Wade Davis pitched really well, throwing and mixing his pitches (fastball, cutter and curveball) throughout the entire game. He pitched inside to right handed batters. The cutter, thrown 88-90 mph, had good glove side run and reminded me of a plus slider. This was the first start where he really mixed his pitches really well, throwing the curveball and cutter more often.

Chris Tillman’s velocity increased after the second inning. Initially the fastball sat 89-91 mph, but starting in the third inning the fastball say 91-93 mph. Even though he didn’t have the desired results today, his mechanics looked good and repeated his delivery.

Matt Moore was more efficient in his outing, requiring only 104 pitches to pitch 6.67 innings. What made this a dominant outing was the consistent release point for the curveball and fastball. He pitched ahead in the count to the majority of the batters he faced. The curveball worked well to both right handed and left handed batters. He had three walks and it looks as though he’ll always be a high walk pitcher because no matter how well he’s pitching, he tends to lose command of his pitches randomly.

Bud Norris did not have a lot of movement on the slider and a lot of his pitches were elevated in the strike zone. It appears as though he was struggling gripping the ball because he kept licking his fingers after every throw.

Shelby Miller’s day started with a triple by Sterling Marte to right field that Carlos Beltran misplayed. Miller’s command was shaky in the first inning, but after that inning he settled down and didn’t allow a base runner for the next four innings. What I was most impressed with the last fastball he threw (pitch #98) was 95 mph. The biggest takeaway is the Cardinals defense isn’t very good anymore. Beltran has limited range, Daniel Descalso and Matt Carpenter are both below average defenders.