The Cardinals brought an end to a brief slide over the weekend with a series win over the Cincinnati Reds. Despite still not getting the offense going on all cylinders, the strong starting pitching staff continued to hold the fort down in the mean time. After dropping the first game of the series 2-1, club surrendered only three runs over the next two contests to pull itself out of a three-game losing streak, and back atop the National League Central.

Yet, as the club moves back onto the road for a four-game series in Milwaukee beginning this evening, they are grinding out wins in an efficient style, but are still giving the vibe that there is more to come. They finished the home stand at an even 3-3, and take back to the road where they have a NL-high nine wins on the year. Yet before that gets underway, let’s look at three deciding factors in the series that just was against their toughest recent rival:

1. Lynn-sanity: Lance Lynn would be a sprinter’s favorite pitcher. For the second year in a row, he’s opened up a season 5-0. And while he doesn’t have last season’s insane 1.60 ERA that he carried through April, he’s on currently enjoying the best stretch of his career to date. Over his last three starts, he is sporting a 0.85 ERA, surrendering only two earned runs over his last three starts, which have each gone seven innings. Over this same stretch, he’s surrendered only eight hits and eight walks, and has not surrendered a home run since April 15.

However, what’s most telling for Lynn is how much better he’s controlled the ballgame via his work rate. In his first three starts, he crossed over at least 94 pitches in each start, despite not getting out of the fifth inning. Now he is staying at a slightly higher pitch count (averaging 107 per outing), but he’s going two innings longer, and working at a much more efficient rate. Efficiency is what escaped Lynn throughout the late stages of 2012, and half of the first month of the year. While the results of his last few outings aren’t sustainable throughout a full year, the more economical approach is, and that is the next step in Lynn’s evolution as a starting pitcher.

2. Freese Frame: 2012 has not been David Freese’s year so far. After starting the spring swinging a very good bat, he was sidelined by a back injury that kept him out of action through the beginning of the regular season. So far, it’s like he hasn’t shown up yet either. He is hitting only .163 on the year through 49 at-bats, with only two extra base hits. Freese has been held out of the lineup the last two games, and could continue to be out of the everyday lineup while he works out his slump. Whether it’s the fact he’s never quite mended from the injury, or is just plain having the worst breaks possible, him breaking out of his issues is key to the offense balancing out.

3. Stressing the Division: The Cardinals are faring well inside the NL Central thus far. They are tied with Pittsburgh for the most wins inside the division with eight, but they have had particular success with the Reds so far. They have outscored the Reds 26-19 on the season, while working to a 4-2 record early on. Yet looking inside of that breakout doesn’t tell the true story of the Cardinals dominance over the Reds so far. The Reds scored all but six of those runs in one game, and otherwise the Cardinals have dominated the series thus far. The Cardinals have only lost one series at home on the season, and have gone 32-3 vs. the Reds in their last 35 series in St. Louis.

The St. Louis Cardinals opened the season in a competitive fashion in Arizona, splitting the first two games of the series, before dropping the final contest in a long, 16 inning affair last night. It was fight throughout with a Diamondbacks club that shows a lot of potential, but still is a frustrating effort, because of some of the details that led to the verdict. And while the season is young, there are a few things to pull away from the series, inside of the box score. Here is a wrap on the series with three details from inside the series to walk away with:

1. Trevor Rosenthal learns a lesson: One day it’s more than enough, the next day it isn’t. The temptation is real to go after guys with pure fastballs at any point when your stuff is as good as Rosenthal’s. However one of the lessons that will be learned this year is that it’s not about how hard he throws it, rather it’s where he throws it that hard. A day after blazing through a 13-pitch, two strikeout performance in Tuesday’s win, the next day wasn’t as kind.

In the course of surrendering three consecutive hits, which pulled the Diamondbacks even in the bottom of the eighth inning, Rosenthal didn’t struggle with his velocity (as he kept every pitch at 96 mph and up), but he kept the decisive deliveries high, and two veteran bats in Martin Prado and Aaron Hill made him pay. Yet he showed that he can learn on the run, as he began to change locations with regularity the next two at-bats to Miguel Montero and Paul Goldschmidt and worked his way out the inning. While his potential and heat check digits will be exciting, the road for Rosenthal meeting his potential will be lined with him learning to trust the method as much as his power.

