Well, one down. Unfortunately, it went in the wrong win column. But it wasn’t as awful as all that. The bulk of the Cardinals’ offense was on a single hit that Nelson Cruz almost got. It definitely fell under the category of “good break” for St. Louis.
The game was a pitcher’s duel for awhile. When one says “pitching duel”, you think of well pitched games, with lots of strikeouts, and not a lot of messing around. That’s not the way this one went. CJ Wilson was “effectively wild”. While his line wasn’t too bad, he did walk a ton of guys, and got out of a few innings with double plays. He was anything but crisp. 5.2innings and just three earned runs isn’t too bad. But he had more walks (six) than hits – although two of them were listed as intentional (one wasn’t, really). He also hit Albert Pujols. So he was all over the place. Came out of the game with 94 pitches. The World Series is not a time to mess around.
Our pen kept the Cardinals down, throwing 2.1 innings of scoreless relief between Ogando, Gonzalez, & Feldman. That part was as advertised. But Wilson continues to underwhelm this post season. He’s pitching like a #5 starter, not a #1 starter.
Offensively, we never got much sustained. In fact, our two runs came solely on a longball by Mike Napoli – a no doubter oppo to right field. We had just six hits total. Two by Kinsler, two by Adrian Beltre, and one each by Nelson Cruz & Mike Napoli. Not a lot of offense there.
While I didn’t like the outcome of the game, I did like the three Stella Artois beers I drank during the game. :)
It WAS a good game, even though we lost.