What 19 Innings Taught Us About This Cardinals Team

I forced myself to watch every inning of the 19 inning marathon, and it is impossible to walk out the other side without feeling like this team is destined to be as disappointing as last season was exciting.  Last season was the perfect example of how a team can come together down a stretch run to do something special, but I am afraid that this season will be almost the exact opposite, the team with as much talent as anyone falls apart because the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

It was one thing earlier in the season where the Cardinals were losing because their bullpen needed to be upgraded.  At least that gave the front office something to look into upgrading.  That gave us as fans a place to point a finger and lay blame.  This team now has no place to lay the blame, or I guess the more accurate statement would be to say that there is too many places to point to, too many leaks that need to be plugged.  Against the Pirates, none of these leaks had to do with the Cardinal bullpen.  Yes, I know that eventually they lost the game because Browning gave up three runs at the end of the game, but let us just be honest here, that is not why they lost the game.  If the Cardinals as a team are relying on the rookie left hander who is only there because of Fuentes’ leaving the team and Rzepczynski’s tough year, then they would be all but lost anyway.

The biggest target to point a finger at from this game and something that has become increasingly evident in the last month or so, is the lack of a Cardinal offense which is completely unable to come through enough in the clutch.  They are the perfect example of the old adage that hitting is contagious; unfortunately not hitting is just as contagious.  The Cardinals have made one heck of a show of scoring four runs too many one day only to score one run too few the next day.  So the Cardinals’ all important run differential goes up so that all the stat geeks out there can point to how good the team is, and all the while, the Cardinals ride their feast or famine offense to third place in the National League Central. 

Let’s just look at the past four games the Cardinals have played in which they have lost three of them.  They lost the last game in a series against the Diamondbacks because of a bullpen collapse, or more accurately, a Jason Motte hiccup.  The Cardinals then lost the first game against the Pirates because they could not hit.  After a win, they then lost this game where once again they could not manufacture even one run during extra innings that could have won the game after defensive miscues lost the lead in the first place.  Three different games, three different ways to lose.

And then there is Carlos Beltran.  I do not mean to single him out in this as any sort of reason as to why the team finds itself in this position.  Beltran has been amazing this season, but I wonder if he is being run into the ground much the same way that Furcal was run into the ground during the beginning of this season which has been all too evident as we have watched his batting average drop from the levels of the elite leadoff man to a respectable if not outstanding 8^th hole hitter. 

Now it is Beltran’s turn to run out of gas.  I know that he is getting old, and is under instruction to take it easy on those knees of his, but it looks like he is running as if the right field grass has been replaced by ice, not to mention the first base line when it is his turn to run down it.  Beltran still gets some big hits and even finds his way to a ball in time to throw out a runner or two as he stretches doubles to triples, but it also feels like about every third or fourth game, the Cardinals give up an extra base to a runner because of Beltran’s instructions to avoid hurting himself.  It frightens me by the possibility, and I truly hope that I do not turn out to be right, but I am worried that eventually the Cardinals will lose a game because of Beltran’s balky knees.  And in a season that could end up as close as this one, it will be a tough pill to swallow when that game becomes the difference between a playoff game and finishing in third place.