2. Jaime stepped up. After letting the first game get away from Adam Wainwright and Fernando Salas, the Cardinals dropped their first contest of the year. Yet the troubled lefty delivered a solid effort in the subsequent game to support the staff ace, and help the club pull out a solid victory. Jaime Garcia threw a very solid 5.2 innings, surrendering one run and two hits in route to his and the club’s first win of the year. It’s early of course, but when combined with his solid spring effort (2.48 ERA in 29 innings over six starts) along with the encouraging road start, a promising rebound campaign could be in store.

3. Allen Craig is a gamer. It was an interesting series for Craig. In what could become a familiar scenario for him throughout the year, he started the first two games of the series at first base, and then shifted to right in game three to spell Carlos Beltran. But what truly showed what Craig is all about was the bottom-top 2^nd/3^rd inning stretch he had. After taking a rough slide into foul territory in pursuit of a foul ball, and in the process bloodying his knee through his pants, he noticeably limped through the outfield. Yet for the final out of the inning, with his banged up knee, was forced to break back and make a tough over the head catch to save a run and end the inning.

Back at the plate shortly afterwards, he ripped an RBI double down the left field line to bring in Jon Jay and put the team ahead. He scored on the next pitch as the second run brought in via a Yadier Molina base hit. That combination of flexibility and grit goes a long way in proving his mettle on the field, as well as inspiring the club.

Where to Next: San Francisco for weekend series vs. Giants (2-1), who are on a quite notable 3-game winning streak against the Cards from last season’s National League Championship Series.

“That was the closest 9-4 ballgame I’ve ever seen,” said USA Baseball CEO Paul Seiler, just minutes after I ran into him behind the USA dugout, following the United States’ critical, do-or-die victory over Canada this afternoon at Chase Field in Phoenix.

He couldn’t have summed it up much better. It absolutely was a nailbiter. It always is, when Team USA and Canada meet on the diamond (as described in my book Miracle on Grass, when Canada shocked Team USA in the very first game of the 1999 Pan Ams, 7-6 in extra innings).

Only when Team USA’s Eric Hosmer ripped a bases-clearing double in the top of the ninth, with Team USA ahead 6-4, did anyone in the USA dugout feel comfortable.

The Americans were literally six outs from being ELIMINATED from this World Baseball Classic. They trailed Canada 3-2, going to the 8th inning. Yes, it would have been a natural disaster had Team USA lost this game. MLB was counting on them for higher TV ratings and higher ticket revenues for the next round in Miami, and possibly the finals in San Francisco.

When Canada’s Michael Saunders launched a 2-run homer in the second inning of USA starter Derek Holland, we were already off to a bad start. But the Americans battled back and tied it 2-2 in the 4th. Canada went back ahead 3-2 on a base hit by Adam Loewen, and it stayed that way until the critical 8th. That’s when Orioles star Adam Jones came up with the biggest hit of the event so far for Team USA, drilling a one out, two-run double into the left-center gap off Canadian reliever Jim Henderson. It gave Team USA a 4-3 lead.

But, just as they always do (see my column here that I wrote prior to the WBC starting): Canada fought right back, and had cut the lead to 5-4, with the bases loaded and two outs. Joe Torre went to relief pitcher Steve Cishek, to face Canadian pinch hitter Tim Smith. In what was the game’s most critical moment, Cishek got Smith to ground out to second base, securing the 5-4 lead.
The Americans then blew it open with four runs in the 9th, and all of the Canadian fans began to gather their things and walk out up the aisles and out of the stadium, as soon as Hosmer’s double cleared the bases. Craig Kimbrel came on to secure the final three outs, for Team USA.

It was a rousing way for Pool D to come to an end, and this will be remembered for the raucous fight between the two teams that failed to advance: Mexico & Canada, along with the surprising Italian team, that beat both of those squads to join the Americans in Miami.

