Split Star - Lynn/JJ (HM to Holliday)

star JJ

JJ

Star JJ. you go boey

goat to green!

Star Lynn. yay offense is back.

Star Lynn, John Jay

JJ/Lynn split star.

Game 96 ( Kelly vs. Billingsley )
Cards -- 3 Dodgers -- 5

This one's easy.

Goat: Matheny/Marte

Matheny for being dumb enough to insert Marte. Marte for being Marte.

goat

marte/ matheny

Marte will get some love, I'm sure. But for me, Berkman and Furcal split the goat. Their bad defense turned what should've been a scoreless inning into a 3 spot. Take that away, Cards win 3-2.

Split - Berkman/Marte

in all fairness, berkman at least go an rbi to partially make up for it, but berkman really hurt his team by refusing to go on a rehab assignment, not only because of his play, but because we have to bench craig or one of our outfielders to get berkman in the lineup while he is less than 100% in his timing, with our lineup very strong without him, there was no reason to rush him back until he was 100% with his timing

if he went on a rehab and got his timing back and was 100% when he came back up, then it wouldnt hurt to have him in the lineup giving guys like craig or beltran a day off, but while he is still figuring it out, it hurts to try to get him at bats, and if we dont play berk, he isnt going to get his timing back, so we are forced to bench some of those guys

Agreed on Berkman immediately after the AS Break, but his rehab assignment would have been over by now anyway, so let's move on to current events.

Goat: Matheny/offense. I was going to give the goat to Marte, but he only did what he normally does. He shouldn't have even been in there - so that's on Matheny.

Why did Matheny take Kelly out of the game after 6? He was doing well enough, was only at 96 pitches, and had just gotten thru the tough part of the order. He could have mowed down the bottom of the order instead of having to use the 3 pitchers in the 7th like we did. 110 pitches is not too much to ask.

Then the double switch involving DD was stupid. Yes, we should have PH for the pitcher's spot in the 7th, but not with DD - he doesn't hit significantly better than our pitchers. We had Craig and Freese on the bench. The 7th was a wasted inning.

We outhit LA, but couldn't score again. 1 run scored thru 6 innings affected the pitching choices in the 7th, which let the game get away.

On a positive note, Beltran is finally hitting HRs again, though not really in clutch situations.

Plenty of GOATS:

Matheny
Berkman
Furcal

No Star......

Marte needs to be thrown on the junk pile.

Game 97 ( Wainwright vs. Kershaw )
Cards -- 8 Dodgers -- 2

Star- Wainwright

Tempted to give the full star to Waino for doing it with the arm and the bat but I have to split it with him and Furcal. That DP that Raffy turned with the runner going from first was beautiful.

Waino/Furcal star.