3 ugly moments from St. Louis Cardinals series with Braves

Ugly No. 1: Pitching

Dakota Hudson seemed to suffer from the stifling heat in his four innings of work on Monday. He earned his fifth loss of the season after giving up nine hits, three walks, and six earned runs. He did strike out two batters.

Johan Oviedo had a scary outing after getting hit on the pitching hand with a come-backer. He did give up a hit while striking out two. James Naile came in to replace Oviedo. He pitched 2.1 innings while striking out two.

Andre Pallante earned his fourth loss of the season Tuesday and was lit up in his 3.2 innings of work. He gave up 10 hits and seven earned runs, including two homers to Austin Riley and William Contreras. He did have five strikeouts in the outing.

Packy Naughton pitched 2.1 innings of relief, giving up a hit and striking out three. Junior Fernandez pitched an inning, giving up a hit, and a walk while striking out one. Zack Thompson pitched one inning, striking out one.

Miles Mikolas earned his seventh loss on Wednesday. He pitched six innings, giving up five hits, a walk, and three runs including two homers to Marcell Ozuna and Eddie Rosario. Zack Thompson and Giovanny Gallegos pitched a clean inning each to end the game, but the damage had already been done. Mikolas appeared rattled after home plate umpire Carlos Torres disrupted his flow as he called timeout during his wind-up. While he’d pitched well to begin the game, that event was his tipping point.

It was frustrating to see Giovanny Gallegos get a fifth-blown save on Thursday. In some games, he pitches well, but when he doesn’t it gets costly. Gallegos gave up a home run to Michael Harris II, which tied the game at one in the seventh inning.

Ugly No. 2: RISP and LOBs

While getting home runs from Juan Yepez and Connor Capel, the Cardinals were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The leam left 11 runners on base and struck out eight batters.

On Tuesday, Nolan Gorman singled to score Paul Goldschmidt in the first inning, but that was all the Cardinals could muster in the 7-1 loss. The team was 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position while leaving a whopping 12 runners on base. Imagine if any of those runners had scored. Terribly frustrating to keep seeing.

On Wednesday, the team struck out eight times. They were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring positions and left nine runners on base. Nolan Arenado and Andrew Knizner each grounded into double plays.

While the Cardinals did win Thursday, Braves pitching struck out 19 batters. They were 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position. They left 11 runners on base in the game.

The Cardinals showed once again how terribly inconsistent they are at the plate. Much of the team has fallen off at hitting. Possibly a return to St. Louis and the return of some major league hitters will help in the coming weeks.

Ugly No. 3: Inexperience exposed

The Cardinals lineup has often resembled that of one of the minor league teams this season, with many minor leaguers joining the St. Louis club to help out with mounting injuries. It’s becoming a lot though and key players are missed.

Tyler O’Neill is expected to return to the St. Louis lineup during the weekend series with the Phillies. O’Neill’s return can not come soon enough. The team needs his bat and his Gold Glove defense in left field. Connor Capel, Brendan Donovan, Juan Yepez, and Lars Nootbaar have done well but it’s time to have a major league defender in the outfield.

Carlson has done well in the center field to fill in for an injured  Harrison Bader. But it keeps Carlson out of the right field, where his defense is also needed. While Donovan has been serviceable in right, they have gotten some poor defense from Yepez who is better suited as a designated hitter or to assist at first place when Paul Goldschmidt or Albert Pujols is unavailable. He must work on his outfield defense if they insist on keeping him as an option in the outfield.