BY JOE STRAUSS jstrauss@post-dispatch.com
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/
October 7, 2013
PITTSBURGH • Almost two hours earlier inside PNC Park Matt Holliday had conspired with Michael Wacha to save the Cardinals’ season. Now the hard part was about to commence.
He had to talk about it.
Holliday’s expression when confronted with a mob of pens and lens can be similar to when he fouls a ball off his left shin. Monday he only had himself to blame for creating The Moment.
Without Holliday’s contribution Game 4 of this division series might have ended as one of the biggest wastes in the franchise’s postseason history. Sure, the rookie Wacha remained perfect for five innings and unhittable for more than seven. However, without Holliday’s two-run, sixth-inning launch to dead center field against home starter Charlie Morton, the Pittsburgh Pirates might have raised the Jolly Roger on a series that instead returns to Busch Stadium for Wednesday’s tell-all Game 5.
It forced a reserved, almost introverted man to say something.
He remained in a hallway outside the Cardinals’ clubhouse. Going inside might manufacture a fresh crush of humanity.
“I hate talking about myself,” Holliday explained. “I’ve never been comfortable with it. Ask me about Wacha or what my teammates did. That’s fine. This is more uncomfortable.”
Wacha’s name was first on the deed to Monday, and that’s fine with Holliday.
“Wacha looked like a stud in spring training,” Holliday said. “He pitched like one today.”
Eight scribes attended Holliday’s formal postgame news conference, which consisted of three questions and lasted little longer than it took him to circle the bases. Holliday dressed in coat and tie before going to the interview room. He exited through a side exit. He’d done his job, now where was the bus?
Start with the premise that there is no more misunderstood elite athlete in St. Louis than Holliday.
In a town that likes its players down, dirty and chirpy, Holliday is a power hitter who can appear awkward in the outfield and unorthodox at the plate.
Holliday doesn’t earn style points. He merely produces and rarely seems comfortable talking about it.
Self-conscious, Holliday can be misread as aloof. Owner of a violent swing that begins with an exaggerated load, his on-field struggles appear exaggerated.
“He doesn’t like to talk about himself and that probably hurts him with some people on the outside,” said first baseman Allen Craig. “But in our clubhouse we fully believe in what Matt’s done for us and what he’s done throughout his career. Without question he’s one of the best hitters in the league.”
The Cardinals’ 2-1 win featured only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position and four hits total between the teams.
Holliday accounted for half the hits and both the visitors’ RBIs when he drove Morton’s too-high sinker 417 feet into a hitter’s wind.
Fly balls typically get rejected like a short man’s lay-up at PNC. This time, however, the pitcher’s park couldn’t hold Holliday, responsible for the game’s first hit thanks to a first-inning single.
“I felt like I got it good and I knew I squared it. But when you hit it that high you never really know with the wind,” he said. “You hit it that high you worry about it coming down.”
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle targeted Holliday. After right fielder and No. 2 hitter Carlos Beltran wrecked the Pirates the previous two games, Hurdle was prepared to work around the Cardinals’ switch-hitter and attack Holliday.
“The first at-bat I got some pitches to hit,” recalled Beltran. “The second at-bat they weren’t close. The third at-bat they weren’t close, either. What can I say? I feel like I’m swinging the bat well. Maybe they don’t want me to beat them. ... I don’t want to say they were pitching around me. I’d say they were pitching me difficult.”
Morton’s fifth pitch to Holliday in the sixth led to a very loud sound. Combined with Wacha’s dominance, the blast proved a silencer for a crowd that came to party. The Cardinals are back on serve.
“You feel good about having Adam (Wainwright) out there and being at home. But it’s going to be a battle,” Holliday said in a hallway outside the visitors’ clubhouse. “These guys have fought us hard all year. Just like we did to them today, they’re going to come out and try to beat us.”
October has not been especially kind to Holliday in St. Louis. Before Monday afternoon Holliday had managed just two home runs and 12 RBIs in 112 postseason at-bats with the Cardinals. He missed three games the last two Octobers with injuries. His mother required surgery to remove cancer the same day the Cardinals played Game 4 of last year’s NLCS.
Yes, Holliday smoked a home run in last year’s wild-card win in Atlanta, but Monday was without question his biggest playoff swing for his current franchise. Without it, this year is past tense.
“Physically, I’m feeling great for it being October,” he said. “I’m swinging the bat. I feel good about my mechanics. I’m seeing the ball real well. I just want to go out and do the best I can do. It hasn’t always been perfect but I’ve always played hard. When I look at myself in the mirror, that’s what I want to do.”
Holliday remained at his locker and took it when a routine-looking ninth-inning fly ball clanked off his protective cup in the disastrous Game 2 of the 2009 division series. To his critics the gaffe became the equivalent of Mookie Wilson’s grounder through Bill Buckner’s legs. That Holliday eventually signed a seven-year, $120 million contract as a free agent only fed the haters.
“If you make the money you’re going to get (criticism) a little more,” said third baseman and local product David Freese. “That’s just the way things work, and I think that’s OK. That’s how sports are. If you get paid, you’ve got to make things happen. Today he did. You look over his career and he’s done a damn good job of that.”
St. Louis’ fetish about Holliday’s clutch-worthiness ignores this season’s .390 batting average and 1.033 on-base-plus-slugging percentage with runners in scoring position. With Craig disabled by a significant foot injury it was highly unlikely the Cardinals overtake Atlanta for the National League’s best record absent Holliday’s breakout September (.378, 23 RBIs, 1.083 OPS).
Holliday’s average languished at .265 July 4; still, he ended up hitting at least .300 for the seventh time in a 10-year career.
Between scoring more than 100 runs and almost driving in 100 while batting .300, “That’s a pretty good season,” Holliday allowed himself. “I felt pretty good about that.”
Holliday was for four years a relatively silent partner alongside Albert Pujols and glib Lance Berkman in the same clubhouse. With both gone this season, resulting media glare has sometimes caused him to wince.
“If you want to talk about any of these guys I’m perfectly happy telling you what I know,” Holliday said. “I live my life in a way that it’s not about me all the time. I’d rather talk about other people and give them the credit they’re due.”
Beltran was asked if he was surprised someone would pitch around him to reach Holliday. His answer said something about his teammate Holliday would never say about himself.
“You’ve got to look at his career. He’s a .300 hitter. I’m not a .300 hitter. I’m at .282. So, actually he’s a better hitter than I am,” said Beltran, smiling.
Photo: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
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