The move came just a month after the Cardinals traded Sandy Alcantara, Daniel Castano, Zac Gallen, and Magneuris Sierra to the Marlins for Marcell Ozuna. With Ozuna penciled into left field beside Tommy Pham and Dexter Fowler, Grichuk was positioned for a fourth-outfielder role.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said Grichuk was a perfect fit for the job due to his ability to play all three outfield positions while providing power off the bench. However, he also pointed out that Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill offered similar versatility.[1]

Grichuk in St. Louis

Originally the Angels’ 24^th overall pick in 2009, Grichuk came to St. Louis alongside Peter Bourjos in the trade that sent David Freese and Fernando Salas to the Angels. Grichuk debuted in the majors as a 22-year-old in 2014 and enjoyed his best season in St. Louis in 2015, batting .276/.329/.548 with 17 homers and 47 RBIs in just 350 plate appearances.

In 2016 and 2017, Grichuk shuffled between St. Louis and Memphis. Though he hit 46 homers over those two years, he also struck out 174 times in 858 at-bats, a rate of over 20%. As a result, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon described Grichuk’s tenure in St. Louis as “teasing Cardinal Nation for 3 ½ years by mixing supersonic homers with rally-killing strikeouts.”[2]

“There were just a lot of ups and downs during that time where I felt he struggled to find that traction,” Mozeliak said. “We always thought from a baseball tools set, he was quite gifted. But the game is based on performance.”[3]

The Cardinals’ outfield logjam also factored into the trade. In addition to Ozuna, Pham, and Fowler, prospects like Bader and O’Neill were emerging. Bader, a third-round draft pick in 2015, made his major-league debut in 2017 after hitting 20 homers in Memphis that season. O’Neill, acquired from the Mariners in a trade for left-handed starting pitcher Marco Gonzalez, blasted 31 home runs between Tacoma and Memphis in 2017.

Grichuk admitted the Cardinals’ crowded outfield situation made him uncertain about his role, which affected his confidence at the plate.

“That wasn’t good for anybody’s confidence or anybody’s state of mind stepping into the box,” he said.[4]

Grichuk in Toronto

Moving to Toronto gave Grichuk a fresh start as their expected starting right fielder, replacing departed free agent Jose Bautista.

“It’s sad leaving St. Louis, but for my career, it’s the best move,” Grichuk said. “We played in Toronto a few years back and I loved it. I loved playing indoors. The city seemed really nice and I enjoyed the few days I was there. I’m excited.”[5]

Gordon, however, questioned whether trading Grichuk was the right decision, suggesting the Cardinals could have kept him as a fourth outfielder while upgrading their bullpen through other means.

“Odds are, Grichuk would have gotten plenty of work for the Cardinals this season had he stayed put,” Gordon wrote. “He may never become more than a .240-type hitter, but he can be (an) asset hitting at that level. He is a strong defensive outfielder capable of playing all three spots. He can hit mistake pitches into the 618 area code and he runs well when he does reach base. … So what was the rush to move him? Sure, the Cardinals would love to get Jose Martinez some at-bats after his breakout season. But that breakout came after he spent a decade kicking around the minors, so he is not a sure thing to repeat his offensive heroics.”[6]

Mozeliak, though, felt the acquisition of Leone addressed a pressing need for bullpen depth.

“Randal Grichuk was somebody we always had a lot of hope for,” Mozeliak said. “(But) as we started to really think about 2018 and you realized with the acquisition of (Tyler) O’Neill and Harrison Bader doing what he did last year, we really felt like we had (the outfield) covered. And, of course, Jose Martinez can play the outfield. If we were looking for playing time for Grichuk, it just didn’t seem like it was going to be a great fit. Ultimately, we just decided that if we could move him, would we be able to acquire an arm that we felt could make a difference in our bullpen? Once we identified that (in Leone) and also getting someone we perceived as a prospect, we thought this made sense.”[7]

Leone and Greene

Both teams were dealing from a position of relative strength. Originally a 16^th-round draft pick by the Mariners in 2012, Leone went 8-2 with a 2.17 ERA as a 22-year-old rookie in 2014. He struggled in 2015 and 2016, as the Mariners dealt him to the Diamondbacks and the Blue Jays then claimed him off waivers ahead of the 2017 season.

