Midway through the incredible 2019 Cardinals come-up...the pitching gave way.
A team that had risen to the top of the standings thanks to some crucial hitting and solid lineup capabilities crashed right back down to third thanks to the rotation's inability to keep runs from scoring. Not to say anything bad about people like Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas, who are still doing well enough in terms of pitching numbers. But guys like Michael Wacha and Dakota Hudson are giving up too many runs and blowing games, and even Wainwright has a 4.75 ERA.
It's not like there's not another pitching option to take over for Hudson, as Daniel Poncedeleon did a bang-up job in a start a few weeks back. But the Cardinals rewarded him for said start by demoting him again and keeping Hudson in the rotation. And yes, Carlos Martinez is said to be back tomorrow, but the rumors are saying that they might shift Martinez to the bullpen, which...I'm not 100% on board with, but...they're the Cardinals, and they make the playoffs nearly every year, so they seem to know what they're doing.
Right now the Cardinals are ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings, and they're honestly around the same levels of competitiveness, considering that both are coming off of two straight losses. But...the Pirates at least have some pitchers that aren't completely waterlogged by their ERAs. The Pirates are a lot more balanced, and a bit less streaky, than the Cardinals.
The Cardinals thankfully do have some late-career highlights from Yadier Molina, including some record-shifting stuff, to keep fans occupied. And this is still a relatively good team, but...they just need to figure out how to fix the rotation, because that could keep them from catching any of the top 3.
Coming Tomorrow- We knew he could hit home runs, but now he's FINALLY able to hit for average.
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