St. Louis Cardinals lose rocky series with Colorado Rockies

The St. Louis Cardinals continued on their frustrating trend of struggling to get it together and pull off a winning streak.

It’s impossible to fathom things getting much more ugly for the St. Louis Cardinals, but the team certainly gave it their all in a Fourth of July weekend series with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies won 5-2 Thursday, the Cardinals won 9-3 on Friday and the Rockies took the final of the series winning 3-2 on Saturday and Sunday.

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

The Good

Friday’s 9-3 victory was very good for the Cardinals. Yadier Molina got things started for the Cards with his eighth homer of the season in the second inning, scoring Tyler O’Neill. At 3-2 Rockies in the ninth, Jose Rondon singled to left to score Tommy Edman to tie things up. In the tenth, Molina singled to score Dylan Carlson. Tommy Edman then singled to score Nolan Arenado.

The Cardinals were able to cap things off nicely with some fireworks of their own as Harrison Bader hit a grand slam homer off Yency Almonte, scoring Molina, Edman, and Paul DeJong. Take a look, what a beautiful shot.

Another good came from the fans at Coors Field as they warmly greeted Arenado in his first return to the park since the winter trade that brought him to the Cardinals. Arenado was visibly choked up in the first at-bat and was moved in each subsequent at-bat that brought applause. It was great to see.

The Bad

The Cardinals have struggled with injuries even before the 2021 season began. So it’s frustrating to see the struggles continue. O’Neill and Carlos Martinez were each removed from games with injuries over the weekend.

On Friday, O’Neill was removed in the sixth inning after he was hit by a pitch from Chi Chi Gonzalez. It was believed to be a hit off his pinky finger. O’Neill, who has been a positive presence for the Cardinals, was out for the remainder of the series with the Rockies. Hopefully with some extended reset, O’Neill can return to action in San Fransisco.

Martinez left the game with an injured hand in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game. It was believed the injury was sustained during his at-bat in the third. While he pitched the bottom of the third, he left the game with trainer Adam Olsen after looking into the dugout as he was having issues gripping the ball. It’s really disappointing as Martinez has had struggles with consistency all season.

The Ugly

The Cardinals are still having issues getting scoring opportunities together. If that weren’t enough, the relief pitching was rocked in the three losses.

Giovanny Gallegos gave up the winning three-run homer to Elias Diaz in the ninth of Thursday’s game. He scored Brendan Rodgers and Ryan McMahon.

On Saturday, Genesis Cabrera gave up a three run homer to Trevor Story in the seventh to score Raimel Tapia and Yonathan Daza.

Minutes after being announced as a member of the NL All-Star Team as a reserve pitcher, Reyes earned the loss for the Cardinals on Sunday, giving up a single to Diaz to store Joshua Fuentes.

That’s all three of their big three relievers not coming through in the clutch. It’s disappointing and part of the reason you saw the Cardinals claim reliever Justin Miller and sign free agent reliever T.J. McFarland.

Get your popcorn ready, the Cardinals are expected to have a busy July in the area of transactions.

The team is clearly frustrated as they near the end of the first half of the season. Check out this quote from Matt Carpenter after Sunday’s loss:

The losses feel worse especially after Friday’s big 9-3 win. You can see the Cardinals put it together as you know they absolutely can. The team is fully capable of getting runs and holding off the other team. It’s ugly and frustrating when they just can’t.

The Cardinals are 5-5 in their last ten games with a 41-44 record. They are in fourth in NL Central at ten games back of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals head to San Fransisco to place the NL West leading Giants, who have a 52-30 record.

Here’s hoping the Cardinals can come up triumphant.