Suppan’s return a success, Cards win 4-1
Way back in 1910, Franklin Pierce Adams wrote a poem entitled “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”. It described the somber moment in which opposing players fell victim to the Chicago Cubs’ double play team. It became an immediate hit, and has since gone down in baseball lore.
Today, the poem is better known as ‘Tinker to Evers to Chance’. It is still recited, remembering the great Chicago infield of long ago. Even the Cubs’ rival Cardinals still know and use a slightly different version. For St. Louis, it’s ‘Ever Tinkering with Chance’.
Indeed, the Cardinals have been the masters of taking chances with players and making good use of them, particularly in the case of veteran pitchers. From Chris Carpenter to Troy Percival to John Smoltz, just to name a few from recent years, the Cardinals have taken in presumably washed-up ball tossers, and received great result.
Much of the success from St. Louis’ gambles are credited to Cardinal pitching coach Dave Duncan. For years now, Duncan has ‘worked his magic’ with pitchers, and with any luck, he’ll do it again.
Just over the past weekend, the Cardinals signed veteran hurler Jeff Suppan, or perhaps resigned him seeing that he played with the Cardinals from 2004-2006. The move bolsters the team’s rotation by adding some depth, but Suppan will have to recover from an ugly start to the season in Milwaukee where he went 0-2 with a 7.00+ ERA.
However, Suppan made a step in the right direction to make such a comeback on Tuesday when he started his first game wearing the Birds on the Bat since the 2006 playoffs where he was NLCS MVP. It wasn’t a gem, quality start or even a win-qualifying outings, but it’s hard to be upset with his 4 inning, 1 run performance.
In fact, his redebut was far better than his original Cardinal debut. In his first ever appearance for the Cardinals back in ‘04, he surrendered 6 runs in the same amount of time he pitched on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners.
Of course, Suppan was only part of the equation in what was ultimately a 4-1 St. Louis win. Blake Hawksworth came in to relieve Suppan, and in result, threw 1.2 scoreless innings. Kyle McClellan also pitched for the Cardinals and did one better, pitching 2 perfect innings.
Perhaps it was beginners luck, but assuming Suppan will be able to go deeper into his next game, it’s fair to say Duncan has done it again. However, Suppan next outing won’t be until Sunday, June 20th. Until, St. Louis will wrap up the series with Seattle on Wednesday beginning at 7:15 CT.
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