In the event of Rapture all other teams will be Left Behind: the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals

lance lynn is mad because he's really sucked since late July. he walked 6 guys today. he was right to an extent; the zone was tight:

http://i.imgur.com/GJznVHr.png

so yeah, i count 5 clear strikes thrown by lynn that were called balls, and another 4-5 that were right on the edge. but the zone was tight/wrong for the cubs pitchers too. lynn's just mad because he might not make the playoff rotation.

dan haren hit matt holliday in the head in holliday's second plate appearance since coming off the DL. obviously an accident, though, to anyone watching. i didn't see rizzo's second HBP because i had already ragequit watching the game.

Broxton ankieling

Andrew Simon
‏@AndrewSimonMLB
What a great throw by Jason Heyward there for a huge double play. Statcast tracked it at 95.5 mph. Distance of 242 feet.

heyward threw a 95.5 mph fastball to home from 242 feet?

Holy shit that throw. He even blew up Yadi's glove hand. (yes I know it was the tag)

daily drama: Yadi down, Grichuk in LF, Waino to pen?

it'd be great to have grichuk back in the lineup, assuming he can actually throw now. (he CAN throw now, right? RIGHT??!?!)

i don't know what to think of the wainwright thing. seems foolish to rush him back to action and risk further injury, but maybe he's alright now? matheny should go with his gut and keep waino on the bench until bringing him in for the very last pitch of a playoff series

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-statcast-baserunning-data-ichiro-suzuki/

Bourjos is faster going from 1B to 2B than Billy Hamilton, on average. and Heyward takes some of the longest leads off of 1B in MLB. interesting article! although it's absolutely maddening because Statcast has all of this awesome information collected somewhere, and refuses to make it publicly accessible.

i'm still not sure that this is a good idea. but here's waino, throwing a simulated game:

https://twitter.com/LangoschMLB/status/646781814481137664

@dgoold 11 minutes ago
Seven pitches into his start, Carlos Martinez has been removed from the game, walking with a trainer. Emotional as he leaves. #Cardinals

wtffffffffffffffffffff

it sounds back spasms from twitter. which is lower on the terrible scale

But still,

Nooooooooooooooooo

Anybody but Carlos. He's my favorite.

@LangoschMLB 2 minutes ago
#STLCards announce that Carlos Martinez left the game with right shoulder tightness.

shoulder :((((((((((((((((

9th-inning rally vs K-Rod fails; Bucs 3 back

@Cardinals
"Carlos Martinez suffered a shoulder strain and will be shut down for the remainder of the season."
-John Mozeliak

insane injuries this year. guess the 4 man rotation is set now, smh

Nnnnnnnnngggghhh

No one will give a shit because it's the cardinals but I feel like winning this many games with this many injuries deserves a nobel prize

can't really give them credit for holliday because lol old, but it *is* pretty amazing. presumed right fielder dies, have the pitching depth to deal for a new one (who was probably better, for this one season, but still), #1 pitcher goes down, starting 1B goes down, etc. etc., still the best team in the game

also for overcoming matheny/putting him in situations where his idiocy didn't matter. i kinda think the manager's biggest job is keeping players happy and playing well -- and getting guys saves or whatever may play into that -- but man, starting a center fielder who couldn't throw the ball was the dumbest fucking thing i've ever seen. naturally they won that game anyway

surprised they ran on heyward there in the first, even with marte's speed

jesus.

ugh

Saw a comment earlier today like: baseball gods genuinely curious if cardinals can win with no players left on the field.

Didn't see it, not sure I want to.

they only showed the replay once, from a wide angle. didn't look good at all :(

got a little wave at least

yeah, and lower body also moved apparently (i didn't see it).

Jenifer Langosch ✔ @LangoschMLB
Good news on Piscotty: All tests came back negative for fractures or significant injury. He will be monitored in hospital overnight.
11:34 PM - 28 Sep 2015

PHEW

released from the hospital with 'just bruises'

Jenifer Langosch ‏@LangoschMLB 9 minutes ago
Great news all around on Piscotty's condition. GM Mozeliak: "I think the good news is he probably will play again in the regular season."

doubleheader tomorrow

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/09/cardinals-to-activate-adam-wainwright.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/the-st--louis-cardinals-should-probably-stop-making-rap-videos-203519351.html

pitching Cole in game 1? not cool bros

i'm gonna do myself a favor and not listen that song

really wish i could take the afternoon off and watch these games today.

wacha has really struggled the last month or two. whether it's fatigue or hitters figuring him out or bad luck or whatever, he doesn't really resemble the pitcher from may/june.

and the lyons game is just a crapshoot. hopefully we'll just kind of luck out with one of the games today and get it over with.

doesn't matter. even if the cards lost both today, which i do not expect, they're not going to drop two more games in the standings while finishing vs the barves

if you believe in laundry, the '64 Cards were almost done in by the Mets at the end of the season

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/1964-schedule-scores.shtml

xpost
yeah, very unlikely. but baseball's weird

So Wacha seems fried. Go go game 2.

yeah, it's been agonizing watching him the last 2 months. lance lynn, too, for the most part.

waino warming up for bottom of the 8th

tyler fucking lyons because: baseball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=KalbXGkJb_A

dammit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=KalbXGkJb_A

one more try

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KalbXGkJb_A

via Bernie:

According to the injury-tracking site ManGamesLost.com, the Cardinals took the biggest hit among the 30 teams, having lost players worth a value of just under 18 Wins Above Replacement to injury time. No other team was all that close to 18 WAR, with Toronto second at 10 WAR lost to injury.
http://www.101sports.com/2015/10/01/how-the-cardinals-captured-the-nl-central/

from BP's Daniel Rathman under headline "Cardinals Clinch; Cardinals Are Doomed?"

If the standings were all that mattered, everything in St. Louis would be peachy. The Cardinals have clinched the division for the third year in a row, they’re the first team in the majors to reach 100 wins, and home-field advantage through the NL playoffs is theirs. Nothing anyone does over the weekend can take any of that away.

But given the competition, starting pitching is likely to rule the day in October. And the Cardinals, who turned out to have the deepest group of reliable starters in the senior circuit from April through August, might have the shallowest when it matters most.

yeah, that's about right. i can't imagine being less confident in a team that is going to finish with 100+ wins. but i've always been predicting doom all year, and somehow they keep on choogling. so i guess i'll prop up the feet, have a beer, be happy if they somehow progress but if they don't be satisfied that they made it as far as they have.

(and find new ways to criticize matheny, regardless of outcome)

baseball needs a version of hockey's president's trophy (best regular-season record) imo

obviously it wouldn't really mean anything, but with the playoffs having ever less to do with the preceding six months there ought to be some sort of recognition of the year's actual best team

alex fritz ‏@boxcar_fritz 1 hour ago
historic weekend: Kozma trys to be the 29th player in MLB history w/ more than 100 PAs & 0 extra base hits #stlcards

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQPhV-vUkAAfWH_.jpg:large