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It was not a good night out in Cincinnati for the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
After grabbing an early lead on Tommy Edman‘s solo home run, struggling starter Dakota Hudson surrendered five unanswered runs to the Cincinnati Reds.
Hudson failed to even make it through five innings as the Cards fell to their division rivals 5-1.
But manager Oliver Marmol made the move to go to Jake Woodford, who helped calm things down for St. Louis by giving them 3.1 scoreless innings.
Woodford also allowed just two hits and struck out two batters in his appearance, lowering his ERA to 2.16 on the season.
In his relief of Dakota Hudson, Jake Woodford has given up just two hits in 3 1/3 scoreless frames, struck out two and hasn't walked a batter.
In other words, he's been pretty good.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) August 31, 2022
A Valuable Asset
Woodford is a valuable guy for St. Louis that can be used at any point in a ballgame.
His last appearance before last night was on August 23 in Chicago, where he went 5.1 innings and allowed just one run on four hits in a spot start.
With Hudson struggling, we could see Woodford take his spot in the rotation.
With Jack Flaherty coming back and Steven Matz on a rehab assignment, that might be unlikely.
But at the very least, here’s a guy who can give you multiple innings in an emergency situation.
Assuming the Cardinals reach the postseason, Woodford could be a very valuable weapon out of the bullpen.
With Hudson’s recent performance and Matz and Flaherty on their way back, it’s hard to imagine that Hudson would be on the postseason roster.
But the Cards could soon potentially have two very solid long relief options in their pen.
Andre Pallante has been solid out of the pen this year.
He and Woodford could really help give the Cardinals bullpen a bit of a break if need be.
More must-reads:
- How the Rangers' top rookie prospects have fared
- Yankees' Nestor Cortes off to frigid start
- The 'Active MLB strikeout leaders' quiz
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