Rambling about the Cardinals: The good, bad, and ugly of the Mets series

The Birds steal one, and mix in a few punches and shoves in the process

Animosity makes a usually boring to the outside world sport seem more fun and appealing. Baseball addicts love it too.

Over the course of the three game series between the visiting New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals, drama was built up. Inside pitches, hit batters, Max Scherzer’s bickering from the dugout, and then some. It was set to boil over in Wednesday’s finale or the team’s next meeting next month in New York.

It happened today.

The Cardinals plunked a Met, and Nolan Arenado was the recipient of a high and tight fastball. The benches, bullpens, and testosterone levels all cleared. A few punches were thrown, but it was mostly a bunch of pulling and shoving between highly paid professionals. With St. Louis Blues coach Craig Berube behind home plate, this was a low level hockey skirmish after a whistle.

Arenado had reason to be angry. Retaliation is going to happen, but it can’t be high and near the head. Hit him on his shoulder, back, ass, or thigh. Stay away from the boney, brainy areas. Get some meat. That is what made him take exception.

Outside of that, here’s a few eventful things that took place:

-Steven Matz rebounded from a rough start to give the team four innings and a chance to come back. Facing his former team thirsty for a sweep, handing over a 1-0 lead early for a 4-1 return wasn’t ideal, but he saved the ship from capsizing.

-Arenado is on fire at the plate. He’s hitting everything and twice. He was already on base four times before the inside pitch disrupted his flow. When he said that 2021 wasn’t good enough and he was coming in ready, the man wasn’t lying or injecting the expected hyperbole. He’s for real.

-Max Scherzer, the highest paid man in the league, knows how to make the Cardinals laugh. After shutting them down for seven innings on Monday, Scherzer got in on the budding rivalry Tuesday night. Yelling all kinds of “you shut your fucking mouth and give me back my missing green eye” obscenity, all Dakota Hudson and company could do was laugh. Nice flex, Max.

-Jake Woodford and Genesis Cabrera provided some fine baseball paramedic work, giving the team four vital innings after Matz. A run scored and hitters reached base, but the door remained shut. Middle relief work is underrated.

-I like Oliver Marmol’s calm and cool yet firm presence on the baseball field early on. It’s only been 20 days since regular season baseball debuted, but the youngest skipper in baseball wasn’t too hot (a little early) or too light and passive (bad for team morale) in his first bench-clearing experience as an MLB manager. Overall, in the first 17 games, he’s done a nice job. From the lineups to the in-game work, and even at times too dry postgame pressers, Oli is solid.

-Paul Goldschmidt found his bat a little in the series. Two more hits Wednesday, and he’s keeping his plate precision on the rise.

-Tyler O’Neill had another hitless day but scored a couple runs when he did reach base, and made a very strong putout at second base. 9 times out of 10, the Cardinals will play great defense. Monday was a slip.

Look, April and May were going to be bumpy from the jump. The team did little across the board to improve the team, outside of purchasing a DH platoon in Corey Dickerson and Jose Alberto Pujols. Jack Flaherty went down, and the bullpen and remaining rotation became weaker. They got the best of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Miami, and took the game against Kansas City. A series with Milwaukee was split, and the Mets won this week’s duel.

But St. Louis is still 10-7 heading into a showdown with Arizona. They’re not only treading water during injury, but finding a pulse on offense and are a half game behind the Brewers for the division lead. Stay close, play clean defense, and don’t let the lineup go cold. Five regulars entered the day with a batting average under .200. That needed to be fixed and today’s ten run barrage helped.

Win a series or two and split another around a series loss, and you won’t fall out of this Central Division race. Love or hate what the Cardinals did or didn’t do in the offseason, we’re in the now and it’s not so bad.

What’s also not bad is a bench-clearing drama show. It gets the blood up, brings teammates together, and goes down much better with a win.

Now someone get Mad Max a Snickers bar.