What happens to beekeepers and snake handlers can sometimes happen to baseball fans.
Get stung and/or bitten often enough and eventually you stop wincing.
The pain sort of dulls.
The Cardinals have nudged even their most upbeat fans toward that point. Monday night’s series-opening road win against the Reds means the Cardinals are 2 1/2 back in the National League’s slog for the second wild-card spot, and most of you are probably bracing for the next welt. Your hesitation has been earned.
A promising six-game winning streak has become a 6-7 trend including Monday’s win. The Cardinals just improved to 22-34 against teams with records above .500, a telling stat in these coming days as the schedule intensifies. On top of everything else, the Cardinals have become really good at finding brutal ways to lose.
Quick, name the Cardinals’ most brutal loss. Not all season, either. Just since the All-Star break. I bet you can’t pick just one.
— Four Cardinals pitchers had combined to hold the lowly Pirates to three hits and one run through eight innings of Sunday’s 4-3 loss. All-Star closer Alex Reyes, converter of 29 of his 32 save opportunities entering the game, had a two-run lead to protect. Two walks sandwiched around one strikeout later, Yoshi Tsutsugo smashed a first-pitch slider over the right-field seats. Tsutsugo is averaging .192 with a .284 on-base percentage and a .369 slugging percentage this season. But he’s now slashing .353/.455/.1.176 against the Cardinals, with four homers in 17 at-bats. Absurd. Per FanGraphs, the Cardinals had a win expectancy of 91.1% before Reyes lost his grip on the closer role.
— Genesis Cabrera, another reliable reliever experiencing turbulence down the stretch, entered the seventh inning of last Thursday’s 11-7 loss to the Pirates with a 7-3 lead to protect. Andrew Miller had left Pirates on second and first. By the time Cabrera was finally pulled by manager Mike Shildt, the Cardinals were trailing 11-7. Cabrera, who was tipping his pitches, allowed six consecutive hits, the last two of which were a Gregory Polanco double and a Tsutsugo home run. The Pirates became the first team in the majors this season to score eight runs to open an inning without recording an out. Shildt has faced some unfair criticism at times this season, but it wasn’t the slow-to-react front office that let the world come crashing down on Cabrera. The Cardinals had a win expectancy of 84.4% when Cabrera replaced Miller.
— Facing Pirates starter Mitch Keller, who entered the Pirates’ 4-0 win against the Cardinals on Aug. 20 with a 3-10 record and a 6.86 ERA, the Cardinals were shut out in a home loss for the third time this season. Keller and the Pirates’ bullpen managed to keep the Cardinals from scoring despite 10 hits. The Cardinals stranded 12 runners. They went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position. Eleven times this season, the Cardinals have produced 10 or more hits in a game they lost. This was the only time they did it and failed to score a single run.
— After taking a 3-0 lead in the second inning, the Cardinals put their bats away and let a game and series against the division-leading Brewers get away in a 6-4 10-inning home loss to the Brewers on Aug. 18. Three solo Milwaukee home runs followed, and the second for Avisail Garcia in the game provided the tie with one out and Reyes on the mound in the ninth. The Cardinals melted down in extras. One run scored on a Reyes wild pitch. Another scored on a Christian Yelich bunt single. Another scored on a Jace Peterson line drive. Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado was not at third base for the Yelich bunt or in the lineup for one last at-bat because he had been ejected for arguing about a checked swing he did not think was a strike. The Cardinals had a win expectancy of 91.5% right before Garcia’s game-tying homer in the ninth.
— The Cardinals led the Braves by two entering the eighth inning of what became an almost impossible 8-4 home loss on Aug. 5. Reliever Giovanny Gallegos had secured not one but two outs from the first two hitters he faced. Freddie Freeman started a rally with a two-out single. Austin Riley homered to tie it. Dansby Swanson doubled to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Reyes entered, hit the first batter he faced and then issued four consecutive walks that sent the Braves ahead 7-4. Then Justin Miller came in and walked in another run. The Cardinals had a win expectancy of 93.1% when they secured the second out of that mind-melting eighth inning.
— The Cardinals led by five entering the ninth inning of a 7-6 home loss to the Cubs on July 20. Former Cardinal Patrick Wisdom struck out against Luis Garcia to start the inning but reached first because he swung at a wild pitch that was not corralled by the time he got down the line. It was a sign of trouble to come. Garcia allowed a single and a walk to load the bases before he was pulled for Reyes, who walked in two runs before surrendering a two-RBI single and a two-RBI go-ahead double. The Cardinals had a win expectancy of 99.5% before Wisdom reached on the strikeout.
Where would the Cardinals be if they won these six games? How many more can you add to your own list? So, yes, while it is still very possible for the Cardinals to factor into the wild-card picture, it remains wise to wonder if they will continue to find new and cruel ways to give back the ground they gain.
