Even so, I have to say, Wellemeyer wasn't even close to being the best pitcher the Cardinals put out on the mound tonight. Jason Motte was far and away the best. Not even a contest.
Seventh inning, men on second and third, one out, Cards with a two run lead. Motte comes in to the game, replacing Trever Miller, who got the first out of the inning after Wellemeyer gave up a walk and a base hit to start it off. Now, in a situation like that, you might expect a guy to be careful. At least a little bit, right? Try to hit the corners, maybe use the breaking ball, keep the hitters off balance. After all, any hit there probably ties the game. So what does Motte do?
Jason Motte throws seven straight fastballs, all of a specific variety I like to refer to as Fuck You Fastballs. FUF's are a very special type of fastball, the type you occasionally see from pitchers who know the hitters just can't touch their heat. Motte averaged 98.1 mph in the seventh, and only threw one ball, a pitch to Billy Butler that was clearly meant to be well out of the zone. (That 98.1 velocity comes from Pitch F/X, by the way, not the gun that FSN uses.) He got three swinging strikes in that inning. It was as overpowering a performance as we've seen this season.
-Did anyone else think that Tyler Greene's home run was just going to be a medium deep fly ball to right? I thought it was a can of corn off the bat, then when it was about 200 foot from home plate, I thought it might be in the gap, and then it just sort of kept carrying right over everything. Possibly the most surprising home run I can think of at the moment.
-It was great to see Khalil Greene get the base hit tonight to plate a couple of runs. I still have my doubts that he should be out there playing right now, but it's certainly still encouraging to see him be able to perform.
-Kyle Lohse has one hell of a steep hill to climb if he wants to match up to what the rest of the Cards' starters are doing right now. Since the beginning of the series against the Cubs, the starters have thrown 29 innings, and have given up exactly one run. That's an ERA of 0.31.
-Al Hrabosky is still just goddawful. That's all I got.
-And one last thing. The Busch Stadium crew needs to get that fucking I in Big Mac Land fixed really soon, because I can't take any more of these ridiculous jokes that the broadcasters are making. Seriously. Fix the goddamn thing. Now.