Incredibly, Team USA came ever so close to being knocked out of the event and finishing in last place in the pool. Instead, they won Pool D outright and will meet the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Italy later this week in Florida.

I’m excited that they have advanced, but – if they wait as long as they did here in Phoenix to put their game faces on – I’m afraid they might not make it to the finals in San Francisco. The DR is my favorite to win the next round, and it will be up to the other three teams to decide which one grabs the second flight to California. Should be fun to watch. I will blog again during the second round. That’s all from here in Phoenix.

Here are some photos from today’s action between Team USA & Canada (use the navigation arrows to view all seven images):

Anthems

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National Anthems before the game.
Follow David on Twitter @miracleongrass.

David Fanucchi is the author of “Miracle on Grass” – How Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda led Team USA to a shocking upset over Cuba, capturing the only Olympic gold medal in USA Baseball history. He was the official Team USA Press Officer for both the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team and the 2006 USA World Baseball Classic Team. More information about Fanucchi and Miracle on Grass can be found on his website at www.davidfanucchi.com. Follow him on Twitter @miracleongrass.  

It was a short playoff run for the Class High A Wilmington Blue Rocks, who lost two of three games in the Carolina League Division Championship Series last week against the Lynchburgh Hillcats, the Braves High A affiliate.

The Blue Rocks hosted the first game where the Hillcats had a 15 hit attack, 14 of them being singles. The Hillcats scored one run in the first, one in the fifth, two in the eighth and four in the ninth to win the game 8-0. Hillcats starter Gus Schlosser got the win and Blue Rocks starter Brooks Pounders took the loss.

The next two games were in Lynchburg and the Blue Rocks got their revenge with a postseason record 18 hits on their way to a 12-3 game two victory, tying up the series. Rocks starter Jason Adam pitched seven innings, getting the win while Hillcats starter Dimasther Delgato took the loss.

The winner of game three would advance to the Mills Cup Championship Series. The two previous games were blowouts, but game three was tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth inning. Hillcats catcher Braeden Schlehuber smacked a homer on a 3-2 count, giving the Hillcats a 2-1 lead. The Blue Rocks tried to answer in the ninth, but they failed to score and their season came to an end. The Lynchburg Hillcats advanced to the Mills Cup to face the Winston-Salem Dash, the Chicago White Sox High A affiliate.

Meanwhile, the AAA Omaha Storm Chasers played a five game American Conference Championship Series last week against the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate. The winner of the series would play for the Pacific Coast League Championship.

The Chasers took the opening game at Omaha 8-4, jumping to an early 5-0 lead by the third inning. The Isotopes scored a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and a run in the top of the eighth to make the score 5-4. But the Chasers added three runs in the bottom of the eighth to get the win.

The second game in Omaha stared out well for the Chasers, who had a 3-0 lead by the fourth inning. But the Isotopes scored two runs in the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth to get a 5-3 victory and tie up the series.

The next three games would be at Albuquerque, and game three started with a two hour and three minute rain delay and two scoreless innings before the Chasers took a 3-0 lead in the third. They tacked on two more runs in the seventh before the Isotopes scored one run in the seventh and three in the eighth. The Chasers answered with single tallies in the eighth and ninth to win 7-4, one win away from taking the series.

Game four was going the Chasers way, who were ahead 10-3 after the top of the seventh inning and nine outs from the PCL Championship Series. But Royals luck waylaid the Chasers and the Isotopes scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 12-10 victory. It was a demoralizing loss for the Chasers, who would have to win game five or go home.

For game five, the Chasers opened a can of whoop and pounded out 16 runs and 19 hits, defeating the Isotopes 16-7. The Chasers had 10 runs on the board before the Isotopes scored a run in the bottom of the fourth. The Isotopes scored six more runs, but so did the Chasers, who won the American Conference Championship Series three games to two. The Chasers would play the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate, for the Pacific Coast League Championship.