Leone, a 2012 Mariners draft pick, bounced back in 2017 after struggling through 2015 and 2016. He became one of the American League’s most reliable set-up men with a 2.56 ERA over 70 1/3 innings. For the Cardinals, who had just lost Seung-hwan Oh and Trevor Rosenthal, Leone offered a potential solution for the back end of their bullpen.

“We hear very good things about his makeup,” Mozeliak said. “We hear he’s very competitive. He should be a high-leverage pitcher.”[8]

Though the Jays didn’t want to part with Leone, they had the bullpen depth to overcome his departure. Toronto Star columnist Richard Griffin suggested that Joe Biagini, Al Alburquerque, and Carlos Ramirez could fill the role Leone had been projected to play in 2018.[9]

“We were definitely working from a position of depth and we had multiple teams contact us about that,” Atkins said. “Now we’ll have to look and backfill for Dominic. He had an incredible year for us. We expect him to have another incredible year and it will be for another team. It was a very tough loss for us. It’s the overall depth and guys that are in our system that we feel strong about that can help – then some of the players that are in the market as well.”[10]

Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Greene represented a project for the Cardinals’ development staff. A seventh-round pick in 2013 out of Santa Monica (Calif.) High School, Greene posted a 5.29 ERA over 132 2/3 innings for Double-A New Hampshire and was named to the Eastern League all-star team in 2017. Baseball America ranked him as Toronto’s seventh-best prospect.

“When you look at him, you’re not going to like his numbers, but he’s a legit 95 to 98 (mph) type,” Mozeliak said. “He could give us some versatility as a starter or reliever.”[11]

Greene was primarily held back by his lack of control. In 501 1/3 minor-league innings, he had walked 226 batters while striking out 377. However, his arm strength led Mozeliak to compare Green to Alcantara, whom the Cardinals had just traded as one of the key pieces in the deal for Ozuna.

“Same sort of arm strength,” Mozeliak said. “When you look at their stats, Sandy’s been a little better. But too high a walk rate and too low of a strikeout rate – odd for someone who throws hard.”[12]

How the Trade Worked Out

The Cardinals never did solve the Greene puzzle. In 2018, he posted a 4.09 ERA between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis. That November, the Royals selected him off of waivers. In 2021, Greene made 24 combined appearances for the Orioles and Dodgers, posting a 7.11 ERA over 25 1/3 innings.

Greene started the 2022 season in the Orioles’ minor league system before he was released in June. He pitched for Caneros de Los Mochis in the Mexican League in 2023 and for the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in 2024.

Leone pitched two seasons for the Cardinals, posting a 4.50 ERA over 24 innings in 2018 and a 5.53 ERA in 40 2/3 innings in 2019. In November 2019, the Cardinals released him. Since then, he has pitched for the Indians, Giants, Mets, Angels, Mariners, and White Sox.

Grichuk spent four years with the Blue Jays, batting .243 with 90 homers and 257 RBIs over that span. He posted career highs with 31 homers and 80 RBIs in 2019, though he hit just .232/.280/.457 that season. In March 2022, the Blue Jays traded him to the Rockies, and at the 2023 trading deadline the Rockies traded him and C.J. Cron to the Angels for two prospects.

Grichuk played the 2024 season with the Diamondbacks, where he hit .291/.348/.875 while playing primarily against left-handed pitching. In 279 plate appearances, he hit 12 homers and drove in 46 runs.

[1] Todd Eschman, “Cardinals deal Grichuk to Toronto in effort to bolster the bullpen,” Belleville News-Democrat, January 20, 2018.

