Baseball Yakker

Yogi Berra said, “baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical”. But perhaps, the Cardinals’ game on Friday was something more along the mathematical lines of 90% luck, and the other half physical.

Either way, it’s easy to see that St. Louis didn’t play well mentally or physically. What they did have going for them was fate, and luck with a sense of humor. The team pitched poorly, failed to hit properly, and didn’t do any better playing the field. But it must have some sort of destiny, because somehow, someway, they won.

Final score, St. Louis 5, Arizona 2. As the team on the losing side of the equation, it was a tough loss for the Diamondbacks. But for those on the Cardinals side, it was a “look back and laugh at it” night at the ballpark.

To be more statistically descriptive, St. Louis was out-hit 6-10. They were also easily outpitched too, walking 8 batters, a figure 8 more than Arizona in the same category. And to continue, the Cardinals committed 3 errors, while the Diamondbacks’ sole fielding flaw was an over-ambitious pickoff play.

In other words, it was somewhat surprising to find the Cardinals winners after 9 innings of play. But that’s how fate had its fun, and it made for an interesting ballgame. Perhaps the one thing St. Louis had go right all night was a three-run homerun, and even it came via one of the most unlikely players.

In the 7th inning, St. Louis had a 2-1 lead, thanks largely to the Diamondbacks, who for some reason couldn’t squeeze home a run even with the assistance of some of BP’s oil. Skip Schumaker and Yadier Molina got a rally going for the Cardinals, singling back-to-back, setting the moment for Brendan Ryan.

With only 9 careers homers in 326 career games, Ryan seemed like possibly the least likely player to hit a three-run homer save for the pitcher. But nevertheless, he managed to get a hold of a first-pitch slider and jack it over the left field fence.

The bad news is Ryan’s homer killed the rally. The good news, however, is that it proved ultimately to be the winning runs. Following the top of the inning, Arizona scored what potentially could have been the tying run. But it wasn’t, because luck found its way around the matter.

However, luck traditionally comes in spurts, and doesn’t last long. It’s fair to say that if the Cardinals want to win again on Saturday, they’re going have to fight it out. Game time for the second match between St. Louis and Arizona is set for 7:10 CT.

Categories: MLB
Tags: Features