After an atrocious start to the 2023 MLB season, the St. Louis Cardinals are now 8-2 in their past 10 games. St. Louis had only won eight games in all of April.
From clubhouse issues to an incredibly public short-lived beef between player and coach, to announcing their big free-agent signing was no longer going to play the position formerly occupied by legend Yadier Molina, the Cardinals season has been a mess.
For 19 years, the St. Louis Cardinals have had the same catcher behind the dish — Yadier Molina. So when he finally decided to hang up the spikes, the Cardinals had two big holes to fill. One behind the dish, and a much bigger and much more dooming hole in the clubhouse — something that has yet to be filled and it is very evident thus far into the season.
The front office went out and got one of the biggest free agents on the market in 31-year-old catcher Wilson Contreras. The two parties agreed on a 5-year $87.5M contract in the offseason. The long-time Chicago Cub crossed enemy lines as he made the 5-hour drive down south. Contreras had very big shoes to fill, and it has taken a long adjustment period.
There had been talks to move him into left field, or to only utilize his bat and move him into the designated hitter spot. These discussions had come out of the corn, but reports had come out that there was tension between the newly acquired free agent and the pitching staff. Maybe the calls are different, the way he sets up is different, the way he is a vastly better hitter than defender. The only thing that is certain is that he is not Yadi.
Since these reports have broken, the Cardinals have only lost one game, Contreras personally got tired of hearing these talks. So he decided to take game one against the Dodgers into his own hands.
The Cardinals went down early as the star-studded Dodgers jumped on 41-year-old legend Adam Wainwright. Loading the bases in the top of the first, and then cashed in when veteran J.D. Martinez’s split the right-center gap and trotted into second with a 2-0 lead. That is until Contreras came up with two on in the bottom of the third. He mashed the first pitch, a changeup that was quite literally right down the middle, 434 feet dead center. The ball exploded off the bat at 109.5 mph at a 25-degree launch angle.
This sparked something in the Cardinals dugout, as Juan Yepez, Nolan Gorman, and Paul DeJong went back-to-back-to-back later in the inning. A massive 6 spot in the bottom of the third was only improved upon in the bottom of the fourth. Nolan Arenado, maybe the most consistent player the sport has ever seen, had homered in 4 straight games coming into the game on Thursday night. He approached the plate with a runner on second base and two outs when he found a 94 mph fastball that he returned 400 feet into his bullpen in left-center.
A 9-2 lead was only held for an inning and a half when Dodgers first basemen Freddy Freeman came up to the plate with the bases loaded. Hungry for his 300th career home run. One swing of the bat and the impressive lead became a somewhat scary lead. A lead that got even scarier when Max Muncy smacked his 15th home run of the season one inning later.
Earlier in the season, this would be a game the Cardinals let slip through their fingers. They would get out lasted and the momentum swing would be too much for them. But the bottom of the 8th was a different story. Japanese legend Lars Nootbar finally got in on the fun with an RBI single to get two on for Contreras, who took a hanging slider another 400 feet over the wall. Nolan Gorman capped off the scoring by hitting a ball to the exact same section as two batters before. The Cardinals won the game 16-8 and after beating down on the Dodgers, the question ‘Are they back?’ is reasonable.
Now after all that, the Cardinals are still in last place in the NL Central with an inadequate 19-26 record. But with that abysmal record, and being in the bunker, they are still only six games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals are still very much in the conversation due to their second-tier division, so come October, it would be no surprise they are fighting to lock up the central.
