The Cardinals find themselves back at .500 as they defeated the Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Tuesday night.
After a major pitching milestone the night before from Sonny Gray who recorded his career 100th win, Cardinals veteran right-hander Lance Lynn pitched a gem himself. Lynn went 7th full innings, and only allowed two runs against the Athletics, sealing the team’s 9th victory of the season.
Lynn found himself with a few milestones in the outing on Tuesday. He moved into 9th place all-time in Cardinals History in strikeouts with 938 wearing the birds on the bat. He is currently 13 strikeouts away from Steve Carlton who sits in 8th place all-time with 951 in his Cardinals career.
His 7 innings pitched was also only the second time this season a St. Louis Pitcher went that far into a game (Kyle Gibson). His 101 pitches were also the most of any Cardinals pitcher this season.
Lance had it going on Tuesday night, and the data backs it up. Below, you can see that his velocity and spin was up compared to his yearly average.
Although many were skeptical about the veteran additions to the rotation this season for St. Louis, they are doing exactly what was intended of them heading into the year. Take the ball every fifth day and pitch as deep into games as you can. Something that was drastically missing in the downfall of the 2023 season.
Lynn finally had his chance to do that on Tuesday as his lengthy outing wasn’t interrupted by inclement weather as ones earlier in the year. After the win on Tuesday, he currently sits at an impressive 2.18 ERA in 20.2 innings of work.
The strong outing continued as the bullpen took over in the eighth inning as both JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley continued to dominate the late innings.
Romero appeared again for the second time in this series and pitched on back-to-back nights. He took care of the Oakland batters quickly in the eighth inning, as he faced the minimum of three batters to retire the side. Romero quickly got 2 outs in the inning on a pair of ground balls to Nolan Arenado. He ended the inning with some redemption from the night prior. Romero recorded a strikeout on pinch hitter Esteury Ruiz after he hit a home run off him the night before. JoJo Romero has been outstanding so far this season, he already has 7 holds in 9 appearances and is becoming a staple for the Cardinals in high-leverage spots.
Ryan Helsley completed his 7th save of the season and currently leads all of the major leagues in that category after the game on Tuesday. Like Romero, Helsley also faced the minimum in his 9th inning of work and recorded one strikeout. He already has half the amount of saves he had all of 2023 (14). He has not allowed a hit in his last four outings out of the bullpen and has a 1.00 ERA in April.
Fittingly, the Cardinals scored their first run of the game with some ‘Whitey Ball’ tactics. The former Cardinals General Manager and Manager Whitey Herzog, who led them to a World Series victory in 1982 passed away Tuesday at the age of 92. His teams were known to play fast, with base hits, bunts, and a ton of stolen bases.
In the 3rd inning, after the Cardinals let up the lead the Redbirds found themselves quickly tied back up. Masyn Winn walked, and then quickly stole his 3rd base of the season. Jordan Walker followed with another walk and Michael Siani threw down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. Brendan Donovan, who has been fantastic for the Cardinals in the leadoff spot so far this season, grounded out to third base but collected his 10th RBI of the year as Masyn Winn scored.
Masyn Winn has shown much improvement so far this season, especially at the plate. In his brief time up in 2023, Winn struggled with the bat at found himself with an ugly .172 batting average and only a .468 OPS. So far this season, that has changed for the new everyday shortstop for the Cardinals. Winn is looking completely comfortable and extremely confident at the plate to begin 2024 and his numbers are showing the proof. He currently has a .362 batting average (best on the team) and a .885 OPS (2nd best behind Willson Contreas .889 OPS) after Tuesday’s Contest.
Defensively his play is a marvel to watch, but sometimes due to the speed of his throws, he tends to make a few mistakes. One happened on Tuesday night, that allowed Athletics Tyler Nevin to reach on a ground ball after Winn made a beautiful catch to stop the ball from reaching the outfield, unfortunately, the throw to first was off the mark and Nevin was awarded second base for the throwing error. Although Nevin came into score after reaching base from the throwing error, I am not worried about these types of plays Winn is making whatsoever. The defensive aggressiveness is exactly what this team needs, and the successful plays that will be made by Masyn Winn when Cardinals Manager Oli Marmol and the rest of the staff let him play his way will easily outweigh the few mistakes, he makes over what should be a very long and productive career at shortstop.
On another bright note to this Redbird winner, Nolan Arenado celebrated his 33rd birthday on the field Tuesday night. He was impressive defensively as he always is (has 10 gold gloves to prove it) and found himself with two hard-hit singles and a run. After struggling offensively to begin the year, this road trip for Arenado has woken up the bat for the 12-year veteran (thanks Jobu). The half-swing attempts appear to be in the past, as he is showing more confidence in the batter’s box and appears to be seeing the ball a lot better. I would like to see him walk a little more, as he only has one on the season, but as long as he is finding himself on base, I won’t complain too much.
The Cardinals will look for the sweep on Wednesday (2:37 PM CT) against the Oakland Athletics. The Cardinals will hand the ball to Steven Matz who is coming off a no-decision against the Diamondbacks on April 12th. Matz currently has a 1.80 ERA in 15.0 innings of work. He has only allowed 3 walks and 3 runs so far this season. For the Athletics, they will turn to Paul Blackburn. The Oakland ace has been nothing short of impressive to begin the season as he has yet to allow a run in his first three starts and 19.1 innings of work.
Diamond Dingers 
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