St. Louis Cardinals decide to sit Matt Holliday after the complaints of lower back pain – NLCS News
The St. Louis Cardinals' manager Mike Matheny on Sunday, October 21, decided to sit Matt Holliday out of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series as lower back pain seemed to take its toll. Even though the outfielder wanted to give it a go, Mike Matheny preferred avoiding risk.
Matheny referred to the fact that Holliday wanted to play, but the team had to take an altogether different decision owing to the risks attached to it.
"It's been bothering him for a while, and we talked today and he said it felt better," Matheny said. "He's adamant that he can play, but I was watching him take BP, and he's really having a hard time finishing [his swing]."
Matt Carpenter will go on to replace him in the Game 6 while Allen Craig had to be brought in to left field while Carlos Beltran to be moved down.
Holliday remained one of the most consistent players in the regular season wherein he appeared in 157 of 162 games. A few games that he had to miss were due to tightness in back.
Consistency and experience that continue to remain the hallmark of this veteran player, Holliday did not want to miss any post-season game as the manager Mike Matheny also indicated while he spoke about the recent development.
"He's fighting me saying that he wants to play, and he's not very happy with me right now," Matheny before the game. "I noticed in the last game that he was having so much trouble staying through the ball and staying on it. That was my concern going into today."
In 157 regular season games, he had .295 average in 599 at-bats, scoring a total of 95 runs, smashing 177 hits with 102 RBIs and 27 home-runs. With .497 slugging percentage, he remained the source of Cardinals’ strength in the offence.
All the same, in a total of 45 at-bats in the post-season, Holliday has seven RBIs with 10 hits to his credit, scoring five runs. Personifying consistency, the Cardinals hope Holliday will be back as the NLCS has now entered its decisive phase, determining whether or not the Cards will make it to the World Series.
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