[2] Jeff Gordon, “Rush to make this deal seems a little puzzling,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[4] Laura Armstrong, “Outfield pieces fall into place,” Toronto Star, January 24, 2018.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[6] Jeff Gordon, “Rush to make this deal seems a little puzzling,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[9] Richard Griffin, “Deeper but no closer with Grichuk,” Toronto Star, January 20, 2018.

[10] Richard Griffin, “Deeper but no closer with Grichuk,” Toronto Star, January 20, 2018.

[11] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

[12] Rick Hummel, “Grichuk Traded To Jays,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018.

The post Why Randal Grichuk was traded to the Blue Jays in 2018 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“It was like an organizational transformational moment,” Wainwright said. “The wake-up call to the team arrived today.”[1]

Matheny’s ouster followed an 8-2 loss to the Reds at Busch Stadium, but it wasn’t the homefield defeat that led to his ouster. It wasn’t even the Cardinals’ disappointing 47-46 record or the fact that they were on their way to missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season, something that hadn’t happened since the 1997-1999 seasons. Instead, it was the sense that the franchise needed to change its trajectory.

“I don’t feel like our trend line was taking us in that (positive) direction anymore,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “Even if it’s just slowly decaying, you’re going to wake up at some point and find yourself in a bad spot. You could say, ‘You’re already there, chief.’ The point is, we felt we couldn’t wait any longer. Change felt inevitable.”[2]

The Cardinals had seen diminishing returns since at least 2015. In the wake of Tony La Russa’s retirement following the 2011 World Series championship, the Cardinals made the 41-year-old Matheny the youngest manager in the majors. Though he didn’t have any professional coaching or managerial experience when he accepted the job, Matheny led the Cardinals to the NLCS in his debut season.

In 2013, Matheny guided the team to 97 wins, the NL Central Division Championship, and the National League title. The following year, the Cardinals reached the NLCS again, and in 2015, they won 100 games to claim the NL Central title for the third consecutive year before bowing out to the Cubs in the NLDS.

In 2016, the Cardinals missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010, finishing 86-76 to finish second to the Cubs in the NL Central. The next year, the Cardinals finished third with 83 wins, this time trailing both the Cubs and Brewers. At the time of his firing, Matheny’s Cardinals were once again in third place, 7 ½ games behind the division-leading Cubs.

The team’s record, however, only told part of the story. Two weeks earlier, Mozeliak stirred controversy when he seemed to question the effort of struggling outfielder Dexter Fowler, who was batting just .171 in the second year of a five-year, $82.5 million contract and had begun to lose playing time to young center fielder Harrison Bader.

In an interview with Fox Sports Midwest, Mozeliak said, “It’s been a frustrating year for everybody involved. Here’s a guy who wants to go out and play well. I think he would tell you it’s hard to do that when you’re not playing on a consistent basis. But I’ve also had a lot of people come up to me and question his effort and his energy level. You know, those are things that I can’t defend. What I can defend is trying to create opportunities for him, but not if it’s at the expense of someone who’s out there hustling and playing hard.”[3]

A couple of days later, The Athletic reported that Fowler and Matheny hadn’t spoken for months.[4] That report was followed by another story in which The Athletic reported that veteran relief pitcher Bud Norris had been “mercilessly riding” rookie reliever Jordan Hicks and would report to Matheny whenever he felt his teammates were “not living up to the standards the team set in spring training.” In some instances, Matheny would fine players based on Norris’s reports.[5]

The story raised questions about Matheny’s skill in managing his players and in the clubhouse culture he had established. When asked if Hicks would grow to appreciate Norris’s tough love, Matheny answered, “Probably not, but Bud’s going to continue to do what he thinks is right as a veteran, so you respect that.”[6]

Matheny’s words raised eyebrows, locally and in the national media.

“A few decades ago, that answer would have been completely unremarkable from a manager—but not so much anymore, not in a game that banned rookie bullying and hazing in its most recent collective bargaining agreement,” Emma Baccellieri wrote on SI.com.[7]

Ironically, Matheny’s reputation as a clubhouse leader played significantly in the Cardinals’ decision to name him manager following La Russa’s retirement. As the Cardinals’ starting catcher from 2000 through 2004, Matheny won three Gold Gloves and was recognized as a calm, steady voice on a team filled with strong personalities.

