Series Recap - Cardinals @ Red Sox
I have literally no time today, and just ducked away into a meeting room to write this, so I am going with the old style of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good
My pick for Nick Pivetta to receive Cy Young votes looks better and better by the start. Over his last 10 outings, he has a 2.07 ERA, .87 WHIP, 9.1 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 (that one is the biggest difference from the beginning of the season imo), and a .176 BAA (stats courtesy of Tyler Milliken). He is a fucking psychopath and I love every second of watching him pitch. I legitimately think if we had any other manager, Nick Pivetta would quite literally remove his head from his body if he tried to go to the bullpen.
John Schreiber is the best middle reliever in baseball. He gave us a couple different good innings of work this series, and making the Cardinals look foolish Sunday was masterful. Good lord did I need a cigarette after that top half of the 8th. These weren't any slouches either, it was Brendan Donovan (batting .315 on the year), Goldschmidt, and Arenado.
Home Runs are tight as fuck, especially when it's guys that you don't expect. Vazquez specifically has a unique ability to give us a dinger exactly when we need it.
Rob Refsnyder is actually a legitimate option now when JBJ, Hernandez, or Verdugo needs a day off.
We won the fucking series and that is all that matters. I love that mentality from, AC. Take it one series at a time. We can't control the other teams in the AL East, only ourselves.
The Bad
Kutter Crawford showed that he still has a lot to figure out. His offspeed was consistently being left right down the dick and a vetaran lineup like the Cardinals will take advantage of that.
Franchy can't field. It's as simple as that. That ball to left field was tough, but any one of our other outfielders makes that play.
Austin Davis imploding is just very much not a good thing. It's a bad outing, and I really hope it doesn't turn into a trend, and he did recover on Saturday, giving us 3 innings in a low leverage situation so we didn't have to use up the rest of our guys, so that is why he isn't in The Ugly with the rest of our shit-bum pen (minus like 2 guys).
Vazquez's defense has struggled, but his offensive contributions are making up for it.
The Ugly (The Bullpen)
What happened to Hansel Robles? Giving up 4 ER and only picking up one out? Figure it the fuck out pal.
HeroSaw can get the fuck out
I just want a closer man. That shouldn't be too much to ask for. I'm sick of needing to burn Houck because no one in our pen can close out games. It just gets old.