Cardinals’ offense continues to slump as Astros sweep three-game series with St. Louis
It appeared as if the offensive woes for the St. Louis Cardinals were going to be a thing of the past in the first inning Wednesday when Matt Holliday hit home run no. 24 to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead over the Houston Astros.
Holliday’s home run snapped an 18 inning streak that saw the Cardinals fail to score, but in the end it was more of the same as the Cardinals failed to score again and lost for the fifth straight game, 5-2.
Jeff Suppan was activated off the disabled list prior to the game and got the start. For the first four innings he looked good giving up only one hit and two walks to the Astros. However, in the fifth inning Houston made the most out of what he gave them scoring four runs on a pair of walks and a pair of hits, one of those hits a home run to Hunter Pence to give Houston the lead 4-2.
With the post-season berth on the line, the Cardinals are moving in the exact opposite direction they should be moving in, losing 13 of their last 16 games; they started the day seven games behind the division-leading Cincinnati Reds.
“You’ve got to play nine innings,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “You score first, you have a pretty good chance to win, but that’s the last time we scored. We’ve had that formula a couple of times on this trip. It doesn’t work. We stunk today and stunk the whole trip.”
Albert Pujols could see his chances of winning a third NL MVP in a row falling away just like the Cardinals’ post-season hopes. The first baseman was held hitless by Houston’s pitching staff over the three-game series.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 69-62 on the season and gave the Astros the sweep of the Cardinals in the three-game series. Houston won the series season, 10-5.
St. Louis is scheduled to take Thursday off before starting a three-game series with the NL Central division leading the Cincinnati Reds on Friday at home, a series they desperately need to win to breathe life back into their fading post-season hopes.
National League Rookie of the Year candidate Jaime Garcia is scheduled to start Friday for the Cardinals while Bronson Arroyo will take the mound for the Reds.
Tags: