Trevor Rosenthal hit 100 once vs. Washington Nationals. Oh, and 99 and 98 constantly

Coming in in relief of Chris Carpenter, pushed past his limit to a sixth inning, on Wednesday, Trevor Rosenthal hit 100 miles per hour on a ball that Jayson Werth somehow managed to foul off. That was the only time the St. Louis Cardinals' conspicuously hard thrower hit 100 in Game 3 against the Washington Nationals. He didn't hit 101—his high to date—even once, alas. But according to PitchF/X he did hit 98 six times, including four in a row to a helpless Bryce Harper (who called him Feugo the other day after their first meeting.) And, while he was at it, 99 twice in a row to Ryan Zimmerman, who finally swung through the last one.

Velocity isn't everything, but Trevor Rosenthal has all of it. He also has a low-80s curveball, on which he retired left-hander Adam LaRoche. It was also the pitch he came to immediately after hitting triple digits on the radar gun for the first and only time—the curveball came in at 82, and it was all Werth could do to pop it up on the infield.

On Wednesday, Rosenthal was in as a mop-up guy—the guy who could come in and give Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs a day off. But if the Cardinals advance to the NLCS, they're going to have a hard time keeping someone with his stuff out of high leverage situations.

(He also beat Bryce Harper to first base on this bang-bang play, which probably made Harper even angrier.)