Game 21 Notes: Cardinals 4, Nationals 2

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Jon Doble

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Garcia tames the road demon

Jaime Garcia got into trouble in the sixth, but regardless it should be a positive outcome for him after his last road start. Over the 5 2/3 innings he was on the mound he held Washington to just four hits. Joe Kelly made his second appearance in two days out of the pen and got Ian Desmond swinging to get Garcia out of trouble. Garcia notches his second win of the season.

Jay breaks through for a hit

For the second night in a row Jon Jay was not in the starting lineup. In his place was Shane Robinson who looks like he’ll end up with a larger bulk of the playing time than previously expected. Jay was sitting on a 21 at bat hitless streak dating back to April 15th. He broke through with a single in the top of the 8th off Steve Lombardozzi.

While he would get caught in a run down between 3rd and home, it allowed Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig to advance to second and third, so it wasn’t all for naught. Is this the beginning of Jay getting back on track or just a lucky shot? Continue reading →

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UCB Radio Hour 4/24/2013

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Jon Doble

It’s the fourth Wednesday of the month, that means it’s time for Kevin Reynolds from Cards ‘N Stuff and me to bore you all to death with harrowingly awkward subject changes or a whole hour on Mike Matheny’s managerial developments. It could really go either way. And if you play your cards right, you might even get some IBITS (It’ll Be Interesting To See).

So if you’re bored tonight at 10:30 pm Eastern, 9:30 Central, come and humor us with a listen or two. Follow the link below and it’ll stream. If it’s after the show, you can click the link to listen to the podcast version of it.

UCB Radio Hour for April 24, 2013

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Game 20 Notes: Cardinals 2, Nationals 0

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Jon Doble

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Waino is bueno

Through his first five starts of 2012, Adam Wainwright had thrown just 26 2/3 innings, was allowing 1.31 walks and hits per inning pitched, and was sporting a 6.75 ERA. Not this year.

Through five starts in 2013, Wainwright has thrown 37 1/3 innings, has a 0.99 WHIP, and a 1.93 ERA. What a difference a year makes.

He kept the Nationals from threatening all night, allowing just 5 hits over 8 1/3. He added 9 strikeouts to his total. He did surrender his first walk of the season to Bryce Harper in the sixth. But that was the only low point of the game. Continue reading →

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Nationals fans are doing it wrong

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Jon Doble

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Last night it was quite active on Twitter and he even got boos in the stadium, the Nationals fans hate Pete Kozma. And all I can do is laugh about it. It’s like, what did Pete Kozma ever do to them? Only got a critical hit to beat them in Game 5 of last season’s National League Divisional Series. That’s not exactly a boo-able offense.

Calling your team whiners? Sure. Calling your star pitcher a fake? Yep. Kicking your backup catcher in the head and ending his career? That too. Spurn their advances for an extension and sign with another team? Nope. Getting a critical hit in a playoff game? No.

If the shoe had been on the other foot and a Nationals player had gotten a hit to finish a massive comeback and win the series, all I could do is tip my cap to that player and the team. They beat us. That’s their job. They didn’t insult us, they didn’t hurt us, they didn’t showboat, they just did their job. So I’m a little confused as to why there is such animosity towards Kozma. It makes no sense to me.

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3 Up, 3 Down: Week 3

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Jon Doble

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This was supposed to be my big regular feature this season, looking at the team’s trends over the past week and giving you three things that are looking up and three that are looking down.

One Up: Edward Mujica

With the fact that Mitchell Boggs and the rest of the bullpen aredefinitely going to get a mention later on, I felt it only worthwhile to make sure that I note that Edward Mujica is killing it thus far this season. Through 6 innings, he is allowing fewer than one base runner an inning. You have to ask yourself, why hasn’t he been used more?

One Down: Pete Kozma

Over the last 7 days, Pete Kozma has played 5 games and is hitting a paltry .133. Since picking up three hits against San Francisco on April 6th, Kozma is hitting .167 as well. Is the honeymoon coming to an end for Kozma? Has the league finally caught up with him? Only some more time will tell us if this is just a slump or if this is regression to the mean at its finest.

His fielding is sliding too, what was once a double digit UZR/150 is now down to 0.9. The only positive advanced defensive metric that we see is due to the fact he’s only committed one error, but his range is down and as I like to point out, it’s hard to make an error on a ball you don’t get to. Whether he sticks is far more dictated by his glove than his bat, I mean, his backup plan was Ronny Cedeno after all.  Continue reading →

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