As a manager, however, Matheny was late in embracing trends in bullpen management and defensive shifts. Baseball Prospectus ranked him last among active managers in its reliever management metric, and Baseball Savant ranked the Cardinals 23^rd in the frequency of their defensive shifts.[8]

“He was one of the last guys to try to keep this game old school,” second baseman Kolten Wong said. “Everything is going to analytics and shifts and all this right now, but Mike was definitely one of those guys who loved the old-school aspect of playing.”[9]

After an 8-2 loss to the Reds in which Hicks allowed four runs in 1/3 of an inning, Matheny conducted his postgame press conference unaware that Mozeliak was informing hitting coach John Mabry and assistant hitting coach Bill Mueller that their services were no longer needed. After his press conference was complete, Matheny, who still had more than two years remaining on his contract, found Mozeliak waiting to break the bad news.[10]

“I realize I have to take the responsibility,” Matheny said. “When we can’t get things going right, that’s my job. I know who shoulders the blame. The blame falls on my shoulder.”[11]

It was the Cardinals’ first midseason firing since 1995.

“When you see that happen it’s because us, as players, we’re not doing our job,” said Yadier Molina, Matheny’s successor behind the plate and the only member of the Cardinals’ roster who had played alongside Matheny. “I hate to say it, but that’s what it is. We’re not doing our job. The blame is on us.”[12]

“We all feel bad for Mike and ultimately it comes down on us,” agreed infielder Jedd Gyorko. “We’re the guys that go out there and play and perform. I feel like we haven’t done that good enough.”[13]

Matheny left the team as one of just four skippers to manage the Cardinals for more than 1,000 games. He compiled a 591-474 record over that span, good for a .555 winning percentage. His 591 wins trails only La Russa (1,408), Red Schoendienst (1,041), Whitey Herzog (822), and Billy Southworth (620) in franchise history.

“I never set that as one of my goals – to be as successful as Whitey or Red or Joe (Torre) or Tony,” Matheny said. “That was never part of my definition of what success looked like. I can’t be what other people want me to be.”[14]

Bench coach Mike Shildt was named interim manager in what Mozeliak termed “an extended interview.”[15] On August 28, the interim tag was removed and Shildt was officially named manager. The Cardinals finished the season with a 41-28 record under Shildt for an 88-74 overall record, 2 ½ games back of the wild card.

The following year, Shildt led the Cardinals to 91 wins en route to the NL Central Division title and a berth to the NLCS.

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[1] Derrick Goold, “Mozeliak says firings were inevitable with team faltering,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 26, 2018.

[2] Derrick Goold, “Mozeliak says firings were inevitable with team faltering,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 26, 2018.

[3] Bill Baer, “John Mozeliak calls into question Dexter Fowler’s effort and energy,” NBC Sports, https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/07/02/john-mozeliak-calls-into-question-dexter-fowlers-effort-and-energy/.

[4] Mark Saxon, “Are Dexter Fowler and the Cardinals headed for a divorce? Sure seems like it,” The Athletic, https://theathletic.com/422240/2018/07/05/are-dexter-fowler-and-the-cardinals-headed-for-a-divorce-sure-seems-like-it.

[5] Mark Saxon, “Veteran Bud Norris is leading the young Cards bullpen with a divisive old-school approach,” The Athletic, https://theathletic.com/428599/2018/07/11/bud-norris-st-louis-cardinals-bullpen-jordan-hicks-relationship-mike-matheny.

[6] Mark Saxon, “Veteran Bud Norris is leading the young Cards bullpen with a divisive old-school approach,” The Athletic, https://theathletic.com/428599/2018/07/11/bud-norris-st-louis-cardinals-bullpen-jordan-hicks-relationship-mike-matheny.

[7] Emma Baccellieri, “Poor On-Field Decisions, Clubhouse Issues Led Cardinals to Change Course From Mike Matheny,” SI.com, www.si.com/mlb/2018/07/15/cardinals-fire-mike-matheny-tactical-errors-clubhouse.

