How about some Bird Bytes on this late Friday afternoon?
It wasn’t a TGIF type of day for the Cardinals, who got skunked in a monotonous and maddening 4-0 loss at Detroit.
I guess we could say that the Tigers played with their food, letting the Cardinals hang around a while, slapping them down and pawing them on the ground to prolong the inevitable demise of the visitors.
The Cardinals had five hits in 33 at-bats (.152) with nine strikeouts. The very idea of a serious threat being posed by the St. Louisans was forbidden by the Tigers.
Not only did the Cardinals settle for five dinky singles – extra-base hits were strictly prohibited – the Redbirds were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
In their last four games against the Mets and Tigers, the Cardinals had 21 hits in 130 at-bats (.166 average) with 42 strikeouts. And they also batted .150 with runners in scoring position.
That’s how you score only seven runs in your last four games. But a week into the campaign, the Cardinals are 4-3, and a winning ledger is cool at any time in a rebuild season.
FACTS, FINDINGS & FOOLISHNESS
1. Bad Day in Motown. A world of confusion. St. Louis headliner JJ Wetherholt was given the day off by manager Oli Marmol. Except for one minor thing: it wasn’t a day off. Wetherholt entered the game to pinch-hit for Jose Fermin in the 7th inning, and stayed around to play second base. He went 0 for 2.
Which means JJ didn’t really have the day off – so what exactly was the point? Well, Masyn Winn had to leave with hip discomfort after he labored to run to first base after hitting a ground ball in the fifth. So Marmol had to start moving some pieces around, with Thomas Saggese moving from second base to shortstop, and Wetherholt taking over at 2B. In his last four games, Wetherholt is 3 for 14 with five strikeouts. And the Wetherholt day off, not a day off …that was more about Masyn Winn.
2. The much bigger question: why in the heck was Wynn in Friday’s lineup? Why did the Cardinals trot out a vital player who just got out of the hospital 48 hours earlier? Not only that, Winn was complaining of hip tightness earlier in the week.
Winn had a scary car wreck after Wednesday’s 2-1 over the Mets at Busch Stadium. His car skidded – hydroplaned – on a slick stretch of highway near the ballpark and crashed into two barriers. Winn’s car took a hard hit that smashed the front of the vehicle. Winn also absorbed a hard but indirect hit and was fortunate to come out of it OK – though he was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
3. I was really, really surprised to see Winn in the starting lineup. I just assumed the Cardinals would do the smart and responsible thing and give Winn an extra day to rest up and make sure that all was well. It’s a long damn season and there is absolutely no reason – none at all – to start Masyn Winn in a game played on April 3. Not after what he had gone through.
As it turns out, after Friday’s game Winn told reporters including Derrick Goold that he began experiencing tightness in his hip on Tuesday.
But even if the hip problem wasn’t directly related to the events on Friday – Winn leaving the game with discomfort – I have an obvious point to make here.
A) Winn said he was bothered by the hip on Tuesday.
B) Winn was walloped by the impact of his car in a wreck on the highway.
C) And there was enough concern to take Winn to the hospital to get checked out.
OK … again … given this sequence of events, why was Winn in the starting lineup Friday? The disclosure about his hip discomfort makes the decision to play him even more incomprehensible.
Where are the trainers and medical people? Where are the responsible adults? I don’t care if Winn told everyone that he was feeling fine and ready to go … because clearly he was dealing with multiple issues: the hip, the wreck, the jolt.
Marmol tends to allow players to talk their way into the lineup when they are banged up, or injured, or feeling poorly and really should stay off the field to rest/heal up. Has it happened again?
4. Oli was not deterred, because he had a plan in hand: load up the lineup with seven right-handed hitters to confront Framber Valdez, Detroit’s accomplished left-handed starter. And that meant Winn was not only in the starting lineup, but he was installed in the leadoff spot. Not exactly easing your way into a game.
OK, so how did that platoon-split advantage strategy go for Marmol’s special right-handed hitting unit?
