Mike Matheny’s Decision To Pull Adam Wainwright Effectively Ends St. Louis Cardinals’ Season
By Andrew Fisher
@AndrewFisherRS
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Coming into Game 5 of the NLCS, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright was having a bit of difficult time. He certainly wasn’t his regular ace-caliber self in his first two starts of the 2014 postseason.
But on Thursday night, Wainwright had it going on. While he wasn’t having the outing of his life, the dude was locked in by the 7th inning. He was challenging hitters and throwing nasty pitch after nasty pitch. He even hit his high for the night on the radar gun at 93 mph in his final inning of work.
He was flat out controlling the game.
But apparently Mike Matheny didn’t want to chance another inning with his ace on the mound (after only 97 pitches and with a one-run lead). Maybe he was just confident in his bullpen (even though he went with SP Michael Wacha in the 9th–also a highly questionable call)?
Who knows what exactly the Cardinals’ skipper was thinking? The fact of the matter is that Matheny was wrong.
Calling to the pen for Pat Neshek on most nights is the right move. The guy is an All-Star. But not on the night when it’s an elimination game and your top dog is cruising.
Hindsight is 20/20 and all of that crap. But come on. Your season is on the line and your ace is on fire. Do the math. If your season ends with your best pitcher on the mound in a game where he had his good stuff — you did all you could do. You played one heck of a hand, and you lost.
It happens.
For Cardinals fans, this has to be an incredibly frustrating way to end the season.
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