Cardinals Find Themselves Playing In A ‘Hat Tip Game’

For the Cardinals, the 2-0 loss to the Indians on Wednesday night will go down as one of 60-80 losses that they’ll incur over the course of the ’15 season.

For Corey Kluber?

It will be the highlight of his baseball playing life. A game that will be remembered by a generation of Indians fans as the best pitching performance they ever saw.

8 innings. 18 strikeouts. 1 hit. 0 walks. 0 runs.

If you happened to miss the game, I promise you that there are no typos in that stat line. He really did strikeout 18 batters over 8 innings. There isn’t much to rehash if your the Cardinals… tip your cap and get on to the next one tomorrow.

I’m not even going to front – I was kind of pissed when Klubner didn’t take the mound in the 9th inning. Could he have got to 20 strikeouts and tied the record for most ever in a 9 inning game? Could he have gotten 21?

I’m not the only one:

See, that's the thing. There's no proof — zero, zilch, nada — that letting guys throw 130 pitches causes injuries. https://t.co/Q96ZA93Zjf

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 14, 2015

Since 1884, only 19 pitchers have struck out 18 or more batters in a 9 inning game and it’s only happened 25 times total.

This is the first time that the St. Louis Cardinals have been struck out 18 times in a 9 inning game, but the St. Louis Maroons did suffer a 18K game in 1884 against the Boston Reds’ Dupee Shaw. On the other side of the ledger, Steve Carlton did set the single game 9 inning record for the Birds in 1969 against the eventual World Series champion New York Mets with 19Ks.

The Cards have actually lost all three games involving 18 or more strikeouts, including Carlton’s start (3-4 final).

Point is – this wasn’t a fun game as a Cardinals fan. But as a baseball fan, we got to witness something very special.

And something that could have been the most special, if not for this mythical 100 pitch threshold that has permeated every managerial decision made the past decade when it comes to pitchers. (Kluber left after 113 pitches to be exact and would have probably needed around 130ish pitches or so to set the record.)

Tito Francona knows what he’s doing, though, when it comes to playing the Cardinals. So it’s hard to second guess to hard.

Kluber was operating at the very pinnacle of his sport and it’s very likely that he’ll never be that good ever again. The Cardinals were props in a very entertaining show. Considering you’re not going to win them all, might as well have the losses be historic?

Yeah, I don’t really believe that either.

BTW- official attendance was 12,313. 10 years from now it’ll be close to 100K…

Photo: NBC Hardball Talk