The 5 most devastating World Series losses in St. Louis Cardinals history

#4 - 1987 World Series

Following their loss in the 1968 World Series, the Cardinals went 14 years before returning to the Fall Classic, but they took home the 1982 World Series and would make three in total during the 1980s.

After dropping the 1985 World Series (more on that later), the Cardinals returned to the Fall Classic in 1985 after winning 95 games, facing the 85-win World Series, who boasted a 56-25 record at home in the Metrodome that season, but the Cardinals were well prepared due to playing on their own artificial turf as well.

Led by the iconic manager Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals seemed to have all of the pieces necessary to take home the World Series crown and their second title of the decade. The Cardinals' offense was centered around Jack Clark, who finished third in MVP voting after slashing .286/.459/.597 with 35 home runs and 106 RBI on the season. Ozzie Smith finished second in MVP voting that year, playing his iconic defense at shortstop while posting a .775 OPS with 40 doubles and 43 stolen bases. Vince Coleman stole 109 bases that year, adding a dynamic element to the Cardinals' offense.

On the pitching side of things, the Cardinals were steady, led by Danny Cox, Greg Mathews, Bob Forsch, Joe Magrane, and John Tudor. Todd Worrell was a lockdown closer for them that year, and Cardinals fans had every reason to believe they would be able to come out on top over the Twins.

The series could not have started out any worse for the Cardinals, though, as they were stomped by a score of 10-1 in Game 1 and followed that up by losing 8-4 in Game 2. The Cardinals were at risk of being swept as they went back to St. Louis, but Tudor rose to the occasion and spun seven innings of one-ball, setting up Todd Worrell for a two-inning save to stop the bleeding in the series.

The Cardinals turned the tables on the Twins while the series was in St. Louis, as they rode the momentum of Game 3 to take all three games of the series in St. Louis, and thus a commanding 3-2 series lead over the Twins as both sides went back to Minnesota.

In Game 6, the Cardinals looked ready to hang their banner, as a first-inning home run from Tommy Herr spurred the Cardinals' offense to put up five runs in four innings, taking a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. With the game hanging in the balance, Kirby Puckett got the bottom half of the inning started with a single, and then a Gary Gaetti double and a Don Baylor home run tied the game up at five apiece. Ricky Horton came in to try and stop the rally, but he surrendered the go-ahead run to Steve Lombardozzi that inning, and the Twins went on to beat the Cardinals by a score of 11-5.

This led to another Game 7, and although the Cardinals took another early lead in this game, but their offense was held in check by Frank Viola after that, going eight innings while allowing just two runs to the Cardinals as the Twins took home the World Series by a score of 4-2.

This loss was especially difficult due to what happened in 1985, and the fact that the Cardinals would not return to the Fall Classic until 2004.