St. Louis Cardinals: The no-no that should have been

The St. Louis Cardinals narrowly avoided being no-hit in Busch Stadium last night by the Cubs. I was rooting for the no-hitter.

The 2016 St. Louis Cardinals seem- at the current time at least- uninterested in making the postseason. I admit that statement is hyperbole but it does feel that way at times. This seems never more so than when being nearly no-hit by Kyle Hendricks on Monday night.

We St. Louis Cardinals fans knew this was likely coming since the squad seems unable to post hits with consistency. When they do hit, they blast the ball over the fence so it came as no surprise to me that the no-hitter was busted by a lead-off home run in the ninth inning by Jeremy Hazelbaker.

It isn’t okay, in my opinion, to lack surprise by the no-normal-hit-but-home-run-okay approach of this season’s St. Louis Cardinals. I know I have written often of my frustration this season even in spite of the somewhat positive record held by these Cardinals. This frustration stems from the gross inconsistency and is shared by many people I follow on Twitter.

Let me interject here that I wanted the St. Louis Cardinals to fall prey last night to the no-hitter. Why? Quite honestly because something needs to change. I don’t know the silver bullet necessary but I am beginning to feel that a severe demoralization may be necessary to drive real change.

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Let’s examine this thought. Normally I would advocate against a demoralization move as I feel these are too punitive to bring about positive change.  In this case, however, it seems that Mike Matheny is content to manage via the paper game plan derived before the start of the game rather than by responding to changes and challenges to the game plan during the game.  In this case then a shocking no-hitter might have brought about change.

Does this mean that Matheny should be gone as the St. Louis Cardinals manager?  I’m not willing to say that at this time.  Does this mean that I feel the Cardinals needed a wake-up call in the way of a no-hitter?  Absolutely!

Tonight’s lineup is absent the likes of injured Matt Carpenter which could spell disaster for the St. Louis Cardinals or it could spell the positive next-man-up mentality.  Let us all hope for the latter.  Tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals face 14-8 Jason Hammel behind Jaime Garcia who was severely lackluster in his last appearance.  Let us all hope that Garcia wants to improve.

Next: Roller Coaster Needs Speed

Fingers crossed that the Cardinals can improve without a demoralizing change like a no-hitter.  Fingers crossed that the birds can manage to find a win tonight in hopes of gaining ground in the wild card race.  Fingers crossed that things can change.