Two is better than one: Edman delivers HRs for wife’s birthday
KANSAS CITY — Tommy Edman had a really particular request forward of Saturday night time’s recreation.
Edman’s spouse, Kristen, who’s pregnant with the couple’s first youngster, requested for one easy birthday current: a house run.
Instead, Edman went above and past and clobbered two, offering the game-winning run within the Cardinals’ 5-4 victory over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
With Edman’s dad energy already in full type, St. Louis’ shortstop notched his first mulithomer recreation in over two years (May 26, 2021).
“A big part of it was that it’s my wife’s birthday,” Edman mentioned smiling. “She wasn’t expecting two.”
Since the Cardinals dealt Paul DeJong to the Blue Jays forward of the Trade Deadline, Edman has discovered a groove offensively since being penciled in because the Cardinals’ on a regular basis shortstop. He has at the least one hit in 8 of his previous 10 video games, batting .351 (13-for-37) with 7 extra-base hits (3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 dwelling runs).
“I made a little adjustment at the plate recently. Without getting too mechanical, I changed the direction of my swing and am making sure I’m staying through the middle of the field,” Edman mentioned. “It’s humorous that each [home run] balls had been pulled in the present day, however I’ve been working by means of the center and the opposite-field recreation.
“But that just shows you that when you’re doing that, you can still pull the ball.”
Edman acquired issues began with a two-run dinger within the high of the second, but it surely was his 403-foot solo shot within the eighth that solidified his large day, and the Cardinals’ successful street journey. The blast cleared the bullpen in left and left his bat with a 104.5 mph exit velocity.
In 112 fewer at-bats towards lefties, Edman has the identical variety of homers (5) as he does towards righties (5). His OPS towards lefties (.833) can also be considerably larger than it’s towards righties (.696), and each of Edman’s homers Saturday had been off the one two lefties the Royals trotted out to the mound.
“From that right side, he can slug,” Cardinals supervisor Oliver Marmol mentioned. “We’ve seen it before. This is a guy that drives a baseball well, especially from left-handed pitching … he’s pretty powerful.”
Edman’s large day on the plate allowed Steven Matz to select up one other win, his fourth in his previous 5 outings, after tossing his fourth consecutive high quality begin.
Matz has now gone 4 straight begins of at the least six innings for the primary time since becoming a member of St. Louis forward of final season. Before this stretch, he had by no means achieved it in back-to-back outings with the Cardinals.
“He’s put [enough starts] together where we’re not saying, ‘Let’s see if he can repeat it,’” Marmol mentioned. “This is who we were hoping to see all the way through. He’s done a nice job. … This is who Matz is. He threw a lot of pitches for strikes today.”
The lefty struck out extra batters (5) than he gave up hits (4), and he didn’t stroll a batter in a six-inning outing for simply the second time this season. Matz’s turnaround has been crucial for a membership searching for consistency within the rotation after Adam Wainwright’s current struggles and the gamers traded on the Deadline.
In his seven begins since being thrown again within the rotation after spending time within the bullpen, Matz has pitched to a 1.86 ERA and a 4-0 document. He has allowed simply eight earned runs over that span and has extra strikeouts (38) than hits (27) and walks (7) mixed over his previous seven outings.
“This is the type of pitcher I am,” Matz mentioned. “There’s a few different things you could put your finger on [for the change], but I think mindset is one of them. Going to the bullpen changed my mindset a little bit. I think I’m locating my changeup better and keeping it down for the most part [too].”
“He’s a different pitcher than what I remember from seeing him the last time,” Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro mentioned. “More sinkers and changeups to righties … his delivery looks really smooth, he located, he didn’t back down.”
With Matz persevering with to shove, and Edman including to an already power-heavy offense, the Cardinals are beginning to determine who they’ll depend on in 2024.
“We’ve got a good mix of guys who have been around the league for a long time and guys who have only been around for a few years, and I think that’s part of the reason why it works,” Edman mentioned. “You see Goldy and [Arenado] always talking about their swings, and I think that is trickling down to the young guys, who can learn a lot from that.”