The first game of the PCL Championship Series opened Tuesday night in Reno, NV. The Aces opened their own can of whoop, smacking the Chasers around in a 13-1 victory. Chasers starter Jake Odorizzi took the loss, lasting 3.2 innings and giving up nine runs, eight of them earned and four of them home runs. Aces starter Trevor Bauer got the victory, pitching 6.2 innings, giving up an earned run and three hits.

The Chasers will try to bounce back in game two, which began Wednesday night at 9:05 Central time. There’s an off day Thursday, then the series continues in Omaha for game three and if needed, game four and five.

It seems to be one of the great mysteries in Major League Baseball this year: The St. Louis Cardinals have one of the top offenses both on paper and statistically, yet they go through stretches where they can hardly score at all. And though there really is no good time for a team in the middle of a playoff race to slump, the Cards have become really good at maximizing their bad timing skills relative to what the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds are doing.

After sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers last weekend and winning the first game against the San Francisco Giants Monday, the Cards have dropped three of four and only scored a total of six runs in the process. This stumble came as the Reds were in the throes of a five game losing streak, and as the division leaders got back into the win column Friday night, the Cards lost another game by giving up runs late. Playing the woulda-coulda-shoulda game helps no one, but the Cardinals had their best chance to make up some ground in the NL Central this week. Instead, they are six games back with Cliff Lee and Vance Worley still to face this weekend.

What is it the Cards need to avoid these stretches of three, four, five games where they can’t average two runs per game? Part of it—at least this week—is the opposing pitching. Facing guys like Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, and Roy Halladay is never going to be easy. But then again, Monday night the Cards hung five earned runs in 5.2 innings on Matt “Mr. Perfecto” Cain.

The Cardinal offense looks much different with Lance Berkman out and Rafael Furcal ailing. True, they have other players that can fill those vacated roles if and when needed. But as those pieces slide into place, the bench thins considerably. And a presence bat from the right side is sorely needed in on the Cards’ roster.

Another thing they can do is play smarter ball. That joke of a play Friday night where Carlos Beltran got picked off to end the game cannot happen. The “fake to third, look to first” play is so lame MLB is outlawing it for next year. Yet Beltran—representing the tying run at first base, with David Freese at the plate—falls for it to end the game. This isn’t Wiffle Ball, ‘Los.

And for that matter, perhaps Mike Matheny needs to be thinking a little more in the dugout as well. Why not a pinch runner for Beltran in that situation? Certainly the Cards had faster guys on their bench, and Beltran’s run was the most important one.

Regardless, the dearth of runs this week is telling. Yes, the Cardinals are dealing with injuries as they have all season. And yes, they are still in the thick of the playoff race. But do they have enough to make it to game 163 and beyond as currently constructed? Right now they’re 2.5 games out of a playoff spot, which seems so close. But looking at the offense this week, they seem so far away.

The questions are valid and the answers aren’t coming easily. Good hitters don’t just fall from the sky and appear on the roster; deals have to be made and they are even more difficult to pull off in August. The Cards have to find ways to score more runs and avoid beating themselves. There is plenty of time to secure a playoff spot. But do the Cards have what it takes?

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

The hits, or lack of hits, kept coming last week as the St. Louis Cardinals continued a rough stretch that included becoming the victim of the New York Mets first no-hitter in franchise history.

Aside from being no-hit by Mets pitcher Johan Santana Friday night, the Cardinals also sent Skip Schumaker back to the disabled list to join an all-star caliber cast that includes Lance Berkman, Matt Carpenter and Jon Jay on the offensive side, and Chris Carpenter and Kyle McClellan representing the pitching staff.

On the bright side, perhaps the only bright side of the week that saw the Cardinals go 2-6 in their last eight games, Allen Craig rejoined the team Friday. Although he obviously didn’t get a hit in his first game back, the Cardinals sorely need his presence in the lineup.

It’s not surprising that the Cardinals have fallen back to the back amid all of the injuries. Sure, every team has injuries throughout the long season, but no team is going to play first-place caliber baseball with six important players hurt.

However, the Cardinals are still capable of playing competitive baseball, and better baseball than they have of late.

