St. Louis Cardinals 2022

Questions to ponder until the Illini game tomorrow night .......And I am doing this with full acknowledgement of it being in hindsight , but ....................


1. Why take Quintana out after only 75 pitches and he was doing great ??.......................

2. Why take Gallegos out after only giving up a one out walk ??..........................

3. Why leave Helsley in when it was apparent to all watching that his finger was an issue ??................

4. Why go to the rookie Pallante instead of Flaherty ??.............................

5. Why let PDJ come up to bat under ANY circumstance ??........................

my answers...................................


1. No clue why he took Q out so early.................................................

2. No clue why he took Gio out so early......................................

3. No clue why .........................................

4. No clue why .............................................

5. Definitely no clue why...................................

Cardinals are now in elimination peril and I wonder if GG and RH are even available for tomorrow night's game .......??

I'm sick to my stomach , with a nasty headache , so it's off to Tramadol and 420 land for pru and start thinking about the menu for tomorrow's Illini game day festiviities..................................

Any shot Memorial will have the game on anywhere inside the stadium? I probably know the answer, just holding out hope

Ryllini said:

Any shot Memorial will have the game on anywhere inside the stadium? I probably know the answer, just holding out hope

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Probably on your phone.....

Ryllini said:

Any shot Memorial will have the game on anywhere inside the stadium? I probably know the answer, just holding out hope

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ESPN app going though Watch ESPN helps.

Ghost77 said:

Listening to the TV broadcast today is excruciating. This Michael Kay guy is the best ABC/ESPN could do?

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Michael Kay is actually really good. And he's not even on the top Sunday night team. Those guys are calling Padres/Mets.

Biggest thing that irked me in that game was Cardinals "fans" leaving when they were only down 5-2 in the 9th. It's 4:00 on a Friday afternoon in St. Louis. Unless they're heading to Ballpark Village early, there's no reason to leave at that point. I could maybe buy leaving early if they were down 7-2. Then again, this is the time of year you get the fairweather fans who are there more to be seen at the game than are there to actually watch it.

IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:

ESPN app going though Watch ESPN helps.

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I have tried this before. Good luck getting a signal strong enough in the stadium. I will be competing against you for signal.

1. He took Quintana out because it was about to be the 3rd time going through the order and the righties were coming up.(right or wrong that’s why)
2. The problem is he didn’t have any one ready fo go in the 9th…..he went soft hit, walk, walk, HBP and didn’t really have anyone ready to go. Went with Pallante cause flaherty isn’t used to coming out of the pen and routine and warmup take longer

Derrick Goold


Cradling a small, precious lead with an inning about to cave in all around them, the Cardinals got into a bad spot with their closer.
Now they’re in a worse one without him.
With two outs to get and a two-run lead to save in the first game of the playoffs Friday against Philadelphia, All-Star Ryan Helsley lost the feel for his pitches. The middle finger injured three days earlier stiffened on him during the ninth inning, leading to two walks and, with the bases loaded, a hit batter. Before the Cardinals moved to replace Helsley the game began to come apart, fast and messy. The Phillies scored six runs in the ninth to upend the Cardinals, 6-3, in Game 1 of the best-of-three wild-card series. They can just end the Cardinals’ season with a win Saturday night.

The Cardinals will be without Helsley to close if they have a chance to hold off elimination as the right-hander left the ballpark for a battery of exams on his finger late Friday.
“He’s been super-reliable all year,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Obviously, we’re aware of the issue with the finger. It wasn’t an issue early on. Didn’t show any signs of it. Once you go back-to-back walks, you’re thinking this is the last hitter. And hit by pitch definitely ends it.”
The Phillies’ comeback was just getting started.
Helsley’s 101-mph bruise to Alec Bohm forced home the Phillies’ first run in the playoffs since 2011, and still the Cardinals had the lead, two outs away from control of the series. What followed was an uncharacteristic and sketchy inning that featured two Gold Glove winners trying to force plays and a debatable infield positioning that cost runs. For the first time in 94 playoff games when they’ve had at least a two-run lead in the ninth, the Cardinals lost. The unraveling of one inning was a stark contrast to the crisp, brisk, scoreless work by starter Jose Quintana that carried the Cardinals until Juan Yepez’s homer gave them a 2-0 lead going into the disastrous ninth inning.

Benjamin Hochman


Well, if there was ever a game in which a Most Valuable Player needed to demonstrate his designation, it’s Saturday’s game for Paul Edward Goldschmidt.
In the Game 1 loss Friday to Philadelphia, Goldschmidt went 0 for 3 (and was hit by a pitch). In a vacuum, it’s not the end of the world, but consider it’s been a frighteningly frigid stretch here for the Cardinals’ first baseman. He hit two homers on August 25 at Wrigley Field — and has hit two homers since. He finished with a league-best OPS of .981 ... and that includes his .689 OPS since August 25.
On Friday afternoon, after 5 1/2 innings, that vacuum was airtight. The game was scoreless, though the Cards got a runner to third with two outs. The MVP was up. And he weakly grounded out.

