Commish’s Offerings 5-15-2023

Rick Hummel is presented by:

Fast Eddie’s Bon Air

in Alton, Illinois

Recapping the Boston Sweep

St Louis-

Any time a team rallies from some depths to regain respectability, there are several factors involved. In the case of the Cardinals this weekend, there were equal parts chicanery and managerial decisions gone right.

Willson Contreras hasn't been the Cardinals' catcher for more than a week now—until tonight—but that didn't affect his ability to have an impact on the three-game sweep in Boston, notably on Saturday night. It was then that DH Contreras, with his one-foot-in-, one-foot-out of the batter's box to trying to gain the upper hand on the pitch timer, thoroughly confused Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen, who looked like a closer with four saves rather than 400.

Contreras achieved two of the four balls he needed for a walk without Jansen throwing a pitch in the ninth inning.

And, then for the second game in succession, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol chose just the right time to spring loose his best power hitter, Nolan Gorman, from the bench where he had spent most of the game after the Red Sox had opened with a left-handed starter. Gorman homered off Jansen to win Friday's game. He hit a pinch double off Jansen to help win Saturday's game.

All the while, as Contreras spent his exile as a designated hitter, backup catcher Andrew Knizner had the week of his life. While the Cardinals were winning six of seven to give them at least a tunnel to escape the division cellar, Knizner was seven for 26 with a monstrous homer to center in Fenway Park and four doubles.

He also handled six starts of at least five innings by Cardinals pitchers and one of six. This may be the new norm for the Cardinals—five strong innings instead of a standard six—because their bullpen, with Andre Pallante back from a trip to Memphis and a revitalized Jordan Hicks, who made the Red Sox look silly on Sunday, can give the Cardinals enough relief to cover four innings.

The only trouble with this theory is that the Cardinals are only three games into a 19-games-in-19 days stretch and covering nearly four innings might be too much.

Erratic Jack Flaherty can help assuage some of their fears by dialing one up tonight as the Cardinals face seven games on a home stand with two first-place clubs in Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

The Cardinals want to re-establish Contreras as their starting catcher but why would they advertise that on Saturday? Now they've won two more games in impressive fashion and it seems to make more sense to stay with Knizner—for the moment.