The bullpen has been simply atrocious for much of the last three weeks. The Cardinals had the fourth-worst ERA in May at 4.72, and the bullpen’s ERA was even higher. The disturbing part of the bullpen’s performance is injuries cannot be used as an excuse. Aside from McClellan, the bullpen pitchers have remained healthy, they’ve just pitched terribly.

Now it’s to the point where guys such as Sam Freeman, Maikel Cleto and Brandon Dickson are trying to get important outs for the big league club, when in reality they should still be playing for the AAA Memphis Redbirds.

Even with the injuries to position players, the Cardinals put up four runs or more in every game last week before running into a buzz saw this weekend against the Mets. A team that consistently scores four runs or more should win a lot of ballgames, but the pitching staff has found numerous ways to give up more than four runs.

The struggles of middle relief pitchers have been particularly back-breaking. The Cardinals have shown all season they can fight back during a game even if they fall behind early.

For example, the Atlanta Braves scored three runs in the first inning and two more runs in the third inning Wednesday to take a 5-0 lead. The Cardinals fought back and tied the game at five in the six, but Marc Rzepczynski immediately gave up three runs to take away any momentum the Cardinals had built.

So, what’s the fix? Good question. The offense will be fine. A lineup that includes Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday and David Freese will produce enough runs to remain competitive. However, as we said before the season started, the pitching staff is going to have to be strong for the Cardinals to compete for the division crown.

That happened at the beginning of the season. The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead almost every night, and the pitchers held the opponents in check the rest of the night. The game seemed easy back in April.

That certainly changed in May. Relief pitchers such as Rzepczynski, Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs will have to regain their 2011 and early 2012 form if the Cardinals are going to keep up with the Cincinnati Reds throughout the summer. The Memphis Redbirds pitching staff isn’t equipped to compete in the major leagues, and it is showing right now.

Hopefully the Cardinals beat up on the Houston Astros this coming week, but after that series the team faces a stretch against AL Central powerhouses such as the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.

Hang on tight, folks, the rough ride of the past week could continue for a while.

While throwing to rookie Salvador Perez in the second half of 2011, Kansas City Royals pitcher Luke Hochevar had his most consistent run of success in his career.

Luke Hochevar has been an enigma for most of his career. Early on, he was mostly bad with a few starts here and there that showed the ability that the Royals saw when they drafted him 1st overall in the 2006 amateur draft. Over the years, the good starts became a little more frequent, with a few outstanding performances thrown in. But when he was bad, he was really bad. It wasn’t until the second half of last season that Hochevar began to show some consistency. He still had some great starts, but his off-days were average instead of horrendous. They say that a pitcher should be judged on how he performs on his worst day, rather than on his best day. Hochevar’s worst days became much better in the 2nd half of 2011, which gave Royals fans much hope for him to continue this trend in 2012. Unfortunately, it was not to be. On April 13 for the Royals home opener, Hochevar gave up 7 runs in the top of the 1st inning which would be the beginning of one of the most horrific stretches of pitching for a starting pitcher in recent American history. His ERA currently sits at 7.02 for the season while pitching to Humberto Quintero in all 8 of his starts this season.

Salvador Perez was called up by the Royals last August and started his first game at Catcher on August 10. He caught each of Hochevar’s last 7 starts of the season. During this stretch he threw 45 2/3 innings and gave up 22 runs for a 4.34 ERA. In the first start he gave up 5 runs, so if you take out that one, assuming he was getting acclimated to having a new catcher behind the plate, the ERA is lowered to 4.17. Now, while an ERA over 4.00 will not win Hochevar any Cy Young awards, Royals fans would undoubtedly be pleased if he could provide numbers like this on a consistent basis.

While it may be a stretch to try and make this correlation, it cannot be discounted that if Hochevar can experience some success once Salvador Perez returns, that he will be the one common denominator. It cannot be understated how important consistency at the Catcher position is to the success of a pitching staff. And while Royals fans have seen pitching coaches come and go, and starting pitchers displaying maddening levels of inconsistency, perhaps it is the game of musical chairs that the Royals have played at the Catcher position over the last several years that is most responsible for this. Time will tell. Perez is due back in a couple weeks. Hopefully he can help Hochevar “turn the corner” one more time.

