Pitching depth got the St. Louis Cardinals to the playoffs, but that won’t help now
While I hope that the St. Louis Cardinals can do some damage in the playoffs, I fear that the thing that kept them afloat during the regular season might not be enough to sustain them now.
The Cardinals survived a brutal bout with COVID-19 that saw more than a third of their roster hit the injured list thanks only to the club’s depth, especially in its pitching ranks. While some teams struggled to field enough pitching to make it through one double header, St. Louis has so many hurlers that it actually performed better during the string of twin bills it had to play to catch back up with the other clubs in the National League than it did in the rest of its games over the two-month-long season.
Depth, however, isn’t the best feature to have during short playoff series. It’s elite talent that can dominate games. That’s something St. Louis is woefully short of, both on the mound and in the field. That’s why nearly all of the pundits who have been asked predicted the high-octane offense of the Padres will beat the solid but not great Cardinals rotation and propel San Diego to the second round of the playoffs.
In the past, the Cardinals have been able to rely on savvy veterans with playoff experience to come through in the clutch. But this postseason will be without a lot of the usual pressures of do-or-die games because they’ll be in empty ballparks instead of in front of 50,000 screaming fans who magnify the significance and momentum switches that usually hang on every play. Besides, the Cardinals don’t really have a lot of veterans with a whole lot of postseason experience. Beyond Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina, the best thing most Cardinals can claim on their resume is their 2019 National League Championship Series at the hands of the Washington Nationals. Although I guess you can figure that Dexter Fowler’s World Series ring from his Chicago Cubs days has to count for SOMETHING.
Manager Mike Shildt took a lot of heat when he announced that Wainwright would be the Cardinals third starter in the Padres series. But I don’t see what choice he had for a few different reasons.
First, Wainwright would be working on only three days of rest if he were to pitch in Game One of the set. He’s never been a great pitcher on short rest, so why diminish his chances of winning when he appears? If you shoot that bullet and Wainwright isn’t up to the task, suddenly you’re down 1-0 and you’re counting on two less experienced guys in games that are now suddenly MUCH more intense than they would have been otherwise. If Jack Flaherty loses Game Two, for example, to let the Padres tie the series and its a winner take all final game, wouldn’t you want the guy who has been battle tested — not to mention your best pitcher all year — in there instead of the promising kid? I know I would.
Anyway, the Cardinals ought to have a killer bullpen for the postseason if everyone we think is healthy actually is. While it would have been great to have Dakota Hudson as a long man, the team has Giovanny Gallegos as a high-leverage righty who can turn a game and Genesis Cabrera from the left. Cabrera, who distinguished himself in 2020 as a ready for primetime player will be a pitcher the Padres are seeing for the first time. John Gant will be leaned on heavily if he can pitch and, hopefully, Andrew Miller will be able to continue the upswing he seemed to enjoy toward the end of the season.
Bottom line is that in order to win the pitching is going to have to be magnificent. The Cardinals don’t score a lot of runs and they don’t hit many homers, so I don’t expect them to suddenly muscle up in Petco Park, one of the toughest places for hitters in the majors. The Cardinals pitchers need to keep the Padres in the park and the defense has to do its job to give St. Louis a chance to win if it can score two or three runs a game.
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Scott Wuerz is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. The Cheap Seats blog is written from his perspective as a fan and is designed to spark discussion among fans of the Cardinals and other MLB teams. Sources supporting his views and opinions are linked. If you’re looking for Cardinals news and features, check out the BND’s Cardinals section.
