Saturday was the Cardinals' annual Hall of Fame game that my dad and I attend each year. This year, the snag was he couldn't get logged into his account to buy tickets, so I had to. We got there over an hour early because he wanted us to stop in town to run some errands on the way, and that actually put us ahead of schedule. Which meant a lot of sitting and trying not to be annoyed by all the announcements over the loudspeaker. Did see about five people get to throw a "first pitch". Rather than have pitcher Austin Gomber catch them, they should have let backup catcher Francisco Pena do it. Yadier Molina has started the last 27 games at catcher, so at least Pena would get some time on the field.
(Frankly, letting your 36-year old catcher start 27 games in a row in the middle of St. Louis summer strikes me as kind of stupid.)
The inductees this year were Harry Breechen, Vince Coleman, and Ray Lankford. I though I heard the announcer refer to Breechen as the "second-greatest lefthander in Cardinals' history," which I assume would mean behind Steve Carlton. Except I don't think Carlton was really phenomenal until after the Cardinals stupidly traded him. Maybe I misheard. I felt kind of bad for Lankford because he doesn't quite have that signature stat you can point to. Breechen won three games in the '46 World Series. Coleman was Rookie of the Year in '85, stole 110 bases that year, led the league in steals every season he was a Cardinal, went to two World Series (even if he missed one because of that damn predatory tarp). The Cardinals' teams of the '90s weren't particularly good, and Ray was just a very good player for a long time. He's in the Top 10 in a lot of categories for the franchise, Top 5 in home runs. He does hold the record for most home runs hit at the previous Busch Stadium, but that's kind of a wonky stat. Anyway, it was a nice ceremony.
As for the game, they were playing the Brewers, with a chance to overtake Milwaukee in the division and in the wild card race. Things got off the a bad start because Miles Mikolas hit the second batter, Lorenzo Cain, who was displeased. My dad and I didn't know this at the time, but that's the third time the Cards have hit Cain this season. And it looks like Paul DeJong got hit the night before, so possibly retaliation? I don't know. Wade Miley was pitching for the Brewers, and in the bottom of the first, threw a pitch low that I guess was close enough to Tyler O'Neill the ump felt it necessary to warn both teams. Miley was visibly annoyed, and so was his manager Craig Counsell who came out, argued, and was ejected.
Travis Shaw led off the top of the second with a solo home run, to the delight of the two Brewers' fans sitting directly in front of me. Marcell Ozuna led off the bottom of the second with a solo home run into Big Mac Land, so tie game.
The bottom of the third was a ridiculous sequence of events. Kolten Wong leads off with a sharply hit single. OK, that's not ridiculous. Mikolas comes up to bat, clearly going to bunt. Miley tries to pick Wong off first, but first baseman Jesus Aguilar was sure Miley was pitching, and had already started rushing towards home to field the bunt. Wong got back to first easily, and was hit on the elbow by the throw. He left the game after the end of the inning. We joked Miley should have been tossed for hitting an opposing player. Hey, the ump warned them (Miley was not thrown out).
Mikolas did bunt, right back to Miley, who threw out Wong at second. Matt Carpenter hit one to Aguilar, who threw out Mikolas at second, but no one from Milwaukee got back to cover first in time, so Carpenter was safe. Molina swung and missed at strike 3, but the catcher missed it and the ball rolled to the backstop. Molina made it to first, and Carpenter advanced to second. O'Neill hits a pop-up into short right that falls in no man's land, Carp scores, Molina advances to third. Aguilar was closest, although I think the ball was going to be out of reach, but it seemed like he pulled his arm back at the last second. Maybe he thought the second baseman was coming in. Ozuna walked, loading the bases, then DeJong hit a 15-hopper through the middle of the infield that scored Molina and O'Neill. Three runs, all coming with two outs, and Wong's single was the only hard hit ball in there. *Shrug*
The Brewers threatened briefly in the sixth, but got nothing. Miley left after 5 innings, and the Cardinals got to reliever Corey Knebel. DeJong was safe on a grounder to short. Orlando Arcia double-clutched before he made the throw, and it short-hopped, and Aguilar couldn't come up with it. They charged the error to Arcia. Jedd Gyorko drew a walk, then Harrison Bader put one on the gap, scoring both of them while he slid into third with a triple. The throw was offline, so he could have gone in standing up, but nothing wrong with having some fun. Cards up 6-1.