The Kansas City Royals are only 3 games into the season, however, they have already given fans much reason to believe things could truly be exciting in 2012.

Coming into this season, there have been a wide array of opinions on what the Royals record might be when the 2012 season comes to an end. The most optimistic of prognosticators predicted as many as 85 wins for the Royals on the high side, while some have picked them to show little to no improvement and still finish last. The first series of the season was sure to be an immediate test, heading out west to take on Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only were they going to have to deal with that extremely potent offensive attack, but they would have to face starting pitchers Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, and Ervin Santana in succession. So while the world was watching how Pujols would perform on his new club, the Royals took advantage of the attention and showed the baseball world that it is time to take notice.

It is hard to not look at this series and wonder what the possibilities might be for 2012. Consider that the Royals won this series despite the following events:
-LF Alex Gordon failed to record a single hit
-3B Mike Moustakas recorded just one hit
-CF Lorenzo Cain recorded just one hit

Also, despite being shut out in the first game, the Royals responded with 6 runs and 7 runs respectively in the next 2 games, giving them an average of 4.3 runs per game for the series. This happens to be just under the 4.5 runs per game they scored per game in 2011. It definitely appears this team is going to hit.

So while one cannot reasonably expect Humberto Quintero and Chris Getz to hit close to .600 for the whole season, it is safe to assume their negative correction will be more than made up for by Gordon, Moustakas, and (hopefully) Cain’s positive correction. Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler looked to be poised for huge offensive years, and Jeff Francoeur looks to be picking up right where he left off in 2011.

So back to the question: is one series enough to begin raising expectations for this team? The answer is probably no. But when you consider that the biggest question for the Royals coming into the season was the starting pitching, it is difficult to not look at this first series of 2012 as being an extremely positive sign for things to come.

For the first time since the incredible evening of September 28th, 2011 the Kansas City Royals finally took the field for a game that counted. How much should I emphasize finally? Our roommates here at I70 Baseball, the St Louis Cardinals, had completed two games in two different cities before Alex Gordon dug in against Jered Weaver Friday evening. Finally we can quit speculating about what might happen. Finally we have real games to watch and react. Finally baseball can show us why we why love it so much. Baseball shows us that when we think we know stuff about baseball, we really don’t know anything about baseball.

Coming into the season we had this team figured out. The Kansas City Royals were going to hit. The Royals were going to be good defensively. The bullpen was going to be strong, and the starting rotation was going to be suspect. Then the first game of the 2012 season starts and the game unfolded like none of us thought it would.

Alex Gordon digs in and promptly flies out to center and begins a long evening for the Royals at the plate. Jered Weaver hamstrung the Royals for 8 innings, striking out 10, and never allowed a runner to reach third base. Granted Weaver is an ace pitcher and a lot of the Royals futility can be attributed to him. However, the top of the Royals line-up looked lost at the plate. Especially on Alex Gordon’s second at bat where he struck out with three check swings. The closest the Royals came to scoring was in the 7th when Jeff Francoeur doubled with one out…and promptly got picked off. There are some trends that seem to carry over from year to year. Horrendous base running appears to have not changed in the Royals organization. It was a disappointing offensive to performance. Oh well, we waited this long for the Royals to play a game. I guess we’ll wait a few more hours for the Royals to score a run.

Fortunately, there was a bright spot for the Royals. It was starting pitcher Bruce Chen, who threw six innings of shutout ball, striking out 4, and not walking anyone. A good performance from this starting staff is important. Since the Royals bullpen is supposed to the strength of the pitching staff I thought it was a good idea to not let a tired Chen face the heart of the Angels line-up. Chen was lifted, and Aaron Crow was sent out to pitch the 7th. To this point in the game there had not been a lot to cheer about. But then the fist pumping began. Aaron Crow struck out the side in dominating fashion. This performance was highlighted by a three pitch strike out that made the greatest active hitter in baseball; Albert Pujols, look flat out silly. I’ll take another inning of that please. Unfortunately, that was the high water mark for the Royals in this game.

