Wild Card Loss Sums Up Cardinal Season

If someone wanted a summation of the Cardinals season explained in a game, you would look no further then Wednesday night’s Wild Card loss to the Dodgers. A lot of the trends from the season showed up in the game.

First off, the team only scored 1 run. For the season, the team averaged 4.36 runs per game (more on this in a bit). It’s not bad, but there were some deeper trends. The Cardinals scored 2 runs or less in 53 games, or almost a third of what they played; their winning percentage in those games was .188. The Cardinals had 12 games where they scored only a run, and they were 1-11 (.083) in those games.

The team’s offense was highly inconsistent until it got hot in September. Prior to September 1st, the team averaged 4.13 runs per game; from the 1st to the end of the season, they averaged 5.28 (it jumps to 6.76 during the 17-game winning streak). If you just look at the first game after the winning streak, which coincided with resting players, the offense dropped to 3 runs per game. It would appears that some time off for key guys cooled some bats.

The issue wasn’t just runs, it was hitting overall. The team only got 5 hits, 4 walks, and 2 HBP; unfortunately 3 of the hits belonged to Tommy Edman, a hit and 2 walks were Paul Goldschmidt‘s, and a walk and both HBP went to Harrison Bader. Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill were the only other players to touch a bag. Outside of your leadoff hitter, the team batted .111. You can’t score if you don’t have anyone on base.

Secondly, Adam Wainwright pitched brilliantly. Yeah, he got into a couple of jams, but he was able to get out of them. In the age of the Playoff Quick Hook, he went 5.1 and allowed 4 hits and a run. When you look at his opposing pitcher, he got an additional 3 outs while allowing the same amount of base runners. The only issue was the home run to Justin Turner.

Third, the bullpen blew the game. It was a common theme throughout the season; the starters pitches well, then the bullpen makes the fans sweat. Alex Reyes was the biggest culprit as the season went on; so, of course, Mike Shildt turns to him with the game on the line.

Reyes isn’t a bad pitcher; I think it’s more that he lacks the mentality for a closer, along with the fact that Shildt rode him hard for the first half of the season and he wore down. Ideally, he’s best suited for the rotation.

The final issue was the bullpen management. Shildt didn’t trust most of his bullpen in the beginning of the season. It seemed like we saw Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera, and Reyes almost every day. Once the team picked up TJ McFarland and Luis Garcia, things got a little better. The problem was Shildt would still throw Reyes when he was struggling, including last night. Gallegos could have started the 9th inning; he only needed 12 pitches for the 8th. Cabrera was available to pitch, as was Jack Flaherty. Pretty much anyone other then Reyes should have been given that shot.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the Cardinals, but the game showed the short-comings of the team that people forgot about when they got hot in September. Unfortunately, they can’t bounce back from this loss.