Game of the Week: June 4: STL @ LAD

[Commissioner Erick]

St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers


STL: Joe Shilts (7-0, 3.60)
LAD: Edgar E. Garcia: (1-2, 5.01)


Cardinals 3 Key Stats:

.219: Joe Mills’ Batting Average: After a breakout 2028, Mills has regressed a bit in 2029. The over-the-fence power is still there as Country Mills has driven 10 pitches a country mile, but the .273 average has turned into a .219 average. It’s a big reason why the Cardinals are only ninth in average. With Milwaukee running away with the Central and the Wild Card expected to be a dog fight, St. Louis could really use Mills upping his average.

5: Consecutive road series losses to teams with winning records: The Cardinals have taken care of business and they’ve taken care of business against teams with losing records. However, against teams currently over .500, St. Louis is 1-5 in series, and the one win, a mid-April tilt in Philadelphia, required two extra inning wins to sweep the Phillies. It’s not an indictment to lose to good teams on the road, but it does separate good teams with elite teams. For example, Milwaukee has won all four of its road series against winning teams.

1.030: Josh Weyer’s OPS: With Nomar Mazara not hitting and Joe Mills not hitting for average, St. Louis has needed another bat to step up and Weyer has delivered. He has a solid .269 average, and a healthy 14 homers. Weyer’s always been decent at putting the bat on the ball, but this year’s he’s walking too and has more walks than strikeouts. He’ll eventually tail off a little bit, but he’s been a huge reason for St. Louis’ success.


Dodgers 3 Key Stats:


16: Current stretch of consecutive games against winning teams: The Dodgers have played 13 straight against winning clubs, concluding this difficult stretch with tonight’s series against the Cardinals. The stretch has been a real prove-it stretch, illuminating whether or not the Dodgers have what it takes to excel against elite competition. Right now they’re a solid 7-6 against Arizona, Houston, and San Francisco. By holding their own, the Dodgers have maintained control of the NL West. Their schedule remains tough through the end of the month—Atlanta is their next opponent, but while they have a losing record, they’ve won eight straight—but eases up considerably just before the all-star break.

289: Dodgers Runs scored: Los Angeles is third in the league in runs despite numerous injuries to all stars. The Dodgers’ depth should be praised, as well as the team’s ability to hit for a high average. The Dodgers are hitting .277 as a club, second in the NL, fueling their offense despite a lack of pop. Luis Urias is hitting .333, but Alex Verdugo deserves credit for a .312 average. The Dodgers have sometimes trotted out some weak bats in the past, but with Verdugo hitting well, this Dodgers lineup is a lot deeper than prior iterations.

15: Doubles for Nick Allen: Allen only has a pair of homers, but his doubles pop has been a real boon to LA. Allen’s hitting a solid .274 and been a steady glove for the Dodgers. That would be fine, but by hitting so many doubles, he’s been a weapon at the bottom of the order, or the second spot in the lineup. As alluded to above, his ability to hit the sixth most doubles in the league has given the Dodgers offensive depth they’ve needed with so many injured stars.


Questions for the GMs:


For Tim Lentz, Roland Lemon was DFA’s. Why did you DFA him when he was having a reasonably successful year?

You’ve eschewed traditional pitching roles for the most part. Why did you go with that strategy?

Why are you calling up Akil Baddoo and sending down Jaap Hidding?

For Ben Vincent, Luis Urias is nicked up with a bruised knee. Will he play today?

With all the injuries to your infield, how huge has Isaac Paredes been for you?

Will we see Jorge Ramos today or will he go on a rehab assignment?


TRIVIA: Who has played in the most career games for St. Louis?

[Ben_Dodgers]

I think Urias will play, but it’s a game time decision for the manager bot. Ramos is heading for a rehab assignment - he’s missed a month and we want to give him a chance to get his timing back.

Paredes has been a good utility man to be sure. I always make it a priority to have a bench player who can fill in anywhere in the infield. Often that means sacrificing offense. Paredes has been a better bat than we’ve had in the role in past years. Of course with Drouet out, Paredes has been playing every day and so that’s been even more important. The fact that I was able to pick him up in the rule V draft and pay him the minimum has definitely helped with the budget.

[stlgm]

On the surface, Lemon is doing alright. But our advanced metrics are showing that it's been more luck than skill that's keeping him barely league average. He's not done a great job endearing himself to his teammates, so the decision was made to waiver him and call up Eric Soto. Soto was one of the unsung heroes of our 2028 season, and we're excited to call him up to hopefully give the team a spark.


