Bernie On the Cardinals: John Mozeliak’s In-Season Additions Are Exceeding Expectations.

The Cardinals came into Cincinnati at a good time, with their pitchers having a chance to tranquilize a listless Reds offense.

But would this be easy? Probably not. After a lackadaisical 2-4 road trip to Milwaukee and Miami, the Reds were returning to the Great American Bandbox, the world headquarters for cheap home runs and a place that can reignite even the faintest of lineups.

In the first of a three-game series the Cardinals kept the Reds in check and led from start to finish in a 3-1 victory that soothed the ache caused by Sunday’s vile loss at Pittsburgh.

Monday’s calm and confident success put the Cardinals only 2.5 games behind the Reds in the rummaging for the NL’s No. 2 wild card ticket. It was a bad night for the Reds. The Padres won to creep within a half-game of the Reds. The Phillies won, and trail Cincy by three.

The Reds are 10-11 in the last 21games, and have lost five of their last seven. During the seven-game downturn the Cincinnati offense has turned glacial: averaging 2.7 runs, batting .183, posting a .548 OPS and striking out 31 percent of the time.

Jon Lester was fantastic over 6 and ⅓ innings, ceding one run, one hit (a solo homer), and two walks while striking out five. Relievers T.J. McFarland, Luis Garcia and Giovanny Gallegos took it from there, throwing a blanket over the Reds for the final 2 and ⅔ innings.

Cincinnati hitters did little against the four STL pitchers, scrounging for two hits in 30 at-bats with seven strikeouts.

Paul Goldschmidt cranked a two-run homer in the first, and the Cardinals scratched out another run on a squibber single by Tyler O’Neill that scored Dylan Carlson.

The run was set up by Carlson’s double, and his alert dash to third base on a ground out by Nolan Arenado. The Cardinals didn’t generate much offense overall but got all they needed on Goldschmidt’s big blow and Carlson’s smart, heads-up navigation on the bases.

Let’s go a little deeper …

1) This was the John Mozeliak Game.

Huh? What the hell am I talking about? What does the president of baseball operations have to do with a win in Cincinnati?

Lester was a Mozeliak pickup.

So were McFarland and Garcia.

Gallegos, who closed it out to earn a save, is still paying off after being traded to St. Louis for sprouting slugger Luke Voit. It’s one of the moves that still rings in Mozeliak’s ears because of caterwauling fans that won’t let it go.

And of course, Mozeliak also brought in starting pitcher J.A. Happ, who is scheduled to face the Reds in Wednesday’s series finale.

2) Happ and Lester were acquired with time running out on the July 30 trade deadline.

When Mozeliak and GM Michael Girsch made their big, bold play (sarcasm alert) for roster upgrades at the deadline, the national and local reaction mostly consisted of laughter, confusion, and frustration. There was probably some disbelief. This would generally describe my reax … and I believe I threw a “Good grief, Mozeliak is now trolling the fans!” in there as well.

Lester (Washington) and Happ (Minnesota) lugged a combined 6.68 ERA to the Redbirds. They had drifted to the bottom of their profession, ranking among the worst starters in the majors this season. Factually. Statistically. By every measure.

But they’ve shattered all expectations. In their first 11 starts for the Cardinals, Lester and Happ have a combined 3.75 ERA. The team is 7-4 in their starts. Happ (2.22 ERA) has been consistently good, and Lester is coming after a gross beginning to his stay with the Cardinals.

After his first two starts for STL, Lester had a 9.58 ERA. But the performance has been much better in his last four starts, with Lester grinding for a 3.75 ERA and the Cards winning all four games. The old Lester has resembled the Lester of old in his last two starts, yielding only two earned runs over 11.1 innings.

3) Other than Nolan Arenado, The Old Starting Pitchers Club is the best addition to Busch Stadium this season.

By the way, the manager of this Old Starting Pitchers Club is Old Starting Catcher Yadier Molina. He runs the joint. Don’t mess with him. Just follow his advice and do what he says. The Old Catcher has clearly made a positive difference in the refurbishing process. The improvement displayed by Wade LeBlanc, Lester and Happ is no coincidence.

Adam Wainwright, LeBlanc, Lester and Happ average 37.7 years of age. In 272 innings for the Cardinals this season, their combined ERA is 3.24, and the team is 27-18 in their assignments. It’s a shame that LeBlanc’s elbow acted its age, got cranky, and put him on the Injured List.

One more note about the Golden Oldies: Molina, Wainwright, Happ, Lester and LeBlanc have a combined 78 seasons of MLB experience.