“I had a couple pitches to hit — fouled two off and had that last one and hit a groundball,” Goldschmidt said after the 6-3 loss. “Obviously just trying to get on base there any way I can — and I wasn’t able to do that.”
Over the course of a season, even the best players will have a bad game or even a bad three-game series. So, if it’s this particular three-game series — that being the playoffs — does it change the expectations? Fairly or unfairly, the answer is yes. These are the games in which the big names are expected to ascend.
“'Goldy' is one to tell you exactly how he's feeling — he's very literal and he's very honest,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said on the morning of Game 1. “So when he says ‘I'm not feeling good,’ he means that. Right now, he's saying, ‘I feel really good.’ So, I'm looking forward to this next three days.”

Ben Frederickson


The Cardinals should have consulted a cynic.
If so, it could have been suggested during the extensive planning leading up to this National League Wild Card that baking a few shreds of doubt into the postseason plans for All-Star closer Ryan Helsley would have been wise.
At least until the high-velocity right-hander proved in a game setting that the middle finger he jammed during a late regular-season stumble in Pittsburgh was not going to turn into a finger on the series scale in favor of the Phillies.

Instead, the Cardinals, citing solid feedback from medical officials and encouraging reports from Helsley after a no-problem throwing test, moved forward in this best-of-three series as if the recent injury would have as little influence on this postseason as the meaningless game on Tuesday in Pittsburgh that caused it.
The Cardinals beat the Pirates in extra innings that night.
Their hopes of advancing are now on the ropes because of the lingering damage done during it.
This 6-3 Game 1 loss to the Phillies could wind up in the section of postseason records reserved for pain. A two-run lead in the ninth disappeared. This season, which felt so magical so often, is now one loss away from ending.

dgcrow said:

Sickening, absolutely sickening No mater how you look at it, the Cards simply blew this one.

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As a Cub fan, I was shocked at the alignment of the infield. One out bases loaded and they play the infield in? The ball that was hit to Edmon would have possibly ended the game at best. Even if they only got one out on that play and the game was tied, the grounder Goldschmidt would have ended the inning. Marmol just gave that game away. Maddon did that a lot when he managed the Cubs.

pruman91 said:

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Questions to ponder until the Illini game tomorrow night .......And I am doing this with full acknowledgement of it being in hindsight , but ....................


1. Why take Quintana out after only 75 pitches and he was doing great ??.......................

2. Why take Gallegos out after only giving up a one out walk ??..........................

3. Why leave Helsley in when it was apparent to all watching that his finger was an issue ??................

4. Why go to the rookie Pallante instead of Flaherty ??.............................

5. Why let PDJ come up to bat under ANY circumstance ??........................

my answers...................................


1. No clue why he took Q out so early.................................................

2. No clue why he took Gio out so early......................................

3. No clue why .........................................

4. No clue why ............................................

5. Definitely no clue why...................................

Cardinals are now in elimination peril and I wonder if GG and RH are even available for tomorrow night's game .......??

I'm sick to my stomach , with a nasty headache , so it's off to Tramadol and 420 land for pru and start thinking about the menu for tomorrow's Illini game day festiviities..................................

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I can answer that. Marmol feared going through the lineup for a third time with Quinatana would have been bad. He was at his limit. Pulling Gallegos was a head scratcher. Helsley should have never been brought back for the ninth. Pallente is a ground ball pitcher but marmol’s defensive alignment was not set up for a ground ball play. I am surprised DeJong is on the playoff roster.

illiniE said:

I have tried this before. Good luck getting a signal strong enough in the stadium. I will be competing against you for signal.

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Well I'll be watching from home so...

GoodePodzMelendez said:

I can answer that. Marmol feared going through the lineup for a third time with Quinatana would have been bad. He was at his limit. Pulling Gallegos was a head scratcher. Helsley should have never been brought back for the ninth. Pallente is a ground ball pitcher but marmol’s defensive alignment was not set up for a ground ball play. I am surprised DeJong is on the playoff roster.

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I pretty much agree with everything except for pulling Quintana......The analytics in baseball now are great , but Q only had 75 pitches when pulled .....

Like I posted in my original post , every thing is in hindsight for sure , but Q has been our best pitcher since he was acquired at the trade deadline and IF he could have pitched another 1 1/3 innings that would have set up the 8th and 9th innings so much better for GG and RH.......

I don't know the stats for how effective those 2 have been when called upon for more than 1 inning , but now the bullpen has to be handed to others for the last 1 , hopefully 2 games left in this series........Was kinda surprised that Matz didn't get in the game with his recent success as a reliever .....

Marmol got roasted in the press and on TV since the game ended , but overall I think he has done ok for the full season.......

