4 takeaways from St. Louis Cardinals series split with Nationals

The Cardinals split a four-game set with the Nationals, leaving a feeling that more could have been done. 

The Cardinals had moments where they looked good, followed by moments of looking terrible. They lost Monday 0-6. The Cardinals won Tuesday 4-1 and Wednesday 6-5. They lost Thursday, 11-6.

The Cardinals traveled to Pittsburgh for a three-game set against the Pirates, a team that they have had great success against. Here’s hoping they have a reset and pounce. Albert Pujols has had some memorable moments against the Pirates. He could use a good series as he’s one homer from tying Alex Rodriguez at 696 career homers and five away from reaching 700 homers for his career.

The Cardinals are now 81-57 on the season with the split. They are eight games up in the NL Central on the Milwaukee Brewers, who are 73-65. The Cardinals return to St. Louis Tuesday to play a two-game set against the Brewers.

It is shaping up to be an exciting few weeks for the Cardinals.

Let’s take a look back at their series split with the Nationals.

Everything about Monday’s game was ugly for the Cardinals

The Cardinals lost 6-0 after going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, leaving five on base. Not exactly what you expect from the Cardinals lately. Especially with Jack Flaherty making his first start in two months.

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Flaherty earned the loss going five innings, giving up six hits, a walk, and one earned run. He did strike out six batters. Flaherty looked much better than he has in the past couple of seasons. The start was something Flaherty should build on.

Andre Pallante has been a bright spot this season but had a bad outing Monday. He pitched a third of an inning, giving up four hits, a walk, and four runs. Chris Stratton cleaned things up, pitching the final two-thirds of the sixth inning. He gave up one hit and one walk.

Zack Thompson pitched the seventh inning, giving up a hit and a walk. James Naile pitched two innings, giving up two hits, a walk, and one home run to Keibert Ruiz.

Tuesday featured a scrappy win by the Cardinals

Jose Quintana got the win for the Cardinals after pitching five innings Tuesday. He gave up five hits, and one earned run. He did strike out five batters.

Jordan Hicks pitched two innings of relief, giving up a hit and striking out one. Giovanny Gallegos pitched a clean eighth inning.

Ryan Helsley’s walk-out hype video debuted Tuesday evening as he entered the ninth. He earned his 14th save of the year after giving up a hit and a walk while striking out one.

Brendan Donovan hit his third homer of the season on a fly to center in the fourth inning. Tyler O’Neill hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Nolan Arenado.

Norman Gorman had an excellent game Tuesday with a fresh, Mom-approved haircut. Gorman knocked a double on a fly to right field in the fourth inning, scoring Corey Dickerson. In the seventh inning, Gorman hit his 14th homer of the season on a fly to right-center field off Steve Cishek.

It was great to see Gorman have such a great game.

Cardinals’ high expectations for Thursday were dashed

Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina tied the record for most starts as a battery at 324. This ties a record held by the Detroit Tigers’ Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan. Wainwright pitched five innings, giving up nine hits and four earned runs. He did strike out two.

Pallante earned the loss after another lousy outing of this series. He pitched a third of an inning, giving up two hits and an earned run. Jordan Hicks pitched 1.1 innings, giving up two hits, one walk, and two earned runs. He did strike out one batter.

Chris Stratton pitched 1.1 innings giving up a hit and striking out one.

James Naile pitched the final inning, giving up four hits, a walk, and four runs, including a homer to Alex Call, scoring Nelson Cruz and Cesar Hernandez.

Paul Goldschmidt got things off to a good start for the Cardinals in the first inning. He singled on a sharp liner to right field, scoring Brendan Donovan. Goldschmidt advanced to second thanks to a fielding error by Joey Meneses.

Yadier Molina hit a home run in the second inning on a fly to left field, scoring Alec Burleson. Molina homered again in the fourth inning on a fly to left field, tying things up at 4. It was so great to see Molina have a multi-home run game in such an important game for Wainwright and himself.

They didn’t give up down 11-4 in the ninth inning. Brendan Donovan singled on a line drive to left field. Tommy Edman singled on a grounder to left field. Paul DeJong grounded into a force out with Edman out at the second base. Andrew Knizner walked after pinch-hitting for Nolan Arenado.

Corey Dickerson singled on a grounder to left field, scoring Donovan and DeJong. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to muster.

It was a disappointing ending to a game with so much promise. Here’s hoping the Cardinals dust this loss off and are ready to battle the Pirates this weekend.