St. Louis Cardinals: The ‘Titanic’ is sinking and the band plays on

Friday night’s game was tied 1-1 in the 8th inning and I went to bed fully confident the St. Louis Cardinals would lose.  The ‘Titanic ‘ is sinking, the band plays on, and I’m not upset.

This is where I am with this 2018 version of the St. Louis Cardinals.  I now know how the people left on the Titanic must have felt as they waited for the luxury liner to sink.  There was nothing to do but wait calmly for their doom and listen as the band played.

On Friday night, I watch Jack Flaherty enter the 7th inning pitching a no-hitter and with a 1-0 lead.  I was absolutely sure the lead wouldn’t hold up and the Cardinals would lose the game.  And I didn’t particularly care.

Flaherty then gave up a one-out, one-run home run to Jesus Aguilar and I knew the game was over.

Yes, it was only the 7th inning and the game was tied 1-1.  But I knew it was over and all there was left to do was calmly wait for defeat.

Instead of doing that, I went to bed during the eighth inning. Jordan Hicks came into pitch the 8th and even though I knew he would do a good job, I went to bed knowing the Cards would lose.

Why? To begin with the I knew the Cardinals would unlikely score again.  I also knew the bullpen was shot after Thursday night’s game and unlikely to hold up in extra innings.

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I was wrong about extra innings.  Aguilar hit a walk-off homer against Bud Norris in the bottom of the 9th.

I was in bed, sound asleep and so I saved myself the pain of watching the last two innings.  When I woke up Saturday morning, I checked my MLB At Bat app for the score, and wasn’t surprised or even upset when I saw the score.

Folks, this feels like we’re waiting for something to happen to end this 2018 mess.  Injuries, errors, and strikeouts are leading us somewhere.  Will there be a managerial change?  Coaching changes?  Are there major trades coming soon?  Certain overpaid players be DFA’d?

It’s been a long time since I have felt this way about a St. Louis Cardinal team.  Optimism started fading during the nine game stand against the NL bottom feeders when the Cards went 4-5.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  I still care about the St. Louis Cardinals. That hasn’t changed.  However, I am becoming numb about this 2018 version of the Cardinals.  This can’t go on much longer.

Next: Matheny needs to go

Like the doomed passengers on the Titanic, I wait and listen to the band….