Tony LaRussa on the Cardinals’ Closer Situation and the Team’s Current Mentality
April 20, 2009 – 8:15 am by Will BrinsonThe 2009 version of the St. Louis Cardinals are in a weird situation — they reside in the National League Central and they have a legitimate shot of winning that division. Yes, the Cubs are very good, but the Cardinals have a strong enough team to take a pretty good shot and the incumbents.
Two things are a problem, though: the closer role is a little shaky at the moment and Chris Carpenter is now out for a month. Tony La Russa, the Cards’ World-Series-winning manager, got on the phone with WSCR recently to talk about how those two things are affecting his team’s chances of winning.
On the uncertainty surrounding the closer role
“The game still counts so if you don’t have a legitimate closer at the start of the season, you just don’t say, “Well we give up.” We do have some nice depth on the right-hand side and we’ve got two left-handed relievers so there’s a way for us to get through a game and get a win on the board. The key is, at some point we hope that one of these guys emerges and can nail down that 9th inning spot.”
On his team’s mentality:
“This is a really tough-minded, hard-playing club. We’ve got a lot of guys that are excited about their playing time. When you play hard every day in and day out and you try to play the game right, you’ll surprise a lot of people at how close you can be to winning games and win your share.”
Listen to Tony LaRussa on WSCR in Chicago with Mully and Hanley
Tags: Baseball, Chris Carpenter, MLB, Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals, Tony LaRussa
