Good, Bad and Ugly: Cardinals split in tangle with Pirates

If one series epitomized the St. Louis Cardinals season, it was this series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park this weekend.

The St. Louis Cardinals looked about as terrible as they could on Thursday and Sunday. For one inning each game. They looked great for the other parts of those two games. Add in their great performances on Friday and Saturday, and the Cardinals should have swept the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend.

The Cardinals lost 11-7 on Thursday, they won Friday 4-3, they won 13-0 on Saturday and lost a gut puncher on Sunday, 4-3.

Let’s discuss the good, bad and

terrible

ugly of the series.

The Good

On Friday, the game was quiet until the fifth inning. Harrison Bader knocked a double to center field, allowing Edmundo Sosa to score. Tommy Edman then hit his eighth home run of the season to left field, scoring Bader.

The Cardinals got a needed insurance run in the seventh inning when Edman hit a sacrifice fly to center fielder Ben Gamel, who apparently didn’t know what was going on, allowing Paul DeJong to score.

Also, J.A. Happ pitched very well Friday going 5.2 innings, giving up three hits, two earned runs and three walks. He struck out four. Luis Garcia had a shaky outing pitching 1.1 innings giving up one hit and walking two. He did strike out two.  Giovanny Gallegos was also shaky in his one inning of work. He gave up three hits and one earned run. Alex Reyes earned his 29th save of the season pitching the ninth. He gave up one hit but struck out two.

On Saturday, the Cardinals looked great going on an offensive tear and combined that with an absolute gem from Adam Wainwright.

In the second inning, Edmundo Sosa tripled to center allowing Yadier Molina and Dylan Carlson to score. In the third, Paul Goldschmidt singled to right field, allowing Tommy Edman to score. Sosa hit his second triple of the night allowing Tyler O’Neill, Nolan Arenado and Molina to score.

Harrison Bader was walked and Adam Wainwright knocked a single allowing Sosa to score.

In the sixth, Goldschmidt doubled to left to score Edman. In the seventh, Edman hit an infield single toward first, allowing Sosa to score. Luis Oviedo walked Paul Goldschmidt with the bases loaded to score Bader.

In the eighth inning, Dylan Carlson hit his 13th home run of the season to left center, scoring Jose Rondon. Carlson wasn’t sure he got it all but Goldschmidt let him know.

Edman hit another infield single allowing Sosa to score.

Wainwright is now 13-7 on the season. The outing was the 299th combined start featuring Wainwright and Molina. Waino pitched seven innings, giving up three hits, one walk and he struck out five.

Junior Fernandez and Kodi Whitley pitched an inning of relief each. Fernandez gave up one hit and one walk, striking out two. Whitley gave up one hit and one walk.

On Sunday, things were rolling along nicely. Tyler O’Neill got his first triple of the season to score Edman. Edman hit his ninth home run of the season to center field, scoring Matt Carpenter.

It looked like that was all that would be needed with a couple of defensive gems from Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, and then this play from Harrison Bader:

Kwang Hyun Kim’s reaction is perfect! Kim pitched four innings, giving up three hits, one walk and one earned run, while striking out three. Luis Garcia looked good in his 1.1 inning of work, striking out two. T.J. McFarland pitched 1.2 innings, walking one and striking out one. Giovanny Gallegos pitched the eighth inning, striking out one.

And then, the bottom of the ninth with Alex Reyes happened. That will be discussed in the ugly section. Where it belongs.

The Bad

Hitting and moving on the base path remains bad.

Even scoring seven runs on Thursday, the Cardinals were two for three with runners in scoring position and left three on base. It’s sad that seven runs can not be enough when one of your better relievers has a bad night. Nolan Arenado grounded into a double play.

On Friday, the team was two for eight with runners in scoring position and left six on base. Yadier Molina grounded into two double plays.

On Saturday, the team looked great offensively but they were 8 for 18 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base.

On Sunday, they were one for five with runners in scoring position and left five on base. It would have really helped to get those guys across the plate. Bader grounded into a double play.

It’s just frustrating to see this continue to be an issue for this team.

The Ugly

Thursday’s game was a gut puncher. Nolan Arenado got things going in the first inning, hitting his 26th homer of the season to left field, scoring Tommy Edman.

In the second, Edman doubled to right field scoring Lars Nootbaar and Edmundo Sosa. Paul Goldschmidt singled to score Edman. Edmundo Sosa hit his fourth homer of the season to center field, scoring Yadier Molina.

Scoring seven runs was not enough once Genesis Cabrera took the mound in the seventh inning with a 7-3 lead. Bryan Reynolds singled to left field scoring Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ben Gamel. Wilmer Difo singled to score Michael Chavis and Reynolds. Gregory Polanco doubled to center field, scoring Moran and Difo. Yoshi Tsutsugo knocked his fourth home run of the season to center field, scoring Polanco.

After Thursday’s game, Mike Shildt answered in the affirmative that the team believed Cabrera may have been tipping his pitches, according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. When asked why he left Cabrera in the game, Shildt told MLB.com’s Zachary Silver, “Because he’s really good.” Cabrera has indeed been good many times this season, but it was apparent early that he did not have good stuff.  It was frustrating to see the Cardinals blow their lead and even more frustrating that Cabrera had to take one for the team.

On Sunday, Alex Reyes walked two and gave up one hit, a home run, equalling the biggest, gut punch loss of the year.

Reyes started the inning walking Bryan Reynolds. It didn’t look good as it almost appeared he was having issues finding the plate. Reyes seemed to gain some composure, striking out Colin Moran. He normally plays the Cardinals tough, so it was good getting that out. Then, Jacob Stallings walked. Again, Reyes didn’t look right. But, neither Molina or pitching coach Mike Maddux visited him to calm him down.

Yoshi Tsutsugo came to bat and you could just feel the nerves exploding.

So it was of little surprise when Reyes served up a hittable pitch for Tsutsugo to blast into the river, a walk-off home run, giving them a 4-3 win.

It was terrible and just frustrating. Reyes has been the closer all season with very few mistakes. But, when he does make mistakes they are huge and costly. This was his fourth blown save of the season. He is now 5-7 on the season.

You would hope to see him get a break for a while. Blowing a save on your 27th birthday wouldn’t be a great feeling. As for the future, I can’t imagine they are seriously continuing to consider him for the rotation next year. They must shake things up and move on from these continuous, costly mistakes by pitchers they seemingly over use.

In Conclusion

Sunday’s loss was huge for the Cardinals. They could have gained ground on the Cincinnati Reds as they head to Cincinnati for a four game set. While they could have been 2.5 out going into Monday, they will be 3.5 back with a 66-63 record. They Reds are 71-62, squarely in the second wild card spot and 8.5 back of the Milwaukee Brewers. The San Diego Padres are two games ahead of the Cardinals in the Wild Card hunt.

A win Thursday or Sunday would have given the Cardinals life. Instead, we are left frustrated and wondering what’s next for an inconsistent and struggling team.