[8] Emma Baccellieri, “Poor On-Field Decisions, Clubhouse Issues Led Cardinals to Change Course From Mike Matheny,” SI.com, www.si.com/mlb/2018/07/15/cardinals-fire-mike-matheny-tactical-errors-clubhouse.

[9] Peter Baugh, “Cardinals players reflect on Matheny,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[10] Derrick Goold, “Cards Fire Matheny,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 15, 2018.

[11] Rick Hummel, “‘I’ve Got Nothing But Gratitude,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[12] Derrick Goold, “Mozeliak says firings were inevitable with team faltering,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 26, 2018.

[13] Steve Overbey (Associated Press), “Players take blame after Matheny is shown the door,” Belleville News-Democrat, July 16, 2018.

[14] Rick Hummel, “‘I’ve Got Nothing But Gratitude,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[15] Ben Frederickson, “It’s an audition for Shildt on the Cards’ stage,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

The post Why Mike Matheny was fired as Cardinals manager first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak initially hired the 49-year-old Shildt as an area scout in 2003. Shildt stayed in that role for three seasons, then requested the opportunity to coach.

“If I’m not good, if I’m overmatched, send me home,” he said.[1]

Rather than send Shildt home, the Cardinals kept promoting him. In 2009, he was named the manager at Johnson City, where his teams won the Appalachian League championship in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, Shildt managed the Cardinals’ Double-A Springfield affiliate. In his first season there, with a roster that included Carlos Martinez, Kolten Wong, Oscar Taveras, and Trevor Rosenthal, the Cardinals won the Texas League championship.

Shildt spent two seasons as the manager at Triple-A Memphis before he joined the Cardinals’ major-league staff under Matheny in 2017. When the Cardinals fired Matheny following an 8-2 loss to the Reds that dropped the team’s record to 47-46 on July 14, 2018, they named Shildt interim manager.

“When you look at the last few years, who has been the closest to players at the major-league level, and players on the cusp at Triple-A, that was Mike Shildt,” Mozeliak explained, referring to Shildt’s role as interim manager as “an extended interview.”[2]

“He’s a legitimate candidate because he’s come through the system and had a lot of success as a manager,” Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said. “He knows the situation.”[3]

Shildt’s promotion was greeted warmly by the players, even as they expressed disappointment that their performance on the field had cost Matheny his job.

“The one thing I can say about this guy (Shildt) is he cares,” Wong said. “He pays attention. He always puts in the work. From day one, I knew he was an amazing man because of how he could communicate and how he could talk with us. No matter what, he always had our back. After finding out what happened last night, and finding out he was the guy, it was a little bit of light in a dark time.”[4]

Dating back to his time as the Cardinals’ general manager, Mozeliak had long kept a running list of potential candidates for key positions, including the manager. Now that he had a vacancy, he updated the list and began researching potential candidates, including Joe Girardi, who had won a World Series as manager of the Yankees in 2009, and Cardinals coaches Jose Oquendo and Stubby Clapp.

Oquendo, who had applied for the Cardinals’ managerial job in 2011 when Matheny was named to replace Tony La Russa, placed his support behind Shildt.

“I think the Cardinals have the right guy in Mike,” he said in August. “I think, to me, in my opinion, they should decide now and make him the manager. He’s a real good one. I don’t think they should miss him.”[5]

The results on the field supported Oquendo’s opinion. From August 7 through August 15, the Cardinals reeled off eight consecutive wins. On August 21, a 5-2 win over the Dodgers propelled the Cardinals into second place in the National League Central Division, just 2 ½ games behind the Cubs for the division lead.

