St. Louis Cardinals take ugly dive off Pittsburgh Pirates plank

The St. Louis Cardinals tried to push back but were forced off the plank in the ugliest of four game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The St. Louis Cardinals tried to push their way back, but they ended up taking a dive off the plank set out by the Pittsburgh Pirates, losing three of four games this weekend. They won Saturday 3-1, but lost Thursday 8-2, Friday 5-4 and Sunday 7-2.

Let’s discuss the good, bad and ugly of it all.

The Good

Saturday’s win was the best thing of the weekend series. The win was topped with this beautiful home run from Paul Goldschmidt:

It’s nice to see Goldschmidt heating up and this 470-foot blast over Freese’s Lawn was amazing. Hopefully he will keep putting it together and help his team score more runs.

Paul DeJong hit one 401-feet to Big Mac Land  in left field on Saturday. Take a look at the shot here. Interesting to hear he’s been reaching out to Cardinals Hall of Famer Jim Edmonds and alum Ryan Ludwick for hitting advice. It would be great to see a consistent message and output hitting wise from the team. But, in these times when the struggles are mighty in the hitting department, you gotta do what you can to get on track.

Nolan Arenado had a pretty amazing defensive play on Saturday as well. Thankfully, Tyler O’Neill backed off or there would have been quite the collision:

Adam Wainwright had another good outing Saturday. He pitched six innings, allowing six hits, including one home run to Gregory Polanco, a 386-foot blast. He gave up a walk but struck out eight. The big three relievers were able to close out the game for Waino. Genesis Cabrera went an inning, his tenth hold. Giovanny Gallegos pitched an inning, striking out two. It was his 12th hold. Alex Reyes earned his 18th save of the season, pitching one inning.

The Bad

Oh, let’s be honest. Everything. Everything is bad about the Pirates taking three of four from the Cardinals. That’s just awful and unacceptable. Everything seems bad about the Cardinals right now.

The Ugly

I could seriously cut and paste this one! It’s the lack of getting consistent hitting and scoring. It’s the giving up walks. It’s the bad pitching. It’s just ugly to see.

On Sunday, Johan Oviedo pitched four innings, giving up six hits, four walks and five earned runs. He did strike out five batters. Jake Woodford pitched two innings giving up three hits and two runs, including two homers. He struck out one. Junior Fernandez picked two innings. He gave up three hits, one walk and struck out two. Seth Elledge pitched an inning, striking out three.

Carlos Martinez pitched Thursday going five innings. He walked seven batters and gave up five earned runs, including a homer. It will be interesting to see how much longer he remains in the starting rotation. Wade LeBlanc, who starts on Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, pitched 2.1 innings of relief. He gave up five hits, three earned runs including two homers.

Kwang Hyun Kim pitched 4.1 innings Friday, giving up seven hits and four earned run. He walked one and struck out one. Woodford earned the loss Friday giving up one hit and one earned run. Ryan Helsley, Cabrera, Andrew Miller and Gallegos pitched the remainder of the game giving up minimal damage.

It’s frustrating to see yet another winnable series fall at the hands of the Pirates. It’s frustrating to see this happen to one of the better on-paper teams the Cardinals have had.

The Cardinals are now in fourth place in the NL Central at 37-41 and eight games back of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are 2-8 in their last ten games.

I cannot imagine we go much longer without seeing some major changes. It can not be just John Gant going back to the bullpen and Wade LeBlanc getting the start in the opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday at Busch. Serious moves and changes need to be made.