Tag: trevor rosenthal

Cards get last laugh with mad Wrigley escape

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(In case you missed it on KSDK Sports this morning)

The game of baseball will smack you around many times throughout the 162 game season. Heartache follows the brutal losses and mad elation follows the thrilling wins. After engaging in a unintentional vigilante bean ball war brought to you folks by Tony Soprano over the first two games at Wrigley Field, the Cardinals stole the finale on Sunday and gave fans a sense of calm. Well, sort of.

The pitching was good for the most part. Carlos Martinez quieted the mighty bats of the Cubs down over 6.2 innings, allowing just two runs and striking out six batters in a frenzied environment. Right when you think this 24 year has impressed us to the tilt, he blows you away again. After a shaky stretch of starts that started midway through August, Martinez has fired off a pair of brilliant starts in a row on the road against division opponents.

The bullpen bent but didn’t break. Kevin Siegrist put out a fire and started another. Jonathan Broxton walked a couple guys, evoking painful memories of Chris Perez from years ago. Seth Maness came on and got the most unlikely double play before Trevor Rosenthal threw 6+ pitches at 100 mph or more for his 46th save. After a walk heavy season where K/BB ratio was 2-1, in 2015 Rosenthal has improved that ratio to 4 to 1. Impressive for a guy with a newborn at home. Can you imagine his daughter when she grows up? “When I was born, my dad was throwing 100 mph fastballs.”

The lineup did just enough. Young guns Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty provided all the offense the Birds would need with a pair of early two run home runs before Cubs pitcher Jon Lester settled down. Pham’s was a true shot, flying high out of Wrigley. It was the rookie’s fourth home run on the road trip.

The defensive came in the form of Jason Heyward and Tony Cruz. Maness induced a flyball with the bases loaded in the 8th inning and Heyward caught it in shallow right center field and fired a strike to Yadier Molina at homeplate to nail Anthony Rizzo and keep the game in the Cardinals favor. Heyward, according to Fangraphs, has saved 19 runs above average in right field this season and is arguably the defensive rightfielder in the game. He also leads the team in batting averages and stolen bases. Worth every penny. He will only get better as the years go by.

With the win, the Cards slipped out of Wrigley with a little dignity and kept the hard charging Cubs in check. The lead over Chicago is now six games and the Pirates are still four games out with 13 games left in the regular season. The final homestand includes three games with the Cincinnati Reds and four games with the Milwaukee Brewers before the Pirates get one final three game shot and then the Birds finish in Atlanta.

The Cards have clinched a wildcard game spot at the very least, but now aim to seal their lock on the division this week at Busch Stadium. If the Cards go at least 7-6(finishing with 100 wins), the Pirates would have to go 11-2 to tie them. That’s just one of the scenarios. Time is on the Cards side as the final stretch of 2015 unfolds. It may not have seemed like it(wait, it really did), but Sunday’s was huge to come home on a high note and to get the last laugh in Wrigley during the regular season.

What do you think the Cards’ record will be after the action on October 4th wraps up?

Questioning Trevor Rosenthal’s paternity leave is ludicrous

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Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a day and age where baseball players and their teams are lambasted for feeling the need to be with their wives as they give birth to their children. Yep, it’s not 1930 anymore. Players are allowed to leave the team via paternity leave to witness what every man should see at least once in his life. The birth of a baby. Nothing can equal it. Then again, if you ask some Cardinals fans, it’s just not right. The latest from the Twitter desk….

This is what started the firestorm today. John isn’t alone. There were others who said in not so subtle terms that Rosenthal leaving the team during a pennant race wasn’t convenient. I’m not going to track all the comments down. I’ll be subtle yet direct. At the end of the day, if people are sincerely mad at a player for wanting to see their child born, that speaks about something about that particular person that runs far deeper than baseball. That’s just ludicrous.

Mike Matheny has done this before. Peter Bourjos left to be with his wife. So have other players. It’s a staple in this organization and others around the league. That is why there are 25 men on the roster. That is why teams carry a deep bullpen and bench. That is why there are three farm teams at a team’s disposal. The grueling schedule of baseball covers more than just six months a year. It’s a year round job that doesn’t wear off until Christmas and sparks up again during the first month of the year. Baseball players are highly paid professionals but that doesn’t mean they can’t be with their families at a moment that is as precious as it gets.

So The Rosenthal Propane Fastball Distillery was closed for a few days. Get over it. The Cards can make due. They got others who can throw the heat and get the job done. It isn’t like this just sprung up on Rosenthal and the Cardinals. This had been in the making for months.

When my wife gave birth to our soon to be four year old son Vinny(Rosenthal’s first girl, Chloe, has a birthday on September 13th, one day shy of my son), I was at work doing my job. I was looking for a certain brand of ant killer spray and oblivious to how that would go. My supervisor came and got me, and told me what was happening and immediately followed it with, “Goodbye”. He knew how special the occasion was. I wonder if they didn’t tell me and I left my shift and it was over. That would have been wrong.

Why rob Rosenthal of that moment just because he plays for the Cardinals, one of the most popular teams in the country? At the end of the day, it’s human beings playing a game that they call a living. There will be times when the team has to make due without one of their guys. Good thing there is no “I’ in team, right?

Congratulations to the Rosenthal’s on the birth of their second child and girl. Lots of sleepless nights for Rosenthal and Cardinals fans this fall.

Hat tip to Joe Schwarz(@stlCupofJoe) for the tweet used here.

Photo courtesy of USA Today