‘Stats don’t lie’: To spice up offense, Cardinals can turn to pepper-grinder approach
The fist-twisting hand signal that became so popular as a celebration for the Cardinals that Lars Nootbaar introduced an actual pepper mill to the dugout has its inspiration in offensive struggles.
With each double or home run hit, Nootbaar and many teammates mashed their hands together and cranked them as if cracking pepper above a house salad. The gesture came from catcher Andrew Knizner talking with teammates about how a hitter, adrift at the plate, can still “grind out” at-bats for the team by seeing pitches, earning walks, or advancing runners. They would “grind” their hands after big hits, because it was grinding at-bats that got them there.
It will have to be how they get back there.
“When you’re going better, the celebration feels better, and everything feels better,” said Nootbaar, who received a pepper mill from an anonymous teammate on his birthday. “Right now is the time, offensively, when we’ve got to dig deep, and I know firsthand. Dig deep and continue to work and do as best we can. It’s back to how it started.”
A last at-bat uprising that brought Albert Pujols to the plate with the bases loaded Thursday evening was late and also too little for the Cardinals to overcome eight innings of absent offense. The Cardinals had one hit through eight, two hits in the ninth, and fell, 3-2, to Cincinnati at Busch Stadium. The only hit the Cardinals had against Reds starter Chase Anderson was a double in the third inning that also yielded an out at the plate to end the inning.
Cincinnati pitchers retired the next 15 consecutive Cardinals.
“It’s been a stretch where it’s been no offense certain days,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “We give up a couple and we can’t kind of finish the game as far as … tonight, we came up short. We ran out of time there. But we’re not overly concerned.”
For the second time in three days, an NL Central rival had a long run of scoreless innings against the Cubs. On Tuesday, the Brewers cycled through eight different pitchers to fill nine innings, and the final five relievers used did not allow a hit or a run.
Cincinnati arrived for its five-game, four-day visit to Busch as an elixir for what ails the offense. The Reds do not have a starter announced with an ERA less than 5.00. Chase Anderson’s ERA was helium-filled at 9.00 entering his start Thursday, and then he limited the Cardinals to one run on one hit through five innings. He lost two of the three games in the Cardinals’ recent visit to Cincinnati and had to ignore many pepper-grinding celebrations.
The right-hander gave off another sign Thursday: No Pepper.
“I feel like they had a really good gameplan and they executed,” said leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan. “Just keeping us a little off balance.”
Pujols twice chased an off-speed pitch out in front of the plate. Tyler O’Neill struck out twice and grounded out before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning. That pinch hitter, left-handed hitter Corey Dickerson, grounded out to end the game. Through the first eight innings of the game the middle of the Cardinals order went one-for-13. They put the out in grinding out at-bats.
The Cardinals’ Albert Pujols shreds his batting gloves after a pop out in the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, at Busch Stadium.
Anderson (1-3) used his changeup more than any other pitch. Of the 143 pitches the Cardinals saw Thursday night, 45% were off-speed.
Two of the five pitchers threw a majority of their pitches off-speed.
Against Anderson’s changeup, the Cardinals failed to put a ball in play at greater than 85 mph. Setup man Buck Farmer got three swings and misses on his slider, which he threw more than any other pitch.
“(In) this game, there are times when the routine doesn’t work and you have to keep going and eventually it turns that what you do and you show (what) you continue to do works,” Donovan said. “You go through a lull, but that’s just what happens.”
“We were really hot for the last month or so and, you know, you cool down a little bit,” said starter Miles Mikolas, who exhausted 101 pitches to get through six innings and allow two homers that built Cincinnati’s win. “If you’re trying to plan it out, I guess, it would be better to cool off just a hair now and then really pick it up for, you know, the end of the season, going into the playoffs. If that’s kind of where we are on this roller coaster that is the season, it’s not the worst thing.”
At the pepper-mill peak, the first-place Cardinals had found a combination atop the order that sparked rallies and then a surging middle order, like Pujols, for the pyrotechnics.
That included four of the league’s leading home run hitters in August, three players who were candidates for the player of the month award, and complementary hot streaks like those from Donovan and Nootbaar when it came to getting on base.
Cracking at the same time in August, the mill has been clogged at times in September. In his past 13 games, Nootbaar is three-for-34 (.088) with two of those hits being homers.
Paul Goldschmidt had the RBI double in the third inning that would have tied the game if not for a flawless relay from left field that got Donovan at home.
That was Goldschmidt’s fifth extra-base hit in 18 games.
While still in the running for the first NL Triple Crown in more than 80 years, Goldschmidt has hit a cold snap. He got under a pitch in the ninth inning Thursday to stall the rally with its first out and without advancing either of the two runners on base. In the past 18 games, his production has leveled with 14 hits, 15 strikeouts, and 13 walks. But only five of those hits went for extra bases. His on-base percentage in the previous three weeks was higher than his slugging, .356 to .350.
“Haven’t been at my best the past couple of weeks,” Goldschmidt said late Thursday night. “There are a lot of things you could say. Stats don’t lie. I haven’t played as good as I’m capable of. Just continue to work and try to play better.”
Or, to borrow a phrase, grind some at-bats.
Grind now, celebrate later.
That’s how the ninth inning began for the Cardinals. Donovan fell behind 0-2 on back-to-back fastballs and then sliced a single against the shift to left field. Tommy Edman took a slider from Reds closer Alexis Diaz to slip into a 2-2 count. He then took a slider and a 95-mph fastball outside the zone for a walk. Goldschmidt flew out on three pitches, Nolan Arenado flared a two-strike single to center, and Pujols lifted a sacrifice fly on a 96-mph fastball to deliver the inning’s run. That narrowed Cincinnati’s lead to a run and got the tying run to third base.
It took five batters to produce one run on an out. It wasn’t expedient. It wasn’t ferocious. It was gnashing, plodding, and, yes, grinding offense. Few fists were twisted in celebration. And in the end it wasn’t enough.
But it was something after so many innings of nothing.
“I think as an offense we just have to keep chipping and chipping and chipping and then eventually you get through,” Donovan said. “Tonight just fell a little short, but I think we can get them tomorrow.”
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St. Louis Cardinals Nolan Arenado strikes out in the seventh inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 at Busch Stadium. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizner sprinkles the pepper over Nolan Arenado following a solo home run by Arenado in the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022 at Busch Stadium. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Derrick Goold
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