We have done a lot of research on pitching strategies and feel that our current "13 relievers" philosophy gives us the best chance to win. Outside of Detres, we don't have any big league pitchers that are bonafide starting material. So we decided to keep our opponents guessing. You never know what four to six pitchers you could see from us on any given day. Makes it more difficult on teams that rely on platoons and no batter will see our pitchers multiple times in the same game. So far it's worked well, as we're #2 in the NL in ERA. We could move back to a more traditional approach as the season progresses, depending on Detres' health and if Whitt and Medina can continue progressing as they have in AAA.


Baddoo gets the call up as we try to find a spark for the offense. With all of the additions we made this offseason, there's no excuse for this team to be in the bottom half of the NL in nearly every hitting statistic. Baddoo might be able to take advantage of Dodger Stadium and The Nest with his power. If you take out the 2027 season, Baddoo has flown under the radar as a consistent solid player in PBA. Hopefully he can give us a little spark until Clark is ready to return in a week or two.

[Commissioner Erick]

TRIVIA: Tim correctly guessed Joc Pederson

[Commissioner Erick]

Cardinals 7 - Dodgers 3


WP: J. Widdison (1-1)
LP: I. Robles (4-4)


The 7-3 St. Louis win over Los Angeles was due in large part to Joe Mills. The Cardinals second baseman went 1 for 1 with a home run and a walk, while adding 3 RBI and scoring once. The win belongs to Jarod Widdison in relief. His record improves to 1-1. Ismael Robles took the loss for Los Angeles. The triumph puts St. Louis at 33-21 for the season.

St. Louis used the timely hitting of Akil Baddoo to seize the win. The center fielder stroked a 2-run single in the top of the ninth inning to put the Cardinals on top, 4-3. It was his only hit in 4 at-bats, but it was a game-changer.

"We cashed in when we had the chance," said St. Louis manager Tim Lentz.


Questions for the GMs:


For Tim Lentz, Joe Mills got the day off and still managed to slug a three-run homer off the bench. Would you have rather seen Mills stay rested to be fresh for the week, or are you fine with the manager bot pinch hitting him to give your club a shot at a win?

Akil Baddoo had a huge game-tying double. We know you called him up to give your offense a spark, is that why you signed him in the first place?

You signed Adam McGurk in the first round of the recent draft. What do you like about the pitcher?

For Ben Vincent, rough loss. Ismael Robles didn't have it, and has had a few rough outings since mid-May. Are you concerned about how bad he was, or was this just a bad game?

Your club only had one extra base hit in the game, a Pando double. Do you feel like your club could use more power?

Your team didn't have a first-rounder in the recent draft. How do you feel about the selections you made with the picks you had?

[Ben_Dodgers]

Like I mentioned for the last GOTW, I’m concerned about Robles consistency. There have been far too many meltdowns this year, and in his position those often turn directly into losses.

I do think we could use more power. The big downside of losing DeCarlo is the HR potential he had in every at bat. I was expecting Lunsford and Beracierta to provide some, but so far that hasn’t quite worked out. Of course Ramos and Kendall are both 20+ HR guys that have been injured for a while, and Calhoun missed most of the first two months.

This year was an excellent draft class so I’m a little bummed to have missed out on one of the 1st rounders, but I think I’d still rather have Drouet than someone who might never pan out. Vallery fits right into my strategy of drafting well developed college relievers. Gomez looks like he could develop into a power hitting 1B. I have several of those in my system - eventually some of them will see the majors, either on my roster or another teams.

[stlgm]

Totally fine with Mills coming off the bench in that situation. We need every win we can get, so any way we can get Mills into the lineup in crucial situations, we'll take it. He can always get his rest later on during a blowout.

We signed Baddoo in the offseason with the idea that he would be the next man up to play CF if/when Trent Clark hit the IL. Unfortunately, Bad Dude lived up to his name by opting out of his contract at the same time Clark got injured, so we had to adjust on the fly and bring Hidding up while we negotiated with Baddoo to bring him back. Baddoo has a fairly good track record as a respectful starter that can hold his own in the field, so to be able to have him in the organization at the league minimum as a Plan B is a good thing.

McGurk has future ace written all over him. As a college junior, he's already super developed. Elite movement that will keep the ball in the park, strikes out a ton and limits his walks, plus a great personality. We didn't need another ace, but he's everything we look for in a pitcher. Probably the #1 player on our big board, so we were happy to nab him. Hopefully he stays healthy as he progresses quickly through the farm to join what will hopefully be a stacked rotation of Detres-Yera-Medina-Whitt.