“Over the course of the season, you’re going to have some ups and some downs,” he said following the Cardinals’ come-from-behind 11-9 victory over Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday that completed a three-game sweep at Busch Stadium. “All you can do is try to stay focused so your downs are as short as possible. Overall, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that. Obviously, we weren’t playing great out West, but this weekend hopefully helped flush that from our system.
“You know he’s going to give you a good at-bat, that the key,” Shildt said. “He’s going to have an idea to what he’s doing and you can also see he has some clarity of where to go if he doesn’t take a good at-bat.