(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have started the post-All Star Game season by taking two out of three from the Washington Nationals with Jack Flaherty starting to look like the Flaherty of 2022 before he got hurt. It’s his fourth straight win, a six-inning effort in which he gave up only three hits, struck out seven and walked only three. His ERA is down to 4.29.
(CABRERA)—Those waiting for the Cardinals to make a season-transforming deal have instead been treated to a surprise by the team seemingly giving up on a promising young reliever. It appears to be a “what have you done for us lately” situation that has turned Genesis Cabrera into disposable property. Cabrera has been designated for assignment after 32 appearances this year in which he allowed more than 1.5 walks and hits per innings pitched—a poor record for a relief pitcher, and a 5.06 ERA, an exceedingly poor record for a reliever even in this era. He had no saves and a 1-1 record.
“Designated for Assignment” does not mean the team has cut Cabrera, at least not yet. He has just been removed from the 40-man roster. But the Cardinals have to decide within a week whether he will put him back on it, put him on waivers, trave him, or outright release him.
It’s been a tough season for Cabrera—one of a lot of tough seasons the Cardinals are having. He’s only 26 and up to the start of 2023 had been in 142 games for St. Louis with a 3.95 ERA and a 160-83 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s been with the club since 2019.
Cabrera’s replacement on the roster hasn’t been a lights-out guy this year either. Right-hander Ryan Tepera was DFA’d by the Angels after ten undistinguished outings with a 7.27 ERA. The Rangers gave him a minor league deal and he recorded eight scoreless innings in Triple-A Round Rock but opted out of the deal when the Rangers didn’t move him to the big club.
He’s 35 but had a career 3.50 ERA coming into 2023. His strikeout radio has dropped into the 20% area the last couple of years. Although he had eight scoreless innings at Round Rock, he struck out less than 40% of the Triple-A hitters he faced.
(Bird Relief)—Genesis Cabrera is only one part of the Cardinals bullpen problem this year. Relievers have blown a major league-leading 21 out of 43 save opportunities in 2023. The White Sox have 20 blown saves. Those two are the only two teams with more than 20 blown saves.
Jordan Hicks delivered the 21st blown save in the completion Saturday of Friday’s rain-suspended game when he gave up two runs in the tenth inning. Andre Pallante leads the team with five.
(MONDAY NIGHT)— The Redbirds started the week with their third straight win, 6-4 in the opening game of a series against the Marlins. It’s their fifth win in the their last sixth games and pulls them into a tie for last place with the Pirates. Miles Mikolas, whose start last Friday night lasted only three good innings before the rains came, went six innings last night, gave up three runs and seven hits. The save went to Jordan Hicks, his eighth.
The ’birds wasted no time getting new relief pitcher Ryan Tepera into the lineup. Not a distinguished entrance—two-third of an inning, two singles, a hit batter, and a walk. Giovanny Gallegos bailed him out by getting the final out in the seventh with the bases full.
(WAINO UPDATE)—Adam Wainwright was scheduled to throw a bullpen session yesterday to see how his shoulder is doing. He’s been shut down since July 5. He’s gotten several shots in his shoulder and says he’s feeling better.
(Royals Relief)—The Royals relievers have only a dozen blown saves. But then again, there have only been 25 times this season that the Royals have had a lead to save to begin with.
(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have fallen forty games below .500 and they started this week having to go 54-14 to finish the year at .500. So every win is something to cherish—and they got one Sunday in a team history-making day.
Bobby Witt Jr., and Drew Waters each had a home run and a triple—the first time two Royals players have done that in the same game—and Kansas city beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-4. Brady Singer pitched far better than his record by going seven full innings, throwing only 70 pitches before leaving after giving up back to back home runs.
The Royals were 2-8 in their last ten games through the weekend, and started the week on a down note with a loss. Detroit scored all their runs in the seventh inning to take a 3-2 win. The Royals outhit them 6-5, though.
Okay, now let’s go racing:
(INDYCAR)—Christian Lundgaard’s first INDYCAR victory is also the first time a driver from Denmark has won a race in the long history of the series—under whatever sanctioning name it has carried.
Lundgaard also gave Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan racing its first win since Takuma Sato’s Indianapolis 500 triumph in August, 2020 (the race was delayed because of COVID and was run in front of an empty grandstand, you might recall). It also is RLL’s first win on a street circuit in six years; Graham Rahal swept both segments at Grand Isle Michigan that year.
Lundgaard finished almost 13 seconds ahead of points leader Alex Palou, who had his worst start of the year at 15th and still come home second despite a damaged front wing on his car. Colton had his best finish of the year, at third.
Lundgaard has promised during the offseason that he would not shave his moustache until he won his first INDYCAR race. His crew had a charged-up electric razor waiting for him in victory lane.
Lundgaard (shown here at Indianapolis last year before he made his vow) started the race on pole—his first career pole in INDYCAR—took command on the 61st of the 85 laps when he fought past Alex Palou for second place behind then-leader Scott Dixon, a lap before Dixon’s last pit stop that gave Lundgaard lead the lead he never gave up. Dixon finished fourth.
INDYCAR returns to an oval next weekend—within driving distance for many Missourians. The series runs at the Iowa Speedway with 250 laps on the high banked 7/8 mile track Saturday and another race on Sunday.
(NASCAR)—It has finally happened at Loudon, New Hampshire for Martin Truex, Jr., one of the tracks he considers a “home track.” (The other is Dover, in Delaware). Truex is a Trenton, New Jersey native.
Truex’s third win of the year was a dominating performance that saw him lead 254 of the 301 laps. Eight other drivers divided the other 46 laps.
His victory earned the only edible winner’s trophy in racing. A live lobster goes to the winner each year. Some drivers spare the life of the trophy. However, we haven’t received word if Loudon the Lobster survived the team’s celebration last night.
Truex won both stages and maxed out on points to move into the lead in the regular season standings. Joey Logano was among the drivers who tried to catch Truex but he consistently pulled ahead on restarts and finished four-tenths of a second ahead of Joey Logano.
Going into the race, Truex had led more than 900 laps in the 29 Cup races he had run at Loudon, but had three third-place finishes as his best results until yesterday’s win (the race was rained out on Sunday and moved to Monday).
Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski made up the rest of the top five.
It was a bitter race for Aric Almirola, who crashed while leading on the 168th lap when his car lost a wheel. He finished 34th.
It also was a disappointment for Logano, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, who also considers Loudon his home track. “When you’re at your home track, second hurts more than anywhere else,” he said afterward. “That one stings but overall, still have to say it’s a good day. Just mad right now.”
Kyle Busch finished his rugged weekend with a wall encounter on lap 72. He also crashed his car in practice and again during qualifying.
(FORMULA 1)—F1’s next race is the Grand Prix of Hungary next weekend.
(Photo Credits: Lundgaard: Rick Gevers, Indianapolis 2022; Truex: Bob Priddy, WWTR 2023)