As the Cardinals kept winning, Mozeliak looked at his list of managerial candidates “less and less,” he said.[6]

“We’ve won, certainly, and that’s a byproduct of what he has done there,” DeWitt said. “He’s very collaborative with his coaches. He’s got relationships with the players. We all watch the games and my observation is – and I think it’s pretty well agreed to in the front office – his in-game strategy is excellent.”[7]

Shildt also changed the communication in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. General manager Michael Girsch described it as “a different energy.”[8]

“The one thing we’ve seen under Shildty is he’s changed the process and he’s been very intentional about that,” Mozeliak said. “I should say, it’s not just him, it’s the coaches, the players willing to accept that. We’re no longer doing what we were doing, and guess what? The outcome has changed. That has been very positive.”[9]

By August 28, Shildt had managed the team to a 26-12 record. He was in his home when Mozeliak called and asked if he was sitting or standing. Shildt answered that he was sitting.

“Good,” Mozeliak said. “I’d like to make you the next manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.”

Shildt was silent for a moment.

“It hits you,” Mozeliak later explained. “That’s a unique phone call to receive.”[10]

It was especially impactful for Shildt, who carried a copy of Cardinals coaching legend George Kissell’s ideas in a notebook that had been gifted to him by Kissell’s son, Dr. Dick Kissell. Shildt revisited the notebook each day, particularly the question early in the book, “Am I an organizational man??”[11]

Shildt’s dedication to Cardinals’ history combined with his interest in analytics made him unique among the candidates on Mozeliak’s list.

“When you’re talking about possible outside candidates, they would not have that,” Mozeliak said. “I do think there is some nuance that has value when you understand what you have. We don’t have to spend time having the new manager learn what our product is about. He knows that and he also knows the weaknesses of that where we need to improve. When we talk about the success over the last six weeks, I think we’d all agree that we’ve seen the little mistakes go away. They’re not festering.”[12]

DeWitt expressed a similar appreciation for Shildt’s climb through the Cardinals’ system.

“It’s nice that those who have been in your system, who have done a good job, can come up and continue to do a good job,” he said. “That’s an ideal scenario.”[13]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon wrote, “DeWitt, Mozeliak, and Co. have made many tough decisions while running this team. Removing Shildt’s interim tag was not one of them.”[14]

“We just felt like we could not do better,” Mozeliak said. “Clearly the relationship he has with our players and our coaching staff, as well as our front office and ownership, it just made this a seamless decision and one we didn’t agonize too much over.”[15]

“He deserves it,” Jedd Gyorko said. “We’re playing really good baseball and he’s leading the charge behind that. We’re pumped for him. Baseball … you guys have seen what we’ve done out there, but behind closed doors, he’s a great guy to play for and an even better person.”[16]

The Cardinals finished the 2018 season with an 88-74 record – including a 41-28 mark under Shildt – and finished third in the NL Central. The following year, Shildt was named the National League Manager of the Year after he guided St. Louis to 91 wins and the NLCS.

In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Shildt and the Cardinals placed second in the NL Central with a 30-28 record before losing to the Padres in a three-game NL Wild Card Series.

In 2021, buoyed by a 17-game September win streak, Shildt’s Cardinals went 90-72 to finish second in the NL Central and qualify for the NL Wild Card Game. Despite a 252-199 record in four winning seasons in St. Louis, Shildt was fired that October. Mozeliak cited a “philosophical difference.”[17]

Shildt’s .559 winning percentage during his tenure as Cardinals manager actually surpassed those of legendary Redbird managers such as La Russa (.544) and Whitey Herzog (.530), though both managers enjoyed longer careers in St. Louis and totaled significantly more wins.

 Enjoy this post? Find similar stories listed by decade or by player.

[1] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[2] Ben Frederickson, “It’s an audition for Shildt on the Cards’ stage,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[3] Ben Frederickson, “It’s an audition for Shildt on the Cards’ stage,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[4] Ben Frederickson, “It’s an audition for Shildt on the Cards’ stage,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 2018.

[5] Ben Frederickson, “Cardinals manager Shildt has full support of Oquendo,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 17, 2018.

