5 takeaways from the 2-1 Cardinals' win in Detroit
Jack Flaherty shines, but St. Louis gets the last laugh.
Baseball can be a funny game. One moment, your team could be down in the dumps and dreaming about a ball flying off their bat and making it to the outfield grass, and then it can be a different game five minutes later. For eight innings, the St. Louis Cardinals couldn’t find a pulse on offense. However, the ninth inning was a different story. So it goes in a sport where a team must get 27 outs, or hope for a bad rain midway.
Here’s five takeaways to digest as the evening settles in.
#5 Mr. Flaherty gets revenge
All except for the coveted, award-vote accumulating win. He struck out the first seven and 14 overall, chopping down the St. Louis lineup like many pitchers have this season. An offense that can be Jekyll one day and Hyde for two couldn’t find a prayer off Flaherty, the exported former ace-to-be who spent the last half of 2023 in Baltimore before finding the Motor City over the winter.
He was dazzling, extending his 2024 mighty strikeout run. The ERA got some much-needed help today, but his K-BB ratio is sharp. Good for him. Sometimes, it’s not just a “get away from the Lou” thing. New scenery and contract motivation are a fine origin story repair.
#4 Hello Pedro Pages
The catcher collected his first RBI today, which also happened to be the second and deciding run for the Cardinals. He blasted a pitch from former Cardinal Shelby Miller to the deepest part of Comerica Park, a place notorious for knocking down big flies. It was still good enough for a sacrifice fly. The 25-year-old minor leaguer has already been recalled and optioned twice this year, but he may not go down right away.
He came back up on April 21, and offered the team a third catcher and extra bat. It came in handy. Oliver Marmol pulled the trigger on the pinch hit appearance, giving Pages a chance to shine. If Ivan Herrera keeps struggling at the plate, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see what Pages has backing up Willson Contreras. That’s a home run in any other ballpark today.
#3 Nice work, Kyle Gibson
While it wasn’t as flashy as Flaherty’s slaying of the Cards, Gibson once again gave the team quality innings. He has taken a beating in only a couple starts and could have finished with a better outcome in one of them if it weren’t for one bad pitch. He’s given the team at least six innings each time out, and nearly matched his counterpart today. He works quick, throws strikes, and gets outs. A nice signing that wasn’t too loved after its announcement.
#2 The Burleson swing is sweet
I’ll admit to not being the highest on Alec Burleson heading into the season. People were blasting the signing of Matt Carpenter by bemoaning its impact on Burleson’s playing time. For a guy who put up a sub-.700 OPS last season, the remorse wasn’t there for me. But he’s come through this season with some big swings.
On Friday, he hit a three-run homer to give the team all the ammo they needed to defeat the New York Mets. Today, he singled in the tying run in the ninth. His bat still isn’t singing (.662 OPS), but he’s clutch and still young. Useful player, even if it ends with him in a different uniform by September.
#1 Can the Cardinals reach .500?
Another baseball game is starting soon, the second in a traditional doubleheader that sees the action pick up 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. That should be right as you’re digesting this article. A win puts the Cardinals at 15-15, an even mark they haven’t experienced since April 16. Lance Lynn helped pitch them to a 9-9 record with a win against Oakland, but it’s been below average since.
I said it before the season and will say it again. If this team wants to contend for a division title or wildcard spot, they can’t get buried early. The season is still young, but getting too far down in a tough league will erase the Cardinals by mid-June if they don’t tread water. The schedule is brutal for the first two months, but then the division matchups expand and the load lightens a little. All they have to do is stay around, or perhaps a little better, than .500.
Stay alive by staying around average until the schedule can loosen and the roster can formulate. Which player can do what, and what does the team need? A win against Detroit puts them back at square one heading into a series against the lowly Chicago White Sox.
This team is capable of being good, bad, ugly, and possibly great. A roller coaster ride should get less bumpy soon, if the team can hit a little more consistently. If not, hang on and buy more bourbon for postgame sipping.