Photograph from flickr by SD Dirk
The Cardinals couldn't quite pull off another sweep of the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend, but taking two out of three was enough for them to go into their off-day with sole possession of first place in the National League Central. Given what happened last time the Cardinals swept the Reds—Jason La Rue was jump-kicked permanently out of baseball and the team slid out of contention almost immediately afterward, laughing in the face of the idea of momentum all the way down—I'm fine with two out of three. It seems less risky. These are the life-lessons I've taken, tentatively, from the weekend's slate:
1. That Ryan Franklin is really and truly not the Cardinals' closer. Franklin was part of the bullpen-and-defense conspiracy that lost the team another game on Saturday, but Tony La Russa has been using him not only out of the closer's role but as the lowest-leveraged pitcher in the bullpen. I was surprised by it, but it's true; La Russa appears to be operating as though Franklin really is the last man out of the pen, which is where he can do the least damage while we figure out if he's done or not.
Of course—
1a. That the last man in the bullpen can still occasionally do damage. Sometimes even the really-and-truly last pitcher in the bullpen is forced, by usage patterns and a manager with an itchy lefty-specialist trigger finger, to pitch with the bases loaded in a tie ballgame. The good news is that what we witnessed on Saturday was literally the worst-case scenario.
2. That Tony La Russa can still get the jump on another manager. La Russa's bullpen management on Saturday was less than optimal, but his handling of Friday's rain delay was classic La Russa—briefly infuriating, a little eccentric, and finally worthwhile.
For a moment every fan watching from home, or otherwise without the ability to look at the sky and see bad news, was infuriated by the sight of inexplicably trusted veteran Miguel Batista strolling out of the bullpen instead of that night's starter, Kyle McClellan. Then in the next moment it hit those same fans: If the weather got bad, La Russa didn't want to lose his starter in the first inning.
The weather did get bad, and it happened faster than anybody could possibly have predicted. The Reds were forced to find nine innings in their bullpen, and the Cardinals took advantage.
3. That this team is genuinely solid. The Cardinals have finally won a normal, important series. This weekend the offense never exploded, Kyle Lohse didn't throw a shutout, and Eduardo Sanchez was only regular-dominating instead of historically dominating.
Somehow all that normality is more reassuring than those nine-run nights on the team's first road trip. On Friday and Sunday they didn't do anything spectacular, but the Cardinals finally looked like the team we hoped we'd see in 2011.