[6] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[7] Jeff Gordon, “This decision was easy one for Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[8] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[9] Jeff Gordon, “This decision was easy one for Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[10] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[11] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[12] Derrick Goold, “Job Belongs To Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[13] Jeff Gordon, “This decision was easy one for Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[14] Jeff Gordon, “This decision was easy one for Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[15] Jeff Gordon, “This decision was easy one for Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[16] Rick Hummel, “Flaherty keeps rolling,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2018.

[17] Derrick Goold, “Cards Fire Shildt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 15, 2021.

The post Cardinals name Mike Shildt manager: August 28, 2018 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Carpenter tied a team record with 16 total bases, matching Mark Whiten’s four-home run game on September 7, 1993. Carpenter’s five extra-base hits made him the only Cardinal in at least 110 years to total that many in a single game.[1] Exactly 14 years earlier, Albert Pujols had gone 5-for-5 with three homers and a double against the Cubs, though his total included a single for 15 total bases.

“I’ve been coaching since 1972 and I have seen five-hit days, I’ve seen five-strikeout days, I’ve seen three-homer days, but I’ve never seen anything like that,” Cardinals hitting instructor George Greer said.[2]

Carpenter got off to a slow start to the 2018 campaign, hitting below .200 as late as May 23, but as the weather heated up, so did Carpenter’s bat. Heading into the July 20 game against the Cubs, Carpenter was batting .263 and had four hits in his last three games.

Little did he know that he would surpass that total in a single Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Ironically, Carpenter’s five-hit day came on a day in which he faced a tough matchup against lefthander Jon Lester. Earlier that month, Lester had been selected for the fifth and final all-star game of his career, though he didn’t appear in the contest. With a 12-2 record and 2.58 ERA, Lester hadn’t suffered a loss in nine consecutive starts. Even worse, Carpenter entered the game batting just .140 (7 for 50) against Lester with 14 strikeouts.[3]

Cubs fans got their first hint that Lester may not be at his best when Carpenter led off the game by drawing a full count, then hitting a home run just inside the right-field foul pole. The blast marked the 21^st career leadoff home run of Carpenter’s career, tying him with Lou Brock for the franchise lead.[4]

“It’s super humbling to be mentioned in the same sentence as Lou,” Carpenter said.[5]

An inning later, Dexter Fowler hit an RBI double, Tommy Pham drove in a run with a single, and Carpenter pulled a two-run homer over the right-field wall to give St. Louis a 5-0 lead.

In the fourth, Carpenter collected his third extra-base hit of the game, hitting a leadoff double into the left-field gap. Lester walked Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong to load the bases before Joe Maddon replaced Lester with reliever Anthony Bass. Lester had thrown 86 pitches over three innings.

“I’ve been around long enough to wash this one aside,” Lester said.[6]

If anything, Bass actually fared worse, as Marcell Ozuna greeted him with an RBI single before he issued bases-loaded walks to Jedd Gyorko and Kolten Wong. With the score now 8-1, Maddon called upon James Norwood to escape the inning. Norwood did so, but only after Fowler drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, Tommy Pham hit an RBI single, and Carpenter collected his fourth hit of the afternoon, a two-out, run-scoring double that gave the Cardinals a 12-1 lead.

Two innings later, Carpenter came to the plate against another lefthander, 35-year-old Brian Duensing, with two runners on base. With a double-digit lead, Carpenter and manager Mike Shildt had discussed removing Carpenter from the game to allow him a half-game break.

“(Shildt) came up to me, they had the lefty on the mound, and he said, ‘Hey, what do you think,’” Carpenter said. “I was actually OK with Jose (Martinez) coming in. We had a big lead; we have a lot of games piling up in the next couple of days. I was honestly OK with it, and then I looked at the situation knowing that if I was going to get up, there was going to be runners on base, so I went back up to him and said, ‘Hey, I’ll take this last one, for sure.’”[7]

Once again, Carpenter beat the matchup, launching a three-run shot down the right-field line to make the score 15-1. It was Carpenter’s 23^rd home run of the season.

