Cardinal Bats Have Pop in Top Half of Doubleheader

Lineup:

Carpenter 1B

Fowler CF

Pham LF

Gyorko 3B

Molina C

Wong 2B

J. Martinez RF

Garcia SS

Lynn P

While the MLB draft rolls on behind us, the Cards take on the Brewers and pitcher Brent Suter for the first of a four game set. Suter, with a devastating * squints * 85 mph fastball, comes into the game with a 6.18 xFIP, having only recently returned from AAA. The Cards should of course take full advantage of this, which means that they definitely won’t. EXCEPT THEY DID.

After four scoreless innings, the Cards managed to draw blood in the 5th inning. Jose Martinez started things off with a home run off a 73 mph slider right in the heart of the zone.

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The Cardinals would tack on two more when Matt Carpenter hit a double to drive in Chad Huffman (his first hit of the year, and only his fourth hit of his major league career). Carpenter would then score on a single by Dexter Fowler.

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In the 6th inning, with Wily Peralta coming on in relief, the Cardinals would add on two more runs: first a double by Kolten Wong to score Jedd Gyorko, then a sacrifice fly by Jose Martinez to score Yadier Molina (again, right in the meat of the plate).

Finally, the Cardinals would give us in the 8th inning the one we all crave: 50 CENT ON THE RUN DRINKS. A solo home run by Jose Martinez woul—wait, hold on. /checks Gameday Okay, so a SECOND home run by Jose Martinez would make the score 6-0 and triple his career home run total.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the contributions of the pitching staff. Lance Lynn fought off his twin demons of excessive sweat and a team that jacks a lot of home runs (46.7% more than the Cardinals, to be exact) to end up with a perfectly acceptable line of 5 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 8 K, 0 R. When Lynn came out with less than 100 pitches, the injury warning bells started going off, because when has Matheny ever pulled a starter with no runs against that early? However, it was later clarified that there was no injury issue, though Lynn was disappointed at being pulled and clarified he’s a big boy who can take the heat:

Lynn would be followed by John Brebbia, who would retire the side in order. Tyler Lyons would then come in for long relief, pitching the final three innings of the game, giving up only three hits and no runs or walks.

Can I get some final thoughts on that?

Cards pick up against the Brewers again in about 3 hours.