Game Thread (4/14/2022): Cardinals (Wainwright) at Brewers (Woodruff) - 4:14 PM CDT

[Eye Black]

[Eye Black]

The Brewers Home Opener and Milwaukee’s 414 Day converge with a 4:14PM CT start time.

For those partaking in the festivities and/or tailgating, dress warmly! 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

It bothers me that Adam Wainwright has seemingly found the Fountain of Youth and is seemingly good again after a four-year stretch from 2016-2019 where he looked like he was pretty much done. That isn't supposed to happen for pitchers in their late 30s ... but Cardinals juju pixie dust is strong.

Hopefully the Brewers can right nature and trends today, and begin shoving Wainwright toward where he belongs - retirement.

[Brock Beauchamp]

With the ugliness of that Cubs series behind the Brewers and vastly improved weather, it's time to stomp a division opponent, probably the only opponent the Brewers need to worry about this season.

[Eye Black]

One early season positive sign is both Yelich and McCutchen have shown elite chase rates so far (a stat that generally stabilizes fairly quickly). The league average O-Swing% is around 30%, and both are far below that in terms of chasing pitches outside of the zone. Particularly impressive in McCutchen’s case is he’s swung at nearly half the pitches he’s seen this year and yet isn’t swinging at bad pitches. 

[Pugger]

I hope Woody has a much better outing today like Burnes did yesterday.

[BruisedCrew]

If the Brewers are fortunate enough to score a few runs and take a lead into the late innings, I wonder who will be called on in the late innings. Both Williams and Hader were down on their velocity yesterday which might reflect pitching 3 times in 4 days without a lot of game action in spring training. I assume they will both be unavailable today,

Might need Suter, Cousins, and Gott to get to the finish line today if an opportunity presents itself.

[BruisedCrew]

2 hours ago, Eye Black said:

One early season positive sign is both Yelich and McCutchen have shown elite chase rates so far (a stat that generally stabilizes fairly quickly). The league average O-Swing% is around 30%, and both are far below that in terms of chasing pitches outside of the zone. Particularly impressive in McCutchen’s case is he’s swung at nearly half the pitches he’s seen this year and yet isn’t swinging at bad pitches. 

Seems to me that Yelich neither chases nor swings at pitches in the strike zone early in the count.

My concern with him is not that he chases bad pitches but that he watches or fails to drive hittable pitches in the strike zone.

[treego14]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

vastly improved weather,

Not today ... that wind will blow your chimney off unless you have it secured!

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, treego14 said:

Not today ... that wind will blow your chimney off unless you have it secured!

Well, there is a roof. I meant the weather on the field, not outside. ?

[pitchleague]

Have fun, everyone.  I’ll be going on media blackout mode here in a bit and will watch the game when I get home after work.

hopefully, nobody spoils things for me. (Doubtful here in Arizona, but it has happened before.)

[Brock Beauchamp]

The lineups are out:

Cardinals, home of the best baseball fans in the world:
RF D. Carlson S
1B P. Goldschmidt R
LF T. O'Neill R
3B N. Arenado R
DH A. Pujols R
SS Paul DeJong R
CF H. Bader R
C Y. Molina R
2B Tommy Edman S
P Wainwright R

Hometown Boys:
2B Kolten Wong L
SS Willy Adames R
LF C. Yelich L
DH A. McCutchen R
1B Rowdy Tellez L
RF H. Renfroe R
C Omar Narvaez L
CF Lorenzo Cain R
3B J. Peterson L
P Woodruff R

[owbc]

Cutch is currently on pace to surpass JBJ's 2021 hit total on June 15th. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Will Wainwright just get on with it and be the bad late career pitcher he wants to be?

There's a model, Adam. There's a Cardinal model and its name is 'The Jeff Suppan Late Career Regression' Model'. It's time to read up and get back to your Cardinal roots, Mr. Wainwright. Honor your vets. Become your inner Suppan. It's time to WainWrong!

[BruisedCrew]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Well, there is a roof. I meant the weather on the field, not outside. ?

The weather was good in Baltimore and the Brewers offense was pretty terrible. A shutout on Monday, 5 runs on Tuesday (3 of them courtesy of the Orioles defense), and 2 runs on 4 hits yesterday until the ninth inning explosion that won the game. 
 

3 runs per game isn’t going to get very far and now they are facing a better team than in the first two series. It’s going to take more than 3 runs per game to take more than one game in this series. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Albert Pujols last played for Saint Louis in 2011. The last time he faced the Brewers as a Cardinal was September 7, 2011. Eleven years later, their lineup looks pretty similar.

[owbc]

Chris Carpenter has to explain things to his teenager now. 

[Brewcrew82]

32 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Albert Pujols last played for Saint Louis in 2011. The last time he faced the Brewers as a Cardinal was September 7, 2011. Eleven years later, their lineup looks pretty similar.

*In the regular season. But yeah, otherwise nothing's changed. 

[HarryDoyle]

Who's this new play by play guy?

[HarryDoyle]

Clutch Cutch!

[stalton]

Good to be home!

[HarryDoyle]

I'm so glad Pujols is back in the division to teach us all about respecting the game.

[HarryDoyle]

Come on, Wong.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Great stab from Wong. Just has to be aware of who's running.

I fully expect Pujols to hit all 20 of the HRs he needs to get to 700 against Milwaukee.

Okay, maybe 15 ?

 

[HarryDoyle]

Pujols bails Wong out. Couldn't stand prosperity I guess.