Crow came back out to pitch the 8th. After retiring Kendrys Morales on a fly ball to left, Crow gave up three consecutive singles before being lifted for Greg Holland. OK, Holland is viewed by many fans to be the best arm in the bullpen. If anyone is going to put this fire out it’s Greg Holland. Instead, Alcides Escobar mishandled a weak grounder from Peter Bourjos allowing a run to score and keeping the bases loaded. Erick Aybar was the next hitter who uncorked a triple down the right field line and that was your ball game. The Angels beat the Royals on Opening Day 5-0.

This game just goes to show that in baseball anything can happen. That’s part of the sport’s mystery. This was a game of opposites for the Royals. The parts of the team we thought would be strengths; bullpen, offense, and defense let us down. The part we thought was suspect, the starting pitching, gave us something to cheer about. It’s too early to tell if this is a trend to buck the prevalent thinking, or it’s a one game, or even an entire series anomaly.

This was just one game of 162. It has been said that during a baseball season a team will win 50 games, lose 50 games, and their season will be decided with the middle 62 games. While I’m still irritated that Aaron Crow and Greg Holland didn’t hold down their end of the bargain. You have to remember the Royals did not score any runs for their pitchers. Because the Royals got shutout I have to put this game in the 50 they were going to lose anyway. Not every pitcher will be tough as Jered Weaver. It’s just tough when it’s the first game in six months. The good news is, the Royals get another crack at winning in less than 24 hours. This next is likely one of the coveted 62.

So far, the St. Louis Cardinals are making it look easy in 2012. And while no one would say anything in 2011 was easy—maybe when they put Game 7 of the World Series out of reach…maybe—the Cards are playing a lot like they did at the end of last season.

And that’s no small feat, for a couple of reasons. Mike Matheny and his revamped coaching staff may not have been tested with any chess match-type of games, but so far the rookie manager has not made any mistakes either. The Cards are 2-0 facing two different teams in their home openers and against their aces: The Miami Marlins threw Josh Johnson, and the Milwaukee Brewers sent out Yovanni Gallardo. The Redbirds handled them both, and without the benefit of having an ace on the mound either time.

There are a lot of similarities between this year’s squad and last year’s World Champs. The Cards have gotten two really solid starts from their rotation already. The team plays good defense, and the middle of the order is hitting the ball well. Even David Freese looks the same; every time he comes up with runners in scoring position and two outs, he gets a hit. It’s getting to be a shock when he does not. But the 2012 Cardinals are doing some things a little differently, too. They already have three stolen bases this season, and one was (gasp!) while the #3 hitter was up to bat. And for the second game of the season, Matheny trotted out the exact same lineup he used in the first game of the season. It’s almost as if he is just taunting Tony La Russa now…

But the first big test comes Saturday in Milwaukee. Adam Wainwright makes his regular season debut just 13 or so months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Wainwright will probably be his old self, but his stats at the end of the game will not be the whole story. What really matters on that mound Saturday is how many pitches he’s able to throw before he tires. And then the next story will be how he feels on Sunday. The Cardinals have no idea when Chris Carpenter will be back; they need Wainwright to be the go-to guy indefinitely this season. And that may require him to throw fewer innings based on how he recovers after each start. In the meantime, it will be great to see him on the mound.

The Cardinals are coming out of the gate with guns blazing, but it can’t last. Their stats will fall back down to near their averages. But this is so much like what happened in the 2011 season end and postseason. Imagine that: solid pitching, timely hitting, and good defense lead to wins. Still, the Cardinals have to be careful not to kick back and think they have things in the bag. That is one reason the stolen bases are so significant: they represent a bit of a culture shift. The Cards are exploring new—or, at the very least, expanded—ways to “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em out” and there is nothing wrong with that.

Couple it with the “never say die” attitude of last year’s team and maybe the Cardinals will be as good as the team that won it all last year. Maybe they will even be better.