After another great outing from Adam Wainwright, the St. Louis Cardinals fall again after bullpen struggles and defensive miscues continue to plague the team.
Wainwright put together a big night going seven innings giving up only two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. By any stretch, that’s a great night. Not only was he pitching well, he got an early base hit and made a pair of key defensive plays.
It was clear early on that he was going to have to do it all.
The game fell apart only moments after Wainwright went to the bench.
Marc Rzepczynski came in and barely pulled one out before giving up two runs on three hits including a monster home run to Adam Dunn (21).
RHP Mitchell Boggs then came in to clean up the mess, but with no luck. Boggs got the final two outs of the eighth inning, but not before giving up a two-run home run to take the game to 6-1.
The only real glimmer of hope the bullpen showed was from Fernando Salas who faced only four batters in the ninth inning to get the final outs. Salas is beginning to get himself together and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time for this team.
The offense managed to string together hits on multiple occasions with the team batting .275 on the night, but were haunted by the double play three times.
Matt Holliday, Allen Craig, David Freese and Tyler Greene all went 2-for-4, but never managed to hold together a rally long enough to circle the bases.
Yadier Molina, who batted second for only the second time in his career, went 1-for-4 with a key double in the top of the third. It’s unclear as of yet whether Molina will spend much time that high in the lineup, but he’s hit well enough of late that he can handle the challenge.
At this point, it appears Manager Mike Matheny is doing everything in his power to get the faltering team back on track.
Wainwright (5-7) wound up taking the loss Tuesday night, but he deserved better. The frustration is clearly mounting with the team as they continue to slide further away from the top of the National League Central Division.
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