(Bader plays all out and he's fast, and the fans love him. I should, but he took over Tommy Pham's spot, so there's some lingering resentment. I never warmed up to Royce Clayton either, after he took Ozzie Smith's job, and don't get me started on Ryan Theriot taking over from Brendan Ryan.)
Mikolas was done after six innings, not a bad idea given the sixth had been a struggle. My dad was not enthused about the bullpen getting involved. I understand his concern, but the bullpen is a lot better since most of the worst relievers are injured (Luke Gregerson), in the minors (Matt Bowman, Tyler Lyons), or on other teams (Greg Holland). Mike Mayers mostly breezed through the 7th. They brought in lefty Chasen Shreve for the 8th, who faced lefty Christian Yelich, who promptly put on over the centerfield fence. He got Cain out, then Moustakas hit a soft liner into center Bader made a pretty great diving play on. The Cardinals got one more in the 8th, after Ozuna collected his second walk, then scored on a double by DeJong. Daniel Poncedeleon threw a quiet 9th, and the Cards win, 7-2.
They've won the last three games we've attended, and 5 of the 7 we've seen in this ballpark. Other notes:
- The Brewers' fans in front of us left in the middle of the 8th. I was glad they didn't have more to cheer about, because I think they'd have been obnoxious. The Cardinals' fans on either side of us also left sometime in the 8th, which was nice since those seats are pretty tiny. My dad was getting cramped, and I wasn't loving my spot, either.
- The people on my right didn't make it to their seats until the third inning (just long enough for me to think I'd have some extra space), then left in the 8th. I'm not complaining, but what the hell's the point of even coming to the game then?
- The Wave tried to start sometime in the top half of the 8th. Boooo.
- The brewers starting catcher tonight was Eric Kratz, who was the Pirates' catcher in the game we attended in 2010. He's hitting significantly better this year than the .125 he was hitting back then. He's still not hitting well, mind you, just better.
- After Cain was plunked, as he slowly walked down the first base line, yelling a few things in the direction of the Cardinals' dugout, Matt Carpenter and Molina took up positions about halfway between the pitchers' mound and the base line. In case he decided to make a sprint for Mikolas (who was pretty much ignoring the whole thing, or giving the impression of it). I'm pretty sure Cain could get past Molina without much effort, but it's worth a chance. Cain gave no impression he was going to do that, though.
- Matt Carpenter has different walk-up music from whatever it was last year that annoyed the hell out of me.
- Jesus Aguilar had a rough game. Struck out looking to end the first, on a pitch he through was high, so he and the ump argued a bit. Couldn't come up with the pop fly in the third (good hustle, though), or that short-hopped throw in the sixth. Struck out swinging to end the 8th, and slammed his bat and helmet to the ground.
- After that second K, my dad wondered if Aguilar would be fined. Apparently MLB stated they weren't going to tolerate that kind of thing this year? I'm not bothered by it, as long as the bat or helmet don't go ricocheting at some weird angle and injury someone. Guy is frustrated with how things are going.
- There was a guy a couple rows in front of us wearing an Oakland Athletics' cap. Kind of random.
- According to Counsell, when he was arguing with the ump, the ump said they knew there would be trouble this series. Counsell asked if that was the case, why wasn't Mikolas ejected? We know how that conversation ended for Counsell. The ump warning both teams so early was a mistake, though, because then he's backed into a corner. If Miley was trying to throw at O'Neill, he did a poor job of it, so why put everybody on edge? Now if anyone loses control of a pitch, both sides may get riled and then the whole thing gets stupid.
- Although Cardinals' infielder Greg Garcia was hit on the ankle in the 8th by Corbin Burnes, and Burnes was not ejected. Doubtful it was intentional. They're into the 6th inning of Sunday's game as I type this, and nobody has been plunked so far, thankfully.
Past trips to the park:
August 2010
August 16, 2014
August 15, 2015
August 27, 2016
April 8, 2017
August 26, 2017
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