When the frame ended, Shildt replaced Carpenter with Francisco Pena, who took over the catching duties while Molina moved to first base. Had Carpenter stayed in the game, his bid to reach or surpass the major-league record of 19 bases in a single game likely would have come against a position player as infielder Tommy La Stella, catcher Victor Caratini, and outfielder Ian Happ combined to pitch the final 3 1/3 innings.

“Not a lot of glory in that anyway,” Carpenter said. “I didn’t even realize at the time that it was anything historic or anything crazy, honestly.”[8]

With Carpenter watching from the dugout, backup infielders Greg Garcia and Yairo Munoz each homered to add insurance runs for the Cardinals’ bullpen. It was the first time since at least 1907 that the Cubs used multiple position players as pitchers in a game.

“There you go,” Chicago’s Kris Bryant said. “We’re making history.”[9]

Happ, who threw a scoreless ninth inning, lobbied Cubs manager Joe Maddon for the opportunity to take to the mound.

“I wish the game would have gone differently, but it was (a) pretty cool experience to be on the mound at Wrigley,” he said.[10]

The Cardinals totaled 18 hits in the win, including three from Pham and two apiece from Harrison Bader, Wong, and Fowler.

“Regardless of the situation, they were competing,” Shildt said. “I appreciate the hunger.”[11]

Flaherty allowed just one run over five innings to earn the win. Luke Gregerson and Greg Holland each threw scoreless innings of relief, and Matt Bowman allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings.

In the next day’s paper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Ben Frederickson described Carpenter’s historic performance this way:

Five times on Friday, Matt Carpenter bowed his back, heaved a big breath through his beard and found a pitch to feast upon.

Four-seamer. Two-seamer. Change-up. Two strikes on him. First pitch offered. Southpaw. Righty. He punished them all the same.

With no regard for human life, Carpenter in six innings silenced a Wrigley Field crowd with two doubles, three home runs, seven RBIs and 16 total bases.[12]

“I’m having a hard time coming up with words to describe a day like this,” Carpenter said. “It was ugly, for me personally, that first month from a mental standpoint. To go through that and feel like you were having good at-bats, feel like you were hitting the ball hard, and just nothing to show for it. The team getting off to a slow start offensively and in the win column, pressure was building for me. I want to be a part of this team.”[13]

Carpenter was a huge part of the team throughout the second half, helping to lead St. Louis to a 22-6 record in August, a stretch that included a season-high eight-game win streak. He finished the season with a .257/.374/.523 stat line that included 36 homers and 81 RBIs and led all Cardinals position players with 4.4 wins above replacement.

One day after his historic 5-for-5 performance, Carpenter tied Mark McGwire for the franchise record when he homered in his sixth consecutive game.[14] He credited an unlikely source for the power surge: his homemade salsa, grown in a garden Adam Wainwright built for him at the infielder’s St. Louis home.[15]

“I’m big into salsa, and I’ve just been making it,” Carpenter explained. “I just happened to bring it on the road trip and it’s going pretty well. … I’m going to keep eating it until it stops happening.”[16]

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[1] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[2] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[3] Associated Press, “Carpenter helps Cards clobber Cubs,” Belleville News-Democrat, July 21, 2018.

[4] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[5] Associated Press, “Carpenter helps Cards clobber Cubs,” Belleville News-Democrat, July 21, 2018.

[6] Teddy Greenstein, “Hammered,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2018.

[7] Associated Press, “Carpenter helps Cards clobber Cubs,” Belleville News-Democrat, July 21, 2018.

[8] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[9] Teddy Greenstein, “Hammered,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2018.

[10] Teddy Greenstein, “Players thrown into deep end,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2018.

[11] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[12] Ben Frederickson, “With Shildt’s backing, Fowler eyes new start,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[13] Derrick Goold, “Carpenter has historic game in win vs. Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2018.

[14] Derrick Goold, “Cards rally for a split,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 2018.

[15] Derrick Goold, “Cards rally for a split,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 2018.

[16] Derrick Goold, “Cards rally for a split,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22, 2018.

The post July 20, 2018: Matt Carpenter hits three homers, two doubles in historic 5-for-5 game first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.