St. Louis Cardinals: Offense fails to show up in loss to Twins

In what has begun to sound like the norm this season, the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense let the pitching down again. The result was another disappointing loss that no doubt is continuing to frustrate fans.

Jack Flaherty was called on to start and handled himself very well. He went 5.2 innings while striking out three batters against one walk, five hits and one earned run. Fellow youngsters Harrison Bader and Carson Kelly provided the only offense for the St. Louis Cardinals. Bader singled in the third inning and came around to score on Kelly’s single.

Flaherty was in line for the win until the sixth inning. With two outs, Brian Dozier reached on an infield single and scored following two more singles by Twins hitters. Brett Cecil came on in relief to record the final out of the sixth inning. That was the only out Cecil recorded.

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Everything came unhinged in the seventh inning. Logan Morrison led off the inning with a double off of Cecil. Luke Gregerson botched the throw to first base when Byron Buxton bunted for a single, sending Morrison in to score and Buxton to second. Bobby Wilson drove the nail in the coffin with a two homer before Sam Tuivalala came on in relief to end the threat.

The game would end with that score, 4-1 Twins on top. To say the Cardinals’ offense was frustrating would be an understatement. Matt Carpenter continues to look lost at the plate and Mike Matheny had him batting second in the order. After opening the month of May on a decent note the Cardinals have looked terrible offensively.

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On paper this is a team that should be performing much better with the bat. For whatever reason, they just aren’t getting runners on. When they do get runners on, they are not scoring. Something needs to change. The Cardinals get another chance at the Twins on Wednesday afternoon with Miles Mikolas opposing Lance Lynn, the pitcher he replaced.