Beyond the regular season Waino, Lester and Happ (combined) have competed in 23 postseasons and 42 postseason series during their extensive big-league careers.

LeBlanc is out of service now. But can the Cardinals count on Happ and Lester to remain strong and pitch well over the final month of the regular season? That’s a substantial question; the Cardinals’ rotation depth is precariously thin. But we can’t diminish the value of these pickups. Without the contributions of Happ, Lester and LeBlanc, the The Cardinals would be long gone from the list of legit postseason contenders.

Here’s a way to gauge their impact:

➜ Since LeBlanc made his first start for the Cardinals on June 28, the Cardinals have the third-best rotation ERA in the majors, 3.16.

➜ In August, with LeBlanc (eight), Lester (six) and Happ (five) making 19 starts, the Cardinals have the second-best rotation ERA in the majors, 3.16. Only the Dodgers have a better starting-pitcher ERA (2.25) this month.

4) And what about the Mozeliak relievers, McFarland and Garcia? How much have they helped. 

The lefty McFarland was released by Washington on June 29 and signed two days later by the Cardinals. The Yankees released the righthanded Garcia on July 1; five days later the Cardinals had him under contract.

Here’s what they’ve done in August …

⧫ McFarland: 15.2 innings, no earned runs allowed. Opponents are hitting .189 against him with a .477 OPS. He’s a groundball machine (60%) who wisely relies on the stellar St. Louis infield defense. His average walks-hits per inning is only 0.83. This month he’s walked an average of only 1.7 batters per nine innings — a welcome change from the horrendous pattern of excess walks from Cardinal relievers this season.

This month McFarland has stranded 100 percent of runners on base during his watch. McFarland’s ERA since joining the Cardinals is 1.61.

⧫ Garcia: 15.1 innings, no earned runs allowed. He has a 29 percent strikeout rate and backs that up with a solid percentage of ground balls (45.3%) This month opponents are batting .113 against Garcia with a mousy .312 OPS. His average walks-hits per inning is a superb 0.57. And he’s walking an average of 1.8 hitters per nine innings.

Like McFarland, Garcia has a runners-stranded rate of 100% this month. He’s currently working on a streak of 16 consecutive scoreless appearances.

I don’t know how anyone of sound mind could expect more from McFarland and Garcia. They have settled — and to a large degree, transformed — a sloppy Cardinal bullpen. They’ve emerged as late-game, high-leverage options to ease the pressure and strain on mainstay relievers Genesis Cabrera, Alex Reyes and Gallegos. Of course, now comes the hard part: they must keep this up. Because with the fatigue issues making an impact on the other relievers, Garcia and McFarland have become more crucial than anticipated.

Consider: McFarland and Garcia lead Cardinal relievers in innings pitched for August. And while they’ve teamed to allow NO RUNS in 31 combined innings, the other St, Louis relievers have a 5.55 ERA in 60 innings this month.

Enough said.

5) What we’re seeing is the return of the STL missing phenomenon known as “Devil Magic.”

During their many years of success since Bill DeWitt Jr. became owner in 1996, the Cardinals frequently received excellent, low-cost, high-value performances after gathering overlooked or forgotten players that any team could have signed. The front office has lost the Devil Magic touch in recent years, and that’s been detrimental to the team’s across-the-board depth.

This has been one of the more glaring failures of the Mozeliak-Girsch operation in recent campaigns. But they’ve tried to revive the tradition through the additions of LeBlanc, Happ, Lester, McFarland and Garcia.

Let’s make something perfectly clear: None of this gives Mozeliak-Girsch a free pass for their neglect in reinforcing the roster (and depth) before the season, during spring training, or earlier during the regular season.

Rather than take a more proactive approach, the front office sat back and waited for disaster to strike before making a series of desperation moves for the three starters and two relievers. Sure, maybe Mozeliak-Girsch probably saw something in the pitchers that others didn’t. Or maybe they just got lucky. And perhaps the front-office wing is just as surprised as we are to see their acquisitions perform this  effectively.

But this is also true: the five pitchers acquired by Mozeliak and staff are the only reason why the Cardinals are still in position for a postseason spot.

Thanks for reading…

–Bernie

Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen by streaming online or by downloading the “Bernie Show” podcast at 590thefan.com — the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.

The weekly “Seeing Red” podcast with Bernie and Will Leitch is available at 590thefan.com

Follow Bernie on Twitter @miklasz

* All stats used here are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Stathead, Bill James Online, Fielding Bible, Baseball Savant and Brooks Baseball Net unless otherwise noted.