10/8 GM 2 GDT: Phillies(Nola) vs Cardinals(Mikolas) 7:37 PM CT

[Radbird]

I echo much of what Gantz and sigh posted. My hopes were renewed after the crafty moves made at the trade deadline and Albert’s second half surge will be an enduring memory. I think about all the times Danny Mac implored fans to get there kids to a game so they could say they saw the legend play. Seems like a lot of folks listened to him.

I look forward to turning the page a new era, watching our young players evolve and how our prospects develop, especially guys like Winn and Walker. #1 starter and new guy behind the plate certainly are the priorities. Replacing Yadi’s street smarts will certainly be a huge challenge.

I’m watching the game tonight and how the Padres are taking smart ABs, protecting the plate, staying alive, disrupting the pitcher’s rhythm and forcing them to come into the zone. I see that in Noot and Donovan and would like to see more of guys adopt that kind of approach.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/spor ... inals.html

ST. LOUIS — They both lived the fairy tale. One began as a 13th-round draft choice and ended as the only player ever with 700 home runs, 3,000 hits and multiple World Series titles. The other, the kid brother in a family of major league catchers, grew up to earn 10 All-Star selections and nine Gold Gloves, enough to cover his left arm with tattoos of each.

The slugger, Albert Pujols, returned this season for a finishing flourish after a decade in California. The catcher, Yadier Molina, never left. Together they played 31 seasons and more than 4,000 games for the St. Louis Cardinals. The birds on the bat might as well be named Albert and Yadi.

Now, alas, these birds have flown. They went out with singles, both bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in the late innings while facing elimination in the wild-card round. Surely there had to be another thrilling chapter, the Cardinals thought. Surely the tale would not end.

“There was just so much magic going on with Albert and Yadi,” said pitcher Adam Wainwright, the third venerable Cardinal from the championship years. “I just felt like: you can’t go out like that. There’s too much goodness going around to lose two games in a row.”

Yet that is how it ended, with a 2-0 victory by the Philadelphia Phillies — in the game and the series — that ushered Pujols and Molina into retirement. It was the first playoff series victory for the Phillies in a dozen years, and the first time in a full season that a division winner did not even reach the division series.

For that, the Cardinals could blame baseball’s revamped playoff format. One division winner per league must play in the new, best-of-three wild-card round. The other first-place finishers — the ones with the better records — get a bye.

The American League Central winner, the Cleveland Guardians, dumped the Tampa Bay Rays in two games. But the Cardinals, who won the National League Central, hit .185 and went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position against the Phillies. That is how fairy tales end.

“We didn’t hit the ball, that’s it,” Molina said. “It is tough to lose this way, but we fight till the end.”

Molina threw the last punch. The setting — down by two runs, with a runner on and two out in the ninth — must have felt familiar. A decade ago, facing playoff elimination in Washington, Molina came up in the same spot and walked to keep the season alive. This time, off Zach Eflin, he lashed a single to right and left for a pinch-runner.

Pujols had done the same in the eighth, singling and leaving for a pinch-runner, hoping that a teammate could do the rest. That time the Cardinals’ best players, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, both fanned against Seranthony Domínguez. In the ninth, Tommy Edman popped out to third to end the game. Pujols did not linger long in the dugout.

“I just kind of took a moment, maybe less than 15 seconds, and walked in the clubhouse,” Pujols said. “There’s nothing to be sad about. It’s part of the game in baseball. I’ve been on the other side, too, where you celebrate and win. I’d rather be on that side than this side, but it wasn’t meant to be for us this year.”

Pujols, 42, did his best. He reached the All-Star break with a .215 average and six home runs, not surprising from the oldest player in the majors. In the second half, though, Pujols surged to .323 with 18 home runs. He finished with 703 career homers — trailing Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth — and only Aaron ever drove in more runs.

“I’ve never seen anything like that, what I saw this year with him, with any player,” Arenado said. “I’m just in awe of his presence and the way he goes about his business. Never seen a harder worker at that age.”

Molina, 40, was a solid hitter but an extraordinary catcher, born to play the position of his brothers, Bengie and Jose. Molina used technique and wisdom to excel, earning trust from his pitchers and inspiring conviction in their decisions.

“He’s a game-changing player, but he’s just a great teammate and friend and leader on this team,” said Wainwright, who made 328 starts with Molina catching, the most for any battery in major league history. “He brings a calming presence that’s hard to replace. That’s a very, very important position, and he’s controlled his staff and the clubhouse as good as anyone could.”

Folks here love to count homers — every Cardinal fan now thinks of Pujols when they dial the Northern Virginia area code — but numbers miss the point with Molina. Baseball Reference gives him just 42.2 wins above replacement, fewer than several catchers who are not in the Hall of Fame, like Thurman Munson, Bill Freehan and Jorge Posada.

Yet within the game — and especially in the home clubhouse here — Molina is a lock for Cooperstown.

“How often can you say you played with two first-ballot Hall of Famers?” Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas said. “How often does that happen?”

[MrCrowesGarden]

I made the 3.5 hour drive from Independence to STL for my first ever Cardinals playoff game in person. I figured if I didn’t take a chance to see Yadi and Albert one last time, I would regret it. I honestly wasn’t expecting a win because Nola is very good. I’m glad that both Yadi and Albert got to go out with base hits. I’m also comfortable with the two biggest scapegoats of the series being Goldy and Arenado for reasons that probably can be guessed and don’t need to be relitigated. It is frustrating to see the bats go to pot for another postseason. Since the 10-run first inning in the 2019 NLDS, the Cardinals have failed to win a postseason series and have won precisely one game.

I know better than to expect aggressiveness in the offseason, so I doubt I’ll be here very much for my own mental health.

[JoeMcKim]

So does Waino end up in the announce booth for TBS in the ALDS?

[Famous Mortimer]

So does Waino end up in the announce booth for TBS in the ALDS?

I think he's going to get offered a national baseball job and will decide that another year of pitching to new people, with diminishing returns, might not be the best idea.

(bear in mind I'm wrong a lot of the time)

[JoeMcKim]

So does Waino end up in the announce booth for TBS in the ALDS?

I think he's going to get offered a national baseball job and will decide that another year of pitching to new people, with diminishing returns, might not be the best idea.

(bear in mind I'm wrong a lot of the time)

Yeah, he's going to do the ALDS this week on TBS. Then sometime in November or December will decide to retire as a player and then sign a deal with TBS or MLB Network. Especially when those gigs aren't full time jobs.

[Jocephus]

cardinals grant an extension

Phillies signed manager Rob Thomson to a two-year contract extension.

The Phillies' decision to remove the interim title felt inevitable after Thomson guided the Phillies to a 65-46 record during the regular season and also led them past the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card round. The contract extension ensures that Thomson will be at the helm for Philadelphia through the end of the 2024 campaign.
Source: Philadelphia Phillies on Twitter
Oct 10, 2022, 12:31 PM ET

[MrCrowesGarden]

Memba when Matheny got an extension after missing the postseason

[dmarx114]

https://www.mlb.com/news/cardinals-2022 ... ies-roster

4 years later (our last playoff game), 10 guys are out of baseball, and only Pallante, Gorman (and I guess) Thompson are still with the organization.