ST. LOUIS — When the end came, with so little fanfare and all of the fireworks still in their casings waiting for another year or another event, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols watched from the dugout, having done all they could against Philadelphia to extend their careers one more night.
The Cardinals, their leading hitters stymied time and time again, had yet to muster a run in an elimination game when it was up to the bottom of the order to create something, anything to keep the season alive, to keep two beloved Cardinals’ careers going.
The two of them had already stretched it 90 feet farther on their own.
Like Pujols in the eighth inning, Molina delivered a single in the ninth to get the tying run on base. Like Pujols, he was lifted for a pinch-runner. They were in the dugout when former teammate Edmundo Sosa caught a pop up in foul territory to clinch the Phillies’ 2-0 victory and sweep of the National League wild card.
The Cardinals season comes to an end as the only division champ not to advance to the division series. After a season teammates and friends called “magical,” two Cardinals see their careers end with the shortest appearance of their five postseasons together.
Closer Zach Eflin got Tommy Edman to pop up with runners at the corners for the final out of the game and series, sending the Phillies off to play Atlanta in the NLDS.
The Cardinals are left with another winter wondering why their offense goes so, so cold every autumn, the middle of the order withering as annually as leaves.
In what could have been the final plate appearance and the final swing of his career, Pujols did what he spent a generation doing — he hit.
With one out in the eighth inning, Pujols stung a ball down the left-field line that put the tying run at first and got the game back to the middle of the order, where the Cardinals’ two MVP candidates loomed. It was Pujols’ last 90 feet. He was replaced for a pinch-runner and watched from the dugout as the inning fizzled. Phillies reliever Seranthony Dominguez struck out both Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to end the inning.
At that point in the series, Arenado and Goldschmidt were a combined 0 for 6 with five strikeouts when a runner was on base Saturday. They were 1 for 15 in the series with six strikeouts, and the one hit was Arenado’s single Friday.
The Phillies starters in the series, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, combined to author 13 scoreless innings and hold the Cardinals to six hits. Four of those came in Game 2 against Nola, but the right-hander at every turn was able to squelch rallies. Twice a runner got on ahead of the middle of the order, and each time Nola spun through Goldschmidt and Arenado, and only once did they get a ball in play.
While most recent and most profound against the Phillies, the offensive struggles of the Cardinals in October trace back to their last appearance in the National League Championship Series in 2019. In that series, the Cardinals hit a record low .130 as a team. They haven’t perked up much since. Entering the ninth inning Saturday, the Cardinals were 31 for 215 (.144) in their previous seven non-pandemic season playoff games.
They had only five extra-base hits in that span.
Three players in their first playoff series — Lars Nootbaar and pinch-hitters Juan Yepez and Nolan Gorman — had five of the Cardinals’ first 10 hits in the series.
With closer Ryan Helsley unavailable due to a finger injury, Cardinals manager Carlos Marmol said his preferred closer for the game was starter Miles Mikolas. The right-hander would not get that chance. Although he only allowed two runs, Mikolas stared at the Phillies order coming back around for a third look in the fifth inning. Down by a run with two on and the Phillies threatening to widen that gap, the Cardinals went to the bullpen. Instead of trying to hold a lead like in the ninth inning of Game 2, this time they were just trying to hold on.
