Cardinals held to 3 hits in spring finale
The St. Louis Cardinals wrapped up their final spring training game on Thursday, but unfortunately, there was no present inside.
It’s been nearly a month since the Cardinals started the 2010 Grapefruit League, and since then, the team has completed their spring schedule, winning 14 exhibition games and losing 13, including a loss in St. Louis’ last spring training game of the year on Thursday.
St. Louis was held to only 3 hits by the Florida Marlins, who have almost accidentally became the Cardinals’ spring rivals. The Marlins out-hit the Cardinals by a ratio of 4 to 1, not to mention literally defeating the team by a score of 3 to 1.
A single by both Skip Schumaker and Felipe Lopez, along with a double by Ryan Ludwick, was all the offense St. Louis was able to produce during the two hour and thirty-five minute contest. Nevertheless, it amounted to a tally on the board in the 5th inning when the Cardinals score their only run of the game.
The newly acquired Nate Robertson was the hurler for Florida who dominated the Cardinals. Robertson, despite poor defense from his team, pitched 7 innings for Florida, striking out 6 to earn his 3rd victory of the spring.
Cardinal starter Brad Penny also pitched well, but not to the same extent. Penny surrendered two runs to the Marlins in the 3rd inning, which though alone is not bad at all, was enough to for him to be charged with the loss. Mitchell Boggs came in to relieve Penny and was touched for 3 hits and a run in the 7th inning. Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin finished up the Cardinals spring by each pitching a scoreless inning.
22 players played in the game for St. Louis, a small amount considering that throughout the spring 57 different players donned the birds on the bat at some point. But now, with spring training over and the roster set, the Cardinals will finally get to play some truly competitive baseball when the new season starts on April 5th in Cincinnati.
Until then, St. Louis will play a pair of exhibition games in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the newly constructed Target Field over the weekend. The Cardinals and Minnesota Twins will play the first ever professional exhibition game there on Friday beginning at 6:10 CT.
Leave a Reply