Cardinals hope left is right for Braves

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Cardinals hope left is right for Braves

Wed, 08/04/2021 - 01:26
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Aug. 3—Beginning on Tuesday night, when the Atlanta Braves start a series here, the Cardinals will have four lefthanded pitchers make starts this week, perhaps even in succession, as the rotation has flip-flopped with the additions over the weekend of veterans Jon Lester and J.A. Happ, who will pitch the first two games of the series.

Lefthander Wade LeBlanc, who joined the club in June, will pitch on Thursday and Kwang Hyun Kim, who has been the only lefthander to start consistently this season for the Cardinals, will pitch one of the games this weekend here against Kansas City. Lester is likely to get the Sunday game.

This configuration might not last all that long, what with rehabbing righthanders Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas not far from rejoining the rotation. But the Cardinals haven’t lined up four lefthanders to start in the same week since July 15-18, 1995 when Allen Watson, Donovan Osborne, Danny Jackson and Tom Urbani started on four consecutive days — in Pittsburgh and Montreal — under interim manager Mike Jorgensen.

That didn’t work out all that well, as the Cardinals lost three of four. But, then, that whole season didn’t work out that well for the Cardinals, who were 62-81 in a season shortened by a strike/lockout. Or for manager Joe Torre, who was fired in June before he began his Hall of Fame managing career for the New York Yankees the next year. Or for the four lefthanders, who had a combined 16-32 record that year, with Jackson the worst at 2-12.

To hear Adam Wainwright, the lone remaining righthander at this point, the Cardinals might as well have five lefthanded starters.

“We’ve had a lot of rotations where they were all righthanders,” Wainwright said. “We’ve never had four lefties and one righty. I like to get in there and chart the day before and see how guys are going to hit off a fellow righthander.

“But I kind of pitch like a lefthander anyway. Wade told me I was an honorary lefty . . . the way I throw.”

Not only are most of the starters lefthanded, they are also old. Wainwright, four weeks from 40, is the eldest and Kim the youngest at 33, with the three newest starters ranking in between with Happ at 38, Lester at 37 and LeBlanc four days from 37.

And, because they are older, they have to be crafty.

“Well, we throw below the hitting speed,” Wainwright said. “The hitting speed used to be like 88 to 91 (miles per hour). People really teed off on that. I used to be above that, so that was OK.

“The hitting speed went dramatically up, like between 91 and 94 now. So, if you’re 87 to 90, it’s going to keep them off balance. Look at what (Chicago’s Kyle) Hendricks is able to do with his fastball at 86 to 87. He’s just carving people up.

“Yeah, we’ve got some old fellows in here now. So, thanks, guys. Welcome. I appreciate you bringing up the average age.

“We could throw harder. Anyone can get outs at 100,” Wainwright opined. “It takes a real craftsman to get them out at 87 to 88.”

With so many lefthanders in succession this week, the ones who are next in line can draw from the southpaws who have gone before. Through his translator, Kim, in his second year with the team, said, “Since I’m the youngest, I can see the experience of the other pitchers at the major-league level and learn from them.”

Happ and Wainwright signed one-year $8 million contracts before this season although Wainwright, with nine wins, has had the far better season than Happ, who had five wins and an earnedrun average of 6.77 with Minnesota before being dealt here on Friday.

“Waino’s a guy that I’ve always kept my eye on,” Happ said. “Knowing that he’s able to keep doing it keeps me going, too. I’ve had a tough go of it this year but I’m looking forward to a fresh start and turning the page a little. You want to take what you can from it but you don’t want to dwell on it either.”

While Lester has taken his hacks as a hitter in the National League since he signed with the Cubs in 2015, Happ hasn’t been in the league since 2015 when he was 7-2 in part of a season at Pittsburgh.

“There’s definitely going to be times when I’m going to forget that it’s my turn to get up there and get on deck,” said Happ, who is 20 for 197 (with 86 strikeouts) for a .102 career average. Lester isn’t much better, at 39 for 346 (.113) and 151 strikeouts.

Happ is certain he wants to play next year. Lester isn’t sure. But Lester also likes the fact that there are some more pitchers here in his age bracket.

“This is my second rotation (the Chicago Cubs were the other) with older guys in it,” he said. “So it kind of feels good to be one of the guys as opposed to being the oldest guy.

“You’ve got the four lefties and that will be pretty cool to pick their brains. We can all pull things off of each other,” said Lester, who also cited his rival of many years, Wainwright, as somebody who could help him adapt to his new situation. “I know my style is a little different than it used to be. Happ probably pitches in(side) a little more than I do right now. Maybe he can set up a team for me and I can do the opposite.”

The Braves are the first opponents and Lester will be setting up Happ, who will be setting up LeBlanc.

Atlanta is hitting .242 against lefthanded pitching and has a .730 OPS, both statistics being close to the middle of the pack in the majors. But, in the past few days, the Braves have picked up righthanded power threats Adam Duvall from Miami and Jorge Soler from Kansas City.

Duvall has an .840 career OPS against the Cardinals and it’s .869 at Busch stadium. Soler has a career .821 OPS against lefthanded pitchers and an .829 OPS at Busch.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, whom the Cardinals play 10 times this month, are not as prolific against lefthanded pitching, averaging only .234. That ranks 24th out of 30 teams. The Pirates’ slugging percentage of .357 against lefthanded pitching ranks last.

But that is then and the Braves are now. Atlanta is 52-54, which is 1 1/2 games worse than the Cardinals. But the Braves aren’t chasing the Milwaukee Brewers, who were 9 1/2 games clear of the Cardinals in the National League Central Division before they played the Pirates on Monday night.

In the Eastern Division, where the New York Mets lead, the Braves were only four games out before Monday’s games.