Cool Hand Lucroy

Wow, the ball really isn't carrying today, is it?

You're right. I forgot we kept playing after the Abner show.

Been so long since Megill's pitched, I'm a little worried about his feel for the curve. Big first out there. Don't let Torres beat you with the bottom of the order up.

Man, is Pages ever on it. Easier to be impressed when the rest of the defense for STL has let them down.

Bad defense really costing the Cardinals this inning.

I think you have to send Sal at some point here.

I thought Torres took a very bad route to that ball. Mitchell deserved the hit, but would love to see the catch probability.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?challengeType=catching-team&level=mlb&gameType=regular&year=2026 Baseball Savant seems to agree. Cardinals are quite good at challenges. We're pretty much dead-on average, which is better than I would have expected. Pages has looked really locked in to the zone today, even on pitches he hasn't challenged.

Very impressed with Winn this series. Nice play there.

What Abner did was silly. And the whole "it's good for players to show emotion" argument falls apart when you consider the game was essentially over. That was Uribe falling into "all about me" mode. Marmol also seems like a massive punk. And I've thought that for a long time. Honestly surprised the Cardinals haven't fired him, but whatever. They want to keep that guy around, after he's had one good year in five, be my guest. This whole thing is a big whatever to me. I'm glad Murph called out Abner, and now everyone should move on, hopefully lessons learned. Good outing from Patrick. Made the one big mistake pitch, but otherwise a nice 4 innings. Hopefully the offense can manage to scratch a few. I'm kind of feeling a Brewers walkoff today.

I like Perkins a lot too. Honestly, I like all this forum's favorite scapegoats (other than maybe Rengifo, who hasn't really been around long enough for me to have a sense of him as a player or personality--I don't have a negative impression, just sort of a neutral one). More than that, I can understand why the Brewers want to give guys like Perk and Hamilton a chance. Both of them have valuable skillsets (I think Lockridge has a more valuable one, and I'm actually quite a big fan of Baddoo, who's shown some pop at Nashville in a limited sample since coming back, but I think individual mileage on all those guys may vary). The issue is that it's just that we have about 2 or 3 of the same kind of infielder playing and about 2 or 3 of the same kind of outfielder. When you're dealing with replacement-level types, you start to wonder why, when one struggles, you don't just roll the dice with another. I don't think the Brewers are wrong to keep Perk and Hamilton. Maybe they like their personalities or something (meant genuinely; I think Murph is big on that, and he might actually be good at evaluating it, given his track record). Maybe they just don't think it's worth messing with. I will say that they've given Hamilton a longer leash than I'd have expected. If Perk continues this level of production all the way up until Lockridge is activated in 3 or 4 weeks, that'll surprise me too. All in all, just interesting to parse the thought process because clearly this team is really fun in a lot of ways.

Good win today. Would have liked to avoid so many outs on the bases, but the way Mis was throwing, it was all moot. I keep waiting for some kind of position player shuffle. At this point, I think Hamilton and Perk are most likely to go, but we will see if it happens before Lockridge comes back.

I feel like I have seen this first inning a few times this last week. I like all of it except for the outs on the bases (thank goodness the Cardinals only converted one of them).

Meh. You lost a series to the best team in the league. The Dodgers are the better roster, and they were clearly the better team this weekend. It's really going to take bullpenning like crazy or true playoff aces to **** that lineup down in October. Worry about that when we get there. The Brewers have come through a really difficult part of the schedule in great shape. Softer landing spots over the next couple weeks if they can play good baseball. Memorial Day is a good check in during an MLB season. 30-20 is about as good as you could ask for at this point, especially given the injuries. Let's remind the Cardinals whose division they're playing in this week.

Kind of just one of those games to me. Manufactured runs in the first by taking advantage of an error and getting some good batted ball luck (along with some strong EV). After that, it wasn't a good situation. I honestly thought Sanchez getting thrown out at third in the first was the biggest play of the game. You've got Sasaki on the ropes, and you need a hit to score anyway. That just seemed like a bad gamble to let them off the hook, when you could've had the starter pushing 40 pitches in the first. Not at all worried about what this one means. Playing the best team in baseball, you go into Sunday with a chance to win the series. Been a good week no matter what.

Nice bounce back. I don't take back the leadoff walk frustration. But I retroactively deem it a silly rather than hurtful mistake.

I don't know how often MLB pitchers walk the leadoff hitter with a 5-run lead, but one time is too often. I understand that guys are trying to focus on repeating mechanics and just doing the same thing regardless of situation (tunnel vision, etc.), but a little situational awareness goes a long way.

Makes one wonder about Mitchell.

Great post. And there's a story about speed and slugging being overvalued, too. It's a cliche to talk about Moneyball, but the Brewers really are playing a different game than most of the rest of the league. It's a little harder to see, a little more on the margins, but a lot of fast guys who understand the strike zone and put the ball in play can be a great offensive recipe, even without exit velocity and barrels. On the pitching side, I really think it's finding "piggy-back" guys. A lot of starters whose stuff plays up when they only have to throw 4 or 5 innings, and then you bring another guy like that in, only he can do 2 innings. Somewhere along the way, baseball started training everybody to either throw 7 innings or 1, and the Brewers figured out that you can condition players to do the median and pull from a larger population since pretty much every pitcher has spent most of his career trying to get 6+ outs.

Good one for Abner. Worked out. No such thing as a gravy game against the Cubs, but taking 2 of 3 is a nice guarantee.

This feels like one of those Pat Murphy challenging guys to do their job. I think letting Ashby face Suzuki was the same thing. I don't mind that in the big picture, but this is maybe not the spot I'd do it. But, hey. Two big outs so far.

I don't like going to Uribe here. 3-run lead, go with the guy who throws strikes. Hope I'm wrong.

Bad infield defense from Hamilton--Mis got him off the hook. Let's see if Patrick can do the same for Rengifo.

Yeah...You're 3-1 on Turang, down 3-0 in the 7th, and you throw that pitch. Just walk the dude.

I was surprised to see Mis out, but I understand. It is still a May game. He's had trouble in these later innings before. You have a really rested bullpen. Save the guy some pitches and a few ups, as long as you trust what's coming behind him. Do I? [shrugs] I get it. Probably not what I would have done. 60-40 call.