My weekend in one picture.
Here are my thoughts on Opening Weekend. I was there, so I was rocking the High Socks and rocking out to a big win for the Birds!
1. Saturday:
It was a great day to go to a game. The sun was out there were some clouds but it was perfect weather.
I think the Cardinals are settling into a pattern here. Taking a couple of innings to "wake-up" then blowing it out of the water. Well that is exactly what happened Saturday. They scored a run and then came back a couple of innings later and blew it out of the water. They scored 7 runs in the 6th inning! It's crazy sauce! It was a lot of fun coming to my first game of the season and watching the Birds blank the Brew-crew in front of the home crowd.
Also, not very often do you see Wainwright or anyone else have a complete game shut out. It's one of those once in a lifetime game and I got to see one. Wainwright was fantastic. He was so efficient that it just gives me as a Cardinal fan faith that maybe, quite maybe, our starting 5 could be becoming an elite group once again. Plus how many times do you see a pitcher go 3-3 in one game! Or a pitcher go from .000 Batting Average to a .375 Batting Average in ONE game! It's unheard of! Well not only was he a great pitcher but a great hitter too.
Also I am a HUGE fan of the Alternate jerseys! They look AMAZING in person! I was more excited about getting the new jersey then getting to go to the game... Hahaha :D Also I had some great personal moments, one, I got my first baseball in forever! My dad reached over the wall and grabbed it for me. He is so awesome!
Also I was fortunate to be able to take a picture in front of the Stan Musial statue. Ever since he passed away, I have wanted to get my picture taken with him and I finally did. I obviously wanted to go there when the shrine was up but going this weekend was good enough.
Well I'm just gonna come out and say it. I love Fredbird. He is absolutely hilarious and he is such a fantastic mascot. We were cracking up because before the game I wanted to take a picture of him in his jersey and what does he start doing? He starts posing! Like he was in the middle of a photoshoot! So funny.
To end the game, one of my favorite things to see after a win is Fredbird waving around the flag. It was a great win and I was so excited going into Sunday and hoping for the sweep.
2. Sunday:
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Oy. I was so excited to be going to the game. My friend Emily and I had been planning on going to this game since we found out that it was Yadi day! Since of course it was a Sunday, it is known as #highsockssunday. I decided to be the dork that I am and wear the high socks and I rocked them! I definitely know what to wear on Sundays now! Yes I will be the crazy person in high socks in the middle of July. Just look for me. I promise here and now I will wear them!
Emily and I are both HUGE fans of Yadier Molina. I loved Mike Matheny when he played for the Cardinals but Yadier has definitely won me over with his great abilities behind the plate. I was super psyched to be going to his special day. For a special day it was really down played, maybe its his personality but it was still cool to see him be honored and of course receive the trophies ourselves...
Well the game started off great! The Cardinals came out strong, Jaime was on track for another fantastic game. Also one of my "babies" is on a hot streak! Ok to explain the "baby" thing, I love Matt Adams. When he got pulled up last year, I loved watching him play. He was a great player and a great hitter. I was super excited when I got to be at the game where he hit his first career home run. Hence me calling him my "baby". Well I realized yesterday, everytime I'm at a game he starts, he hits a home run! That streak continued this weekend! So cool! I'm gonna try and get this hashtag started #adambomb for his home runs because they're gonna keep coming. Also He is definitely making a great case for rookie of the year! He's hitting .611 right now! That's huge! I know he's not an everyday starter but come on! He definitely deserves the respect!!
Some lighter moments before the big bad moments of the end of the game, were Fredbird once again putting on a show. He kept pulling little kids out of the front row to dance with them out on the field!
I'm just grateful that they weren't streaking. That really would have been interesting. I definitely was kicking myself because I saw the whole thing happen and I wish I had gotten a picture. I saw the two gentlemen sitting atop the wall and I was confused and then I saw them drop out of sight and saw them run across the field. I'm pretty sure all the ushers were confused but they got there quickly and took care of the situation. That definitely was a first and it was pretty crazy.
So now the elephant in the room, the bullpen. You know, I had seen the bullpen implode on Opening Day, but for some reason I just thought that maybe, just maybe, they were close to being on track again. Fortunately the bullpen didn't implode in the major way it did on Opening Day. When Rosenthal gave up that two run home run, I'll be honest, I wasn't worried. I was like, okay we blew the shutout and the streak of scoreless innings but its ok. We still can win this. It was after that inning where I became very confused. 1. I wondered why Rosenthal wasn't left in the game. I realize it was a save situation and Boggs is the closer, but Rosenthal was finally on a roll. I definitely thought he should have had the chance to close out the game because we know Boggs is just not a good fit as a closer. Hem hem, we need Jason Motte back. 2. Why did we use Boggs? It was obvious that he did not have his usual stuff and so why did we leave him? Why not bring in Joe Kelly? I know he's not the dubbed closer but he hasn't worked in a week! He definitely needed the work, and I can't imagine he wouldn't have saved the game for the Birds.
Hindsight is 20/20, so we can only speculate as to what would have happened, or what should have happened but we aren't being paid the money to do that job. Matheny is and he has done a pretty remarkable job thus far. But now we need to figure out what we are going to do with the bullpen. Obviously we are running into the situation we had with Ryan Franklin in 2011. I believe that Boggs is a great reliever, yes I do mean reliever. He was incredible last year in the 8th inning. He just doesn't have the stuff to be a great closer. I really think until Motte comes back, if he does come back and doesn't need surgery, we need to find a closer. I'm all for trying Kelly as the closer. I don't know but I really think he could do the job very well. Call me crazy but since he's used to working as a starter, and coming in in big situations, I think he's our best bet.
The game didn't end the way we wanted it to obviously but we can't blame it all on the bullpen. We set it up to a perfect situation for a walk off win. We had our hottest hitter up and ready to walk off and unfortunately Adams didn't pull it off. Then we had David Freese come up. I mean HELLO!! Who else is the perfect guy to have up in that situation!?!?! Yes the bullpen lost it for us but our big bats did not help the cause and put even more pressure on our already taxed and rough bullpen.
All in all it was a great weekend. I would have loved to have seen the brooms brought out for the sweep but I'm glad that I got to see one win this weekend. The Cardinals are in the same situation they have been in so many other times. Most recently in 2011, when of course thats when the won the World Series and in 2006 and the same result happened. Maybe this is leading to good things again but we can't bank on anything yet. We just have to remember that its the beginning of the year. We still have plenty of time and hey! The Cardinals are still in first place! Nothing could be better!
~Emily
@emicall_12
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