A little glitch pregame with Oli Marmol being sick with the flu would force Skip Schumaker to make his managerial debut, and what a debut it was!
Mikolas would make his season debut, facing off with the hard throwing right-hander, Mitch Keller. Mikolas never had his stuff today, as he was leaving his sinker up in the zone consistently, leading to a 41-pitch top of the 1st. Luckily, the Pirates are terrible and couldn’t force more than one run across, stranding the bases loaded after the first three batters of the game would reach base.
Mik would make his way to 3.2IP on 77 pitches, allowing 6 hits, 2ER, 2bb/ 1k. The only Pirate that would do damage vs Mik would be, you guessed it, Yoshi Tsutsugo. Tsutsugo would drive in both Pittsburgh runs on a sac-fly in the 1st and a single to LCF in the 3rd.
The Cardinals would get the early Pirates run back quickly with an Arenado rbi double to score Carlson, who singled and stole 2B to start the game.
Arenado’s big day wasn’t done yet, as he would drive in 2 more runs, ending his day (4-4, 3 2B, 3rbi). He would tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the 3rd with an rbi single RF to score Goldy, who reached on an infield single to start the inning. Two batters later, Pauly Deez sent his 1st HR of the year to the treeeeez, stroking the fastball to the Cards pen in RCF (103.8mph exit velocity, 377 feet). It’s always a good sign when Deez is driving the ball the opposite way, let’s hope the trend continues.
Corey Dickerson would get his first Cardinals hit and rbi in the bottom of the 5th, sending a single back up the middle to score Arenado, who stroked a one-out double the at bat before.
Arenado collected his 3rd 2B and 3rd rbi in the bottom half of the 6th, driving in Goldy to make it a 6-2 game with the pen absolutely dealing.
Speaking of the pen, they’d work 5.1IP scoreless (Whitley, Wittgren, Teeeej, Helsley, Gio) in relief of Mikolas. Whitley would get credited with his first career major league win, as Wittgren, Teeeej, and Helsely would pick up their 1st holds of the season. Helsley was DEALING in his 1.1IP, striking out 3 and consistently hitting 100mph+ with his fastball, while also flashing that disgusting cutter he possesses.
Steven Matz makes his Cardinals debut tomorrow afternoon, looking for an opening series sweep, facing off against Bryse Wilson. First pitch from Busch Stadium is scheduled for 1:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew