Last night’s game was another tough loss for the Cardinals (see last Friday’s affair), one that easily could’ve gone their way. As it turned out, the Reds essentially out-defensed the Cardinals, converting balls in play into outs when the Cardinals had men on base, and the Cardinals not. It shows up in their respective DERs:

For the season, both the Reds and the Cardinals are above-average in DER.

The good news was that Todd Wellemeyer settled down and pitched like he’s been pitching all month, turning in his second-best start of the year with a 65 FIGS (he had a 67 vs. SF 4/18). If not for the highest-hit double we’ve ever witnessed (Encarnacion’s in the third) and some stellar defense (Encarnacion again), The Colonel would’ve been the star of the game.

• Don’t look now, but the Cardinals are second in the league in Fielding-Independent Pitching (FIP).
• Speaking of defense at the hot corner, Encarnacion put in stark relief Troy Glaus’s lack of range in all directions. He wasn’t mobile enough to even attempt a dive at Cory Patterson’s weak foul ball in the first at-bat of the game, he mistimed jumps on Paul Bako’s liner over his head in the fourth and Jeff Keppinger’s Baltimore Chop in the seventh and flopped pathetically at Brandon Phillips’s grounder in the ninth. Where’s Scott Rolen when you need him?
• On the subject of former Cardinal defensive stalwarts, where’s Jim Edmonds when you need him to take charge on that pop-fly double?
• When Albert Pujols swung and popped out in the seventh inning on a 3-1 count, our first thought was that he is still frustrated and trying to do too much. Granted, the pitch was probably ball four, and Pujols represented the tying run. But both of his hits in the game were on pitches on the outside black of the strike zone, and Pujols might’ve been able to drive something for extra bases. The problem was that Jared Burton got the ball up just enough — and at 95 mph, a little bit faster than what Bronson Arroyo was throwing — so that Pujols couldn’t get on top of it.
• Pujols was robbed by a hit in the fifth by Encarnacion, if not the official scorer. Pujols grounded sharply to the 5-6 hole, and Encarnacion dove to his left to snare it. His throw, being rushed, pulled Votto off first and Pujols (who is now slow) sneaked by the tag. The scoreboard flashed "1B," but the ruling was an E5 (TH). The OS has 24 hours to change his mind; here’s hoping he does. After all, a sabermetric triple crown could be at stake here!
• Brandon Phillips was involved in a couple of strange running plays that ended up not hurting his team. In fact, the first, in which Phillips was running from second on a 1-1 pitch to strikeout king Adam Dunn, resulted in a run. Not that that should validate Dusty Baker’s tactic: With no outs, the lefthanded swinging-strike-prone Dunn batting and big sticks Encarnacion and Joey Votto due up, we’re not sure what Phillips stood to gain from stealing third. As it was, Dunn grounded the ball up the middle which Adam Kennedy dove to stop, but not in time to get Dunn or Phillips, who never slowed rounding third. The other play, in which Dunn’s scorching grounder pegged Phillips in the leg, saved the Cardinals a run.
• Despite the results of a one-night sample, we still like Ryan Ludwick in the leadoff spot. The guy simply had a bad game.

This entry was posted by Pip on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 1:51 pm and is filed under by the numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.