ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Tuesday night was an extremely forgettable night for the St. Louis Cardinals, while they started off well with the team being able to get on the board with a Willson Contreras solo home run in the bottom of the first, it went downhill after that.
Cardinals starter Steven Matz started the first two innings fine, racking up three strike outs and only allowing former Cardinal Randal Grichuk to get on base with a walk after a full count. However allowing two walks in third derailed Matz's outing with the Diamondbacks being able to score four runs in the inning and three straight hits to begin the fifth inning pretty much ended Matz's night.
Matz's final line for the night was going 4.1 innings, allowing seven runs, all earned, on six hits, with one being a three-run home run by Cristian Walker, and striking out four while walking three on 92 pitches.
While Matz night overall looked rough from a fan and outside perspective, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol try to take a positive spin on Matz's outing during his weekly interview on Total Information A.M. Wednesday.
"Pitch count was up, the walk to Ketel Marte was a very long nine-pitch at bat and he wasn't spraying it everywhere, it was close misses and Marte took a really good at bat," said Marmol. "The first ball hit over 85-88 mph, the first real swing was hit by Walker and he hit it a really long way."
Marmol thought Matz navigated the Diamondbacks well, who have been one of the best lineups against left handers to begin the season, hitting a weight runs created plus(wRC+) of 141 against left handers so far this season. Only the Braves have been better against left handers.
"Did he get beat? Yeah he definitely got beat and I said that postgame, they beat him," said Marmol. "But did he have his stuff last night? Yeah he actually did and sometime you got out there, the other beats you and yesterday (the Dbacks) beat him. But from a pitching standpoint, the way he went through that lineup, tell me another hard hit ball outside of Walker's home run before we took him out the game?"
Marmol says he knows the final line was ugly but considering the situation Matz was going into against a Diamondbacks lineup that has killed left handers this season, he thought Matz had his stuff most of the night.
"(Walker) is a really good hitter, who made a bad pitch to him, left it over the heart of the plate and the guy hit it a mile," said Marmol. "But outside of that, the Dbacks do a really nice job against lefties and when you look at what he was able to do against that Lineup, not a lot of hard contact until the fifth."
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