Comeback, Postseason Just Not in Cards

ST. LOUIS -- The sweaty Midwest summer had quickly given way to a pleasantly comfortable day, sunny with a cool breeze. There were televisions showing college football. Busch Stadium was full. On the field, shadows crept across the diamond because of the network-mandated mid-afternoon start.

Everything about the scene suggested playoffs.

Except the Cardinals.

The "playoff feel" is as close as they are going to get to experiencing the postseason in 2010.

The Cardinals returned to their late-season slide with an ugly 6-1 loss to the Reds, falling eight games behind Cincinnati in the NL Central with 29 games to play. They are six behind the Phillies in the wild-card race, pending Philadelphia's game Saturday night. Although the Cardinals aren't mathematically dead, they are at the point where any loss is a serious kick in the gut.

The Cardinals can cling to their brave talk about just winning every series, not every game -- "We've got 30 left, if we win 20 or more than 20, we'll be looking pretty good," closer Ryan Franklin said after Friday's victory -- but it would be tough to watch their performance on Saturday and think any hot streak is around the corner.

What has happened to the Cardinals? Don't ask Tony La Russa.

"I don't do perspective," he said after Saturday's loss. "It's stupid."

In reality, it's pretty simple. The Cardinals are a team with some of the game's best players and best pitchers at the top of their roster -- Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday -- but the rest of the team, with a few exceptions, hasn't carried its part of the load.

Take Wainwright, for example. On Saturday he lost for the fourth consecutive time, a career-worst streak. La Russa said Wainwright hasn't actually pitched badly, but he hasn't gotten any help.

"He pitched well out there," La Russa said. "If we played a little better defense and scored him some runs ..."

"Nobody on our team is enjoying getting beat. We're having a tough time stringing them together, and today was a good example."
-- Tony La Russa The bad defense came from second baseman Aaron Miles, a defensive specialist most of the time, who booted Joey Votto's first-inning grounder on a would-be double-play ball. Miles was then slow to retrieve the ball, allowing Orlando Cabrera to get to third and Votto to second. (In a strange twist, Miles is actually being paid by the Reds, who released him in April.) Wainwright followed by walking Scott Rolen to load the bases. Ramon Hernandez's grounder drove in one run, and then Jonny Gomes' double into the left-center field gap drove in two more.

Reds 3, Cardinals 0.

And there's your ballgame. There's your season.

Although Wainwright collected himself to give up just two more runs, including an inexcusable homer by opposing pitcher Travis Wood, he had no chance to win because the Cardinals' bats were virtually silent. The only run St. Louis mustered came with the help of a Reds error.

Over the past six games, the Cardinals have scored eight runs. Pujols, coming off a Player of the Month award in August, went hitless over 18 consecutive at-bats during that skid, the longest drought of his career.

Pujols denied that he was pressing to carry the club. He denied that an injury he suffered last weekend in Washington was affecting him, although La Russa said it was.

"I don't make excuses," Pujols said. "I'm getting some good pitches to hit and I'm getting under it, missing the ball. That's the way it goes. The way I was killing the ball in August, I'm still getting good pitches to hit. I don't want to make excuses. This is part of the game."

Beyond Pujols and Holliday, the Cardinals don't have much going for them offensively. Ryan Ludwick, who was the third most dangerous hitter in the lineup, was traded for Jake Westbrook on July 31. When the Cardinals made that deal, they believed that third baseman David Freese and center fielder Colby Rasmus could pick up some of the offensive slack.

Two days later Freese aggravated his ankle injury during a rehab assignment, ending his season and forcing the Cardinals get Pedro Feliz, an Astros cast-off. Rasmus missed two weeks with a calf injury in August, concurrent with the Cardinals' slide.

It was a run of bad luck for a club without much margin for error on the offensive side. The Cardinals are 13-17 since trading Ludwick.

"It hasn't been fun to get beat," La Russa said. "Nobody on our team is enjoying getting beat. We're having a tough time stringing them together, and today was a good example."