There are a number of words you might use to describe Matt Adams, who stands 6-feet-3, 260 pounds. “Stealth” probably isn’t one of them.
And yet …
“He’s the silent assassin over there,” said Cardinals pitcher Justin Masterson. “You got to watch out for him. People don’t see him coming.”
Adams put together the kind of game Monday night that catches people by surprise. They see his hefty dimensions and they put him in a category with stout first basemen of the past, players like Boog Powell, George Scott or even David Ortiz. Then he sneaks up on them, like he did on the Cincinnati Reds.
Adam lined a run-scoring double in the first inning, pulling it deep to the right-field wall, in a traditional, slugging first baseman manner. He then scored a run to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
In the fourth, he flashed the kind of defensive agility that has surprised so many. Masterson was in a big jam, two on and none out. He got Ryan Ludwick to ground to third, where Matt Carpenter fired to second and Kolten Wong relayed to first.
But Wong’s hurried throw was a nasty one-hopper, the kind that catches a fielder betwixt and between. No problem. Adams handled it and Masterson had his bomb-defusing double play. To that end, Adams leads National League first basemen with 11 run-saving defensive plays.
He demonstrated the prowess profoundly in a 7-6 win over the Padres on Sunday. He made a diving deflection of a ball that was smoked by San Diego’s Seth Smith, a desperate stop that allowed Wong to recover and get a game-saving out at first.
“You watch him, and he’s got 12 homers, and you see a big guy and you think, ‘Oh, maybe there should be more homers,’ ” Masterson said. “But his hands are just so good. You see him shooting balls out to left field, taking balls through the holes. I mean he’s been hitting (liners) the last two weeks that I’ve been here, sometimes right at guys. That’s the kind of hitter you want.
“But it goes back to the fact that he’s so athletic. I mean, the double play tonight, the balls he gets to down the line that most guys wouldn’t get to. It’s been impressive to watch him.”
Adams came up in the sixth Monday with the Cardinals trailing 4-3 and stroked his 28th double of the season to left, driving an outside pitch to the opposite shore. Teams continue to often play a shift against Adams. But his measurements notwithstanding, the Silent Assassin has never been such a one-dimensional batter.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve never been a dead-pull hitter,” Adam’s, 25, said. “I’m just going up there and looking for a ball out over the middle of the plate and trying to drive it. My approach is always hit the ball where it’s pitched.”
He did so again in the 10th inning. After Matt Holliday singled for his slump-vanquishing second hit, Adams set the table for decisive action by getting his third hit, a single that sent Holliday to third with one out. The Reds had to play their outfield in, allowing Jhonny Peralta to turn a deep fly to left into a game-winning single and the fifth Cardinals win in the last six starts.
Adams finished the game with a .311 batting average, good for fourth in the NL, 12 points behind Colorado’s Justin Morneau, who leads at .323. Adams has 55 RBIs and a team-leading five triples – that’s right, five three-baggers. Those aren’t the numbers you expect from a big, burly first baseman, per se.
They are the numbers a of well-rounded player who has become increasingly important to the Cardinals in every aspect of the game.
“I don’t think the league has given him the credit he deserves for the kind of player he is,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “He comes up with big hits, he’s flashing power, makes big plays defensively … all the way around.
“He’s having a great season, the kind of season we need him to have. And he’s starting to really look forward to having opportunities to get that big hit, like he did tonight.”
For the Silent Assassin, it’s all part of the plan.
“I know what I’ve got to do to help our team,” Adams said. “That’s to go out there and give quality at-bats. And if I have a bad night at the plate, to not take that over on the defensive side. I have to contribute in both ways to help our pitchers be successful and help this team win.
“Maybe you can say it might go unnoticed by some people. But that’s not something that even comes into my head.”
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