David Freese led the Cardinals to victory In Game 4 with six total bases, generating four runs, as expressed both in runs batted in as well as runs created. His 4.0 runs created in a single game stand as the 28th-most in Cardinal playoff history. What’s more, two of his teammates turned in top-50 offensive performances this series, too, including Ryan Theriot’s 3.6 and Albert Pujols’s 6.0-RC night in Game 3 — the third-highest total in team playoff history (talk about burying the lead).

The Cardinals’ top 50 highest single-game runs created:

Other series in which three or more players achieved top-50 performances: 1926 World Series (3), 1946 World Series (3), 1964 World Series (3), 1982 World Series (3), 2000 NLDS (3), 2002 NLCS (3), 2004 NLCS (7!) and 2006 NLCS (3).

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
a Cooperstown inductee.

After starting the season in Memphis, Boggs was quickly called up to the majors when Chris Carpenter went on the DL on April 15. He pitched one game in relief, then took four turns in the starting rotation from April 25 to May 14. He began with a bang in his first two starts, shutting down the Cubs with three strikeouts and one walk over 5 2/3 innings, then struck out nine Nationals five days later. But he walked seven over nine innings of his next two starts and returned to Memphis. Overall, though, he improved his control in his sophomore season, lowering his BB/9 from 5.8 to 5.1 and increasing his K/9 from 3.4 to 7.1. He later made a couple of returns to fill in for Todd Wellemeyer and Kyle Lohse when those pitchers went on the DL and impressed enough down the stretch to earn a spot on the team’s playoff roster, edging out veterans Wellemeyer and Brad Thompson … Despite a respectable 4.19 ERA, had a bloated 4.67 xFIP.

When the Cardinals re-signed Lohse to a four-year, $41-million extension before the 2008 season ended, it seemed like a good deal to some at the time. In the midst of rotation uncertainty, the team gained a known quantity in the unspectacular but solid and, most importantly, healthy righthander (John Mozeliak cited "his age and his durability" as reasons). But with Scott Boras representing him, Lohse got the better end of the deal in the first year as he posted a 4.48 xFIP and only 0.8 WAR, worst since his rookie year. He felt a pop in his right knee and had an MRI after an awkward play at first base on April 23, but it was a strained forearm that put him on the shelf. He injured it May 23, but didn’t go on the DL until he reinjured it, perhaps trying to come back too soon on June 3. He returned a month later but was ineffective the rest of the year … Lost some effectiveness on his changeup, his best pitch, down from 2.90 to 1.81 runs above average per 100 pitches … After his cousin died in an accident this summer, Lohse marked his initials in the mound dirt each time out … The mixing up of the final letters pronounced in his last name is an example of metathesis in linguistics.

Following Todd Wellemeyer, whom we’ve cited in this space for his three-true-outcome pitching propensity, in the rotation, Joel Pineiro took the mound against the Mets and pitched to contact. A lot of it. Pineiro got the Mets to put the ball in play, but kept it in the park, facing 30 batters en route to the team’s 5-2 win Wednesday.

It was an intriguing performance, given that Pineiro had such little apparent control over the outcome of the game. He struck out none and walked only two. With two-seam fastballs and changeups (in 2009, Pineiro is throwing his changeup more than twice as often as he did in 2008), Pineiro induced 17 ground balls en route to a team defensive-efficiency ratio of .786. It was a seemingly amazing 93.3% balls put in play. So how unique a feat was it?

Well, courtesy of BRef, here is a list of Cardinal players since 1954 who faced at least as many batters as Pineiro and had an even higher percentage of balls put in play (of total batters faced):

If nothing else, it’s a fascinating list of stars (Morris, Tudor, Gibson) and also-rans (Lary Sorensen, Lynn McGlothen and Tom Poholsky). It’s amazing that three Cardinal starters have had pitched a game in which every batter put the ball in play. So Pineiro still has a ways to go to top the venerable Jim Kaat (who, incidentally, was a similarly nimble fielder at his position), who faced 36 Pirates back in 1980. But at least the Cardinals won Pineiro’s game: Kaat allowed two one-out singles in the 10th inning at Three Rivers Stadium, then induced a ground ball. But the Cardinals couldn’t turn a double play and the runner scored from third. Sometimes, a strikeout is indeed better than a ball in play, and it’s better to be good than lucky.