Undeniably, going up against one of the best pitchers in baseball and hitting a comebacker that threatens to end his season, then continuing to get hits throughout the night, is a true heel move. That is the kind of thing a wrestler cooks up to make his comeuppance sweeter when the hero needs to win the belt.
Alec Burleson has been added to the canon of unassuming MLB players who have pissed me off by opposing my teams' pursuit of unopposed success. Right there next to David Freese, Cody Ross, Kevin Youkilis, Jose Bautista, Carlos Pena, Jose Altuve, Josh Reddick and Martin Maldonado. Burleson may be a decent enough human being, and he might be off to a pretty nice start with the Cardinals. But I'm never gonna forgive him for that.
And since that June 1st game where Burleson ruined a great start by Ranger Suarez by giving all the Phils fans in attendance a heart attack, Burleson is hitting .283 with 19 RBIs and 7 home runs, some incredibly hot numbers for a guy who was kind of limping along before then. He chose that moment, the heel turn, to get extremely good at baseball, and has been one of the forces powering the Cardinals to second place, and possibly beyond, ever since. I have no choice but to loathe this man.
The Cardinals, once again, have chosen to become very good midway through the year, rather than the start. Yes, I know, I am a fan of a team that starts the year very good and decides midway through to start being terrible. But the Cardinals did not look this good at the beginning of the month. And for a team with so many guys over 35 to suddenly start clicking, and start letting the kids really take the lead, is...bizarre. Goldschmidt, Arenado, Lynn and Carpenter are all past their prime. But Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Ryan Helsley and Nolan Gorman are still in their prime and doing very well. It's just weird that there's such a tug between that new breed of Cardinals player and the elder statesmen.
This Cardinals team is over .500, and have gotten there with a lot of close victories over other middling teams. Now that they're playing teams who are getting hotter than they are, like the Braves and Reds, the wins are beginning to trail off, as they honestly good. This is a very alright Cardinals team, led by a lot of people doing the right thing at the right time. I don't know if this is a mentality that can last them to October, especially considering that their top pitcher, Sonny Gray, got lit up by, like, Austin Wynns yesterday.
Alec Burleson may redeem himself eventually. But I will never forgive him. Even if Suarez ended up being fine, even if the Phils weren't especially shaken. I'll never forget how hopeless I felt then, and it was all him.
Coming Tonight: Another catcher that is surprisingly getting trade traction this year.
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