October 26, 2004
Out of Control
Fine analysis in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of the series so far. The Cardinals pitchers are walking too many batters.
The Cardinals walked 14 and hit three batters while losing twice in Boston. Only three times all season did they walk as many in consecutive games, and never did they walk as many as six in back-to-back starts.
"That was so much against what Dunc preaches and what we've been executing all year long," La Russa said. "I thought we pitched backward. We walked guys with nobody on, then got behind and threw balls down the middle. That's a formula for some crooked numbers."
The Cardinals were 88-33 in the regular season when they walked three or fewer, 17-24 when they free-passed four or more. They weren't the league's most overpowering staff, a fact that allowed them to stay below the radar despite barely falling short of the lowest ERA in either league. But what the Cardinals did was maximize a gilded defense with the game's best ground ball-to-fly ball ratio while refusing to provide easy openings for large innings.
Part of the Cardinals pitching woes is really the Boston offense:
Of the possible explanations for the control fritz - stage fright, slick baseballs, fatigue, enforcement of a tight strike zone or a patient Red Sox lineup - the Cardinals give most of the credit to their selective opponents.
"I don't think anybody's tired except for maybe Matt, who pitched a day short," La Russa said Monday, the day after Morris started on three days' rest for the first time in his career. "I just don't think that we executed when we had to. I also think they did a good job being aggressive in the strike zone. It's a good way to hit. It's the way we hit. It's the kind of at-bats we have.
"We're not some big, free-swinging club. We're as good with two strikes as anybody. I see a lot of them in us and us in them.
but
STILL no explanation why mabry didn't DH or pinch hit.
STILL no explanation why they didn't bunt on schilling
and this team is not usually a first ball fastball hitting team either