St. Louis Cardinals Reaction: Baserunning blunders cost Cardinals a win

The St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, on Wednesday afternoon at PNC Park. 

The game took 13 innings and featured a multitude of moments that could have put the Cardinals over the top—but those moments ultimately fell by the wayside, with two baserunners blunders coming as the primary culprit.

Instead of discussing the splendid rebound pitching performance by Erick Fedde, we’re forced to reckon with how the Cardinals took an extremely winnable game and found a way to end up on the losing end.

Thomas Saggese: Draw the foul!

The play that ended the top of the eighth inning was a weird one, so I do have some grace for Thomas Saggese struggling to come up with an instinctual solution to navigating the roadblock that existed between him and home plate.

But at the end of the day, he could’ve handled it better than taking a detour that led him directly into the path of the loose baseball and Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes.

Although I don’t envy the situation for the Cardinal rookie, he’s got to find a way to draw the obstruction call in that spot.

I’m not suggesting steamrolling through the tangle of bodies like a freight train—that could have potentially led to a serious injury for one of the Pirate players or Saggese himself—but if this were basketball, Saggese has to invite a modicum of contact on his way to the rim. Draw the blocking foul, or at least do enough to have a legitimate appeal to the umpiring crew if they missed the call in real time.

With Saggese passively diverting around the traffic, the Cardinals really had no argument for an obstruction call, because nobody ever made physical contact with him. Obstruction also isn't a reviewable play, so with no call made on the field, the result was what it was for St. Louis.

Michael Siani runs into an out—but only because he was told to do so

To me, this was a far more egregious mistake than the Saggese play because there was nothing complicated or questionable about this one.

On a base hit to left field in the top of the 10th inning, Cardinals third base coach Ron ‘Pop’ Warner sent Michael Siani home on a play where he never should have been waved around.

The television broadcast showed that Siani hadn’t even reached the third base bag before the Pittsburgh left fielder had the ball in his glove. Oh, and the Pittsburgh left fielder happened to be Tommy Pham, who was on the Cardinals roster last summer—Pop Warner has to be familiar enough with his throwing arm to have a better gauge on the situation.

The play at the plate wasn’t close. Siani, one of the Cardinals' fastest runners, was out by a dozen feet. If that’s not a play where the third base coach anticipates his guy scoring easily, it’s not the right moment in the game to roll the dice with an aggressive send considering it was the top half of an extra-inning scenario.

Knowing the home team is going to get the same benefit of an automatic runner on second base