcher dominate the evening finally erupted inside Joe Maddon and he found himself ejected from the game. And the Cardinals still lost. But it was their best loss of the season.
The Cubs can take the ‘15 NLDS. They can take Jason Hewyard. They can take a 17-game division lead in the NL Central. But asking for a no-hitter on Busch soil is just too much, and the Cardinals finally swung back. Viva el Birdos.
(Jon Lester pitching a no-hitter to clinch the division for the Cubs on Wednesday is going to be really awful, isn’t it?)
Seung Hwan Oh
Mike Matheny mysteriously didn’t use his best reliever, Seung Hwan Oh, in a tight game on Sunday and it ended up costing the team. I took him to task for it. And now let’s check back in to see how that ended up working out:
Seung Hwan Oh was unavailable this weekend due to groin soreness; #stlcards unsure about his availability tonight.
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) September 12, 2016
Matheny said Oh was unavailable for the last couple nights. Has been dealing with some groin soreness. Status for tonight TBD. #STLCards
— Brenden Schaeffer (@bschaeffer12) September 12, 2016
Probably another game before Oh is reaady...dealing w groin issue #Cardinals #STLCards
— Brian Stull (@StullySTL) September 12, 2016
Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh has been dealing with a sore groin, was unavailable this weekend, iffy for... https://t.co/m26qVKM2hn
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) September 12, 2016
Yes. The reason why Matheny inexplicably didn’t use Oh on Sunday was because Oh wasn’t available to pitch. I went on the info we all had at the time but it still wasn’t enough info. That’s on me.
Adam Wainwright
Joe Schwarz wrote about Adam Wainwright and recent spin rate trends on his curve ball.
Farm report
Josey Curtis has the farm report. Read about how the Springfield Cardinals and State College Spikes did in their respective postseasons here.
Uniform battle
There aren’t a ton of high points for Cardinals’ baseball in the 1970s - at least compared to most decades for this historically rich franchise - but look at these two brilliant uniforms from 1971 and 1976, respectively. There are no losers here.
Cardinals vs. Cubs
Here’s the preview and the game thread from the aforementioned Cubs series. The Cardinals won the first battle with their hit and 4-0 loss last night but there’s still a lot of baseball to be played.
Have a great Tuesday, everyone.