It's time for Goldie to start smoking the ball again ....his last 4-6 weeks has been lacking , to say the least.....

Without any doubts at all , i completely agree with you thought on De Jong .......he even let him hit and everyone in the world knew that was an out before he stepped into the batter's box........

Couple changes to lineup from yesterday:



Nootbaar moves from right to center. Yepez is in right and takes Carlson's spot in the lineup.

Offense definitely in hibernation mode.

jmwillini said:

Offense definitely in hibernation mode.

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As much as people may want to question Oli's decisions yesterday (and with good reason), he can't swing a bat too.

GoodePodzMelendez said:

I am surprised DeJong is on the playoff roster.

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He had to be because if he wasn't there wouldn't be anyone else to play SS if Edman got injured in the middle of a game. But he really shouldn't have been in a position to be taking an important at bat unless there was absolutely no other option.

the juiceman cometh said:

He had to be because if he wasn't there wouldn't be anyone else to play SS if Edman got injured in the middle of a game. But he really shouldn't have been in a position to be taking an important at bat unless there was absolutely no other option.

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DeJong and also Deluzio are mainly there as late inning defensive replacements too.

And oh the irony that Sosa catches the final out.

I just finished watching, catching up after watching the Illini. It just didn't feel right after last night's 6 run 9th.

This is the way the season ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

Derrick Goold
As he walked to the plate with a chance to push the game one hit deeper into the night, the season one game further into the weekend, and his career one day longer into October, Yadier Molina paused and whispered a prayer.
He refused to be the last out of his last game.
“I was concentrating to not be,” he said.
A 19-year career spent entirely with one organization and annually chasing one trophy, Molina stepped into the batter’s box with two outs in the ninth inning Saturday night at Busch Stadium. He did then what he had done more than any player in National League history – delivered a base hit in the playoffs, for the 102nd time. With the final swings of their major-league careers, Molina and Albert Pujols delivered singles and then yielded first base to a pinch-runner. They were the in dugout when the Cardinals’ season unceremoniously ended in the glove of a former teammate, the Phillies’ Edmundo Sosa securing a 2-0 victory Saturday and a sweep in the wild-card series at Busch Stadium.
At 10:54 p.m. St. Louis time, sundown on a Cardinals era.

Careers that spanned a combined 41 seasons, 20 All-Star appearances, 12 Gold Glove awards, and 5,498 games, including 194 in the postseason, ended in the blink of 18 innings.
The long goodbye had the shortest ending.
“It’s the end of the Pujols-Molina era,” chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said, walking into the clubhouse after the loss. “It’s been a nice winning era, that’s for sure.”
“You’re just expecting the story to continue, to be what it’s always been,” manager Oliver Marmol said.
“It wasn’t meant to be for us this year,” Pujols said.
In the clubhouse after the loss, players exchanged hugs. Some packed their gear. Several players, like Nolan Arenado, were on the verge of tears or coming back from taking the plunge. Molina’s voice snagged when describing the ovation he received from fans as he left the field for the final time. He shared a moment with backup catcher Andrew Knizner, just as rookie Juan Yepez walked with Pujols as he left the clubhouse for the final time. The transition from one generation – one with two championships, Molina’s four pennants, and 15 consecutive winning seasons – to the next, newer Cardinals core was underway.

Benjamin Hochman

The tears tried so hard to spill from the All-Star’s eyelids.
They were pushing, giving it everything they had, but Nolan Arenado valiantly held them back — held them in — as he spoke from his locker in the losing clubhouse.
Like Arenado and his teammates, they just couldn’t come through.
“Every year we go into spring, the World Series is the goal … it’s what this organization expects,” the passionate and proud Arenado said late Saturday night, after the season-ending loss in the National League Wild Card. “And I don't think that's ever going to change.”
Once again, the Cardinals failed to meet expectations. And this one was particularly crushing and, in some regards, embarrassing. After an unforgettable regular season, here was a forgettable postseason. After a season of making history — 700, 325 and more — the Cardinals didn't make the most-important kind of history. Eleven lonely flags flap above the scoreboard at Busch Stadium.

October is over. Cancel Halloween. Might as well just get winter going here in St. Louis — Paul Goldschmidt’s swing can help blow in a cold front — because the Cardinals, once again, have abbreviated the 10th month with an uncharacteristic splat. Well, at this point, maybe it’s characteristic? After embarrassingly losing the National League Division Series in 2015 to the Wild Card Cubs, the Cards missed the playoffs all together in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In 2019, they won the NLDS but couldn’t even muster one win in the next round.
In 2020? Lost in the first round.

In 2021? Lost in the Wild Card Game.
And now, in 2022 the Cards didn’t win a game in the best-of-three series that they hosted. On Saturday, the Phillies shut out St. Louis, 2-0, the same score of the series.