The situation had Trevor Rosenthal written all over it–9th inning a one run lead for the St. Louis Cardinals, but as Mike Matheny explained afterwards, there was a reason Kevin Siegrist was on the mound for the save.
“Tight–just one of those days the arm didn’t feel right and we needed to give him a day,” said the manager of not using his closer. Rosenthal did not warm up at all and would also have been unavailable had the Cardinals played Sunday against Kansas City.
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“That’s all right now,” added Matheny. “That’s the whole point of going around and talking to the guys everyday, how do you feel? If it’s a day that ‘my arm just didn’t bounce back’ which is the case with this and Trevor, something just doesn’t feel as good as it normally does, we’ve got to take a step back. We can work them hard when they come back with the right answer and everything feels good but when they’re honest and need those days, I’ve got to respond and give it to them.”
Other than coming in a little too far inside and hitting Tori Hunter, Siegrist set the Twins down in order to save the 3-2 victory.
“It feels good,” said Siegrist who downplayed the outing as just a chance to secure a win for the team. “I just feel like the crowd is a little bit more into in the 9th, obviously, but as far as me preparing for an inning it’s the same, as far as the way I think.”
“He came out with a little extra fire afterwards, you could see that was something he was proud of himself for,” said Matheny, who complimented Siegrist on staying true to his stuff before adding a chuckle. “He went through a big part of their order and came out throwing really good pitches. Made a really lucky bare-hand play–we don’t work on that one in Spring Training. We’ve got to figure out how to get his glove on that one.”
“That was not planned,” smiled Siegrist. “I guess my momentum was going to third base so I kind of had to spin to get the ball and I knew I couldn’t get to it with my glove or it was going to go by me, so I just stuck my bare hand out and was lucky enough to get it.”
LOOKING AHEAD
–Former Missouri Tiger Kyle Gibson (4-4) is scheduled to take the mound for Minnesota tomorrow. The only player on the Cardinals roster with an at-bat against the right-hander is Mark Reynolds–who is 1-2, with a strikeout, a HR and 2 RBIs.
MAKEUP DATE ANNOUNCED
–The Cardinals and Kansas City Royals will make up their postponed game from Sunday on Thursday, July 23rd at 6:15pm CT. Tickets from the original game will be honored for the rescheduled date.
photo credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
