MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-16
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-16
9. Paul Goldschmidt, 43 percent
Every game involving in NL Central opponents is critical. The five teams are separated by only nine games, with just four games separating the top three teams.
Wednesday afternoon’s battle between the Pirates and Cardinals fit that description. The Cardinals have spent two months trying to make up ground on the division-leading Cubs and Brewers. They also presently sit just at the precipice of a multi-team wild card battle.
Wednesday’s matchup in St. Louis was the rubber game of the teams’ series. The Pirates took an early 4-2 lead, and starter Chris Archer worked comfortably, making Jose Martinez his sixth strikeout victim to open the fifth. Two batters later, however, Tyler O’Neill homered to bring St. Louis within a run at 4-3.
But Archer retired after six innings, and that retirement proved to be the Pirates’ undoing. In the seventh, Francisco Liriano allowed a base hit to Tommy Edman, then issued a one-out walk to Martinez. The next hitter was Paul Goldschmidt.
Obviously, this has been a disappointing season for Goldschmidt, who the Cardinals traded for and then signed to a multi-year extension in the hope that he would be their offense’s focal point. That hasn’t happened; Goldschmidt’s .251 average and league-average 100 OPS+ are key reasons why the Cards find themselves mid-pack in both the divisional and wild card hunts.
On Wednesday, however, Goldschmidt did make a difference. With the tying and go-ahead runs on base, Goldschmidt homered to left-center, improving the Cardinals’ chances of winning the game – and therefore the series – from 45 percent to 88 percent.
The Pirates still had two shots left, and they nearly made good use of those. In the bottom of the ninth, three hits produced a run that brought the visitors within 5-4 and left runners at first and third before Carlos Martinez retired Starling Marte on an infield grounder to seal the victory.