It’s time for the St. Louis Cardinals to start playing better baseball
Sure the St. Louis Cardinals remaining schedule is tough, filled with a mountain of double headers. But if the team is really supposed to be pennant contenders, they’re going to have to do a lot better against the teams that aren’t in the playoff picture.
The Cardinals fumbled away games to the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates that they should have won — and they nearly blew another if it wasn’t for a three-run rally in their last chance at bat.
St. Louis has a real problem with driving in runs and something needs to be done about it. They had tons of chances to score with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, including in the first game of the Pirates series when they had first and third with one out and the middle of their order up. Infielder Brad Miller, who is proving to be a glorified designated hitter by throwing away about every other ball he attempts to fling across the diamond from third base, should have been someone the team could have counted on to put the ball in play. Instead, he whiffed pathetically and the Cardinals lost a game they couldn’t afford to give away.
Three sacrifice flies could have added three more wins to the Cardinals record, turning a .500 team into one that would be challenging for first place in the National League Central Division.
It would be nice to have a big bat in the middle of the lineup. But the Cardinals don’t need Albert Pujols, Stan Musial or Joe Medwick at the plate with a runner on third base and one out. You need a nice easy swinger who can hit a medium fly ball. Or even a weak grounder to the shortstop or second baseman. That’s all. But Cardinals hitters always trying to do too much. Miller didn’t need to hit a 500-foot homer. But it sure looked like that’s what was on his mind.
I know it’s the real national past time to say the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint. But that doesn’t hold true this season. There are only about five weeks of baseball left to play and the Cardinals can’t get away from the .500 mark. The players on this team can’t be looking at the clubhouse door, waiting for a big acquisition to walk though and carry the team to the postseason. Simply put, the offensive players the Cardinals already on the roster need to play better.
It’s going to be interesting to see what moves the Cardinals make in the coming days as all their players lost for two weeks or more to COVID-19 infections have been cleared to resume baseball activities. The pitching has been what kept this team afloat for the past two weeks. Guys like Johan Oviedo, Jake Woodford and perennial prospect Alex Reyes don’t deserve to be exiled to Springfield. This team has a roster jam and it needs to figure out if it is playing for 2020, or if it’s playing for the future. I can deal with growing pains from youngsters still trying to establish themselves in the big leagues. But seeing the veterans play bad defense, take poor at-bats and struggle to hit .200 is getting old.
The only encouraging offensive players for the Cardinals are Paul Goldschmidt, hitting in the .330s and drawing walks like they’re going out of style, and Yadier Molina. I would have figured it’d take Yadi a while to get back up to speed after missing time to COVID. But he’s hitting the ball all over the place, expertly guiding the young hurlers and making a case for a new contract.
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Scott Wuerz is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. The Cheap Seats blog is written from his perspective as a fan and is designed to spark discussion among fans of the Cardinals and other MLB teams. Sources supporting his views and opinions are linked. If you’re looking for Cardinals news and features, check out the BND’s Cardinals section.
