Chris Reed posted on June 17, 2009 00:00
The St. Louis Cardinals broke out the lumber Tuesday night and laid an 11-2 beating on the Detroit Tigers in the first game of a three-game set at Busch Stadium. The fact that the Cards won is noteworthy by itself, and the 11 runs is a damned interrupt-the-state-of-the-union-telecast newsflash with the way the offense has performed lately. But these facts are not the whole story…how the team won may be the most interesting part of the night.
The Cardinals won with a lineup concocted by manager Tony LaRussa to expose the fact that left-handed hitters have fared better this year against Tigers starter Justin Verlander than right-handed hitters. LaRussa penciled five lefties into his starting lineup to exploit this particular area of Verlander’s split stats.
The result was pretty impressive. And it was one more reason to say “shut your mouth” to all the Tony LaRussa Haters in Cardinal Nation.
For some reason, that group—let’s call them the TLRH—really does exist in this fanbase. I don’t want to confuse this group with people that disagree with the manager from time to time. After all, that’s why teams have a manager in the first place…someone has to make all the decisions, popular or not. But in some circles, Tony LaRussa is a terrible manager who over-thinks everything and is to blame for every shortcoming on this team. We’re talking about the real weirdos here.
LaRussa is a rabid fan of match-ups. This might be the biggest beef most fans, casual or crazy, have with the skipper. It seems like a different lineup every night. “Why can’t he just put the best eight on the field and leave them there?” they ask. You have to wonder if the perpetual inability of any Cardinal lineup to be effective against left-handed pitching is brought on by LaRussa not allowing some key hitters (left-handed hitters, mostly) regular at-bats against lefties. Then, of course, if the time does come for these guys to face a left-hander, they flail like it’s the first time they’ve ever seen a ball come from that side of a pitcher. You’d think some of these lefties were throwing 100 mph with 12-6 movement and complementing it with a 70 mph changeup the way some Cardinal hitters look in the batter's box.
But LaRussa’s “over-management” paid off big Tuesday night. Every starter had at least one hit. Only five Cardinal runners were stranded all night, so many of those hits came in key situations. Before the game I caught some online chatter regarding the lineup. Many were not only miffed that Ryan Ludwick was kept off the starting lineup card, but the fact that Chris Duncan was joining him only made the tantrums worse.
By the way, Duncan went 3 for 5 with 3 runs, an RBI, and no strikeouts. That almost sounds like a good night, TLRH.
So the Cardinals are out of the slump, right? Well, maybe not. They’re playing better than they did against Colorado earlier this month, but things can change in a hurry. They’re 4-6 in their last 10 games; let’s get above .500 over that span and we’ll see what’s happening. And a good night from Duncan and guys like Skip Schumaker (3 for 5, RBI) or Yadier Molina (2 for 3, BB, 2 RBI) doesn’t mean they’ve magically shaken the cobwebs and are ready to play to potential every day. But games like this one can at least boost the confidence a little.
That’s another testament to LaRussa, of course. The whole team—players, coaches, front office—got a bit of a raw deal from Troy Glaus and Khalil Greene. Ludwick and Rick Ankiel managed to get hurt at the same time, recover at the same time, and struggle to regain form at the same time. The infield, save for Albert Pujols (who had another homer Tuesday night…ho hum…) has looked like a social experiment for the better part of the season. The team could have easily folded and hung its collective head throughout the long season. Yet the Cardinals find themselves five games over .500 and one back in the division standings. And, actually, if the season ended today, the Cardinals would be the Wild Card winner. How can any of this year’s success be the product of anything but being steered in the right direction, TLRH? What about facing the odds in all those playoff years and the World Series winner that only won 83 games in the regular season?
It just goes to show that, more often than not, LaRussa knows what he’s doing. I guess he learned something over a couple thousand managerial victories. So shut your mouth.
Chris Reed is a freelance writer from Belleville, IL who also blogs on the Cardinals at http://bird-brained.mlblogs.com. He’s pinch hitting on Wednesdays for the month of June.