Addition of Flaherty, Hudson give streaking St. Louis Cardinals another boost
Already on the precipice of making franchise history, the St. Louis Cardinals are poised on Friday to welcome back one of their best players, heightening the possibility that a white-hot September could spill over into an improbably memorable October.
After pitching to teammates Lars Nootbaar and José Rondón in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Jack Flaherty cleared the necessary final hurdle to return from a shoulder strain after a month on the injured list and provide an abbreviated start in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader at Wrigley Field.
“It’s just fun to have the opportunity to be back,” Flaherty said. “It’s going to be nice to actually go out there and go have that opportunity.”
He bristled at the suggestion that he might be properly called an “opener,” which manager Mike Shildt conceded. And while Shildt declined to put an estimate on how deep Flaherty would be able to pitch into a game, Flaherty himself said that he didn’t expect to push much beyond the 15 pitches he delivered during live batting practice.
With those restrictions in mind, he would be unlikely to pitch past the second inning, if even past the first.
Behind him is likely to be righthander Dakota Hudson, who underwent Tommy John surgery one year ago today and has progressed smoothly through the minor leagues in his rehabilitation appearances. Hudson was scheduled to pitch for Triple-A Memphis in Jacksonville on Wednesday but was held back from that start; Shildt declared him “ready to pitch” and waiting on assignment.
The Cardinals reactivated Hudson from the 60-day DL early Friday.
After Kwang Hyun Kim was called upon to provide two innings in relief against the Brewers on Thursday afternoon, that assignment seems likely to come against the Cubs. Though he’s prepared as a starter in the minors, stretching to throw as many as 75 pitches, Hudson also has significant experience in the major league bullpen, and will provide a flexible option for a club that has two scheduled starts remaining for rookie Jake Woodford and is monitoring the health of veteran addition J.A. Happ.
The right side pillars of the Cardinals’ future rotation are joining a club which won its 12th consecutive game on Thursday afternoon, the first time they’ve enjoyed a streak of that length since April 11-24, 1982.
The club record of 14 consecutive wins was set by the 1935 Gashouse Gang club; seven of those 14 games were won by brothers Dizzy and Paul “Daffy” Dean.
Big rally in Milwaukee
An early 5-0 Milwaukee lead, fomented by two home runs from Tyrone Taylor, was erased by eight unanswered Cardinals runs which began in the fifth inning.
Comeback aside, that game resembled so many of the others during this remarkable stretch, with timely hitting supplemented by impeccable baserunning and the sort of attention to detail which is endemic to winning teams.
“It’s not something you can do,” first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said of ripping off a long winning streak. “You can’t just show up and say, ‘hey, let’s go win a bunch of games.’
“It just kind of happens all of the sudden. You look back, you’re like, ‘man, we played good.’”
“Good” is the sort of attention to detail that sees Nolan Arenado moving from first to third on a single by Dylan Carlson, and then Carlson taking an extra base as Taylor airmailed an inadvisable throw.
“Great” is the result of that play, with the winning run scoring on a passed ball and Carlson’s insurance run coming on a sacrifice fly, the latter of which would have scored if not for the heady play on the basepaths.
Goldschmidt bomb, Waino’s 2,000th
Beyond description, almost, is Goldschmidt, peppering the deepest parts of American Family Field with booming home runs, mashing three in the four-game set and raising his slugging percentage to .844 over the team’s winning streak of which he has played all but one inning.
“I gave him a big old smooch on top of his head and don’t care who knows it,” Adam Wainwright said after recording his 2,000th career strikeout and 200th inning pitched of the season.
That strikeout was the only he notched in the game, which was only his third start of the season of less than five innings. Still, it inscribed him yet again next to the legendary Bob Gibson in the history books as the only two Cardinals to reach that milestone entirely with the team.
It’s the sort of history-making event that could have been in short supply in a season which began marred by injury and sluggishness. Mid-season acquisitions for pitchers designed to drag them through the finish line have instead become shrewd moves which provided a rocket boost up the Wild Card standings, and the Cardinals enter the weekend mathematically able to clinch a postseason spot in Chicago during their last scheduled road series.
‘It’s really fun to see’
In adding back Flaherty, a pitcher they thought they’d have, and Hudson, a pitcher who’s a pure bonus, they’ve once again found a way to put a thumb on the scales in their direction.
“There’s a lot of winning curriculums out there, or formulas there to come up with a winning curriculum,” Wainwright said. “I mean, it’s really fun to see.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 11:44 AM.