5. Here’s how it worked out: the right-handed delegation of Winn, Ivan Herrera, Roman Urias, Jordan Walker, Thomas Saggese and Jose Fermin collectively had 17 at-bats against Valdez … and had one hit, a single by Winn in the third. As part of the 1 for 17 showing, the Cards’ right-handed batters struck out five times and walked twice. Valdez cruised through six shutout innings. Marmol had the right idea in choosing to go heavy with the platoon. It just didn’t go as planned or hoped.
6. And this is also how it worked out: Winn played when he probably shouldn’t have been out there … and then he had to stop playing, because he didn’t feel right, and he left the game. But after Friday’s disturbing loss, Marmol didn’t initially rule out Winn for Saturday’s game. (Though Winn told Goold he “expects” to be out of Saturday’s lineup.) There’s a strong chance of rain in the Detroit area tomorrow, so perhaps that will prevent the Cardinals from doing something foolish.
6a. Since this series is being played in Motown, let me quote the late Marvin Gaye to recap what went down Friday with Winn.
Makes Me Wanna Holler.
7. The two left-handed hitters in Marmol’s lineup, Alec Burleson and Victor Scott, combined for two hits in their five at-bats against Valdez. The Tigers are pleased with their three-year, $115 million free-agent investment in Valdez, the longtime Houston starter. Burly has been scuffling a bit; even with Friday’s single he’s 3 for his last 18.
8. On Winn’s lineup relocation: Marmol has been determined to wedge the young shortstop into one of two unlikely lineup spots during his career – batting first, or batting fourth. Winn went into the weekend with 1,338 career plate appearances in the majors, and 41% of those PA had come in the No. 1 or No. 4 lineup spot.
9. Excluding Friday, in 554 career PA batting first or fourth, Winn has a .232 average, .278 on-base percentage, .373 slugging percentage, and a .652 OPS. Not good. And using wRC+ as our gauge, Winn’s performance translates into 17 percent below league average offensively. When Winn is placed in any other spot in the order, his wRC+ is five percent below league average.
10. Winn’s most productive lineup spot? He has crushed it when batting eighth. It’s only 92 plate appearances, but look at these digits: .407 average, .467 OBP, .605 slug, 1.072 OPS and a wRC+ that computes to 99 percent above league average offensively.
11. As I said in my Friday “Bernie Show” video that you can grab on our site: for me, this isn’t about where Winn should hit. For me, the much bigger question is, will he hit?
12. Jordan Walker, oh no, here we go again. May I sigh? Thanks. After pounding Tampa Bay’s pitching in the opening three-game series, Walker was subdued by the Mets over three games, going 1 for 9 with four strikeouts and a walk. Would the big man rebound Friday afternoon in Motown? No, he would not. Walker played a great game in right field, throwing out a runner at home plate with a perfect strike. Offensively, it was another lost day: 0 for 4, and a strikeout.
13. Walker is 1 for 13 with five strikeouts in his last four games. Is this what is known as a recurring nightmare? And just like that, after seven games, Walker’s batting average has drooped to .217. After clobbering the Rays’ pitchers, Walker had a .900 slugging percentage. Four games later that slug is down to .435.
14. For what it’s worth – and this is a pebble-sized sample, but coming into Friday, the Cardinals’ right-handed hitting delegation had taken 27 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers this season. And the fellers got results: .360 average (best in MLB), .720 slug (best), 1.127 OPS (best). But this was not the case on Friday at Comerica Park. Valdez mowed down the right-handed batters and turned in an impressive Bill James game score of 69. (50 is average.)
15. Michael McGreevy was on top of things Friday … until he wasn’t. I’m not criticizing McGreevy here. It’s just a shame that a strong outing got away from him in the fourth and fifth innings. And the damage was three earned runs in 4 and ⅔ innings. He’s a good pitcher. The Tigers have a good club. And McGreevy had no offensive support from his mates on Friday.
Thanks for reading …
Pardon my typos (playing hurt today.)
Happy Easter Weekend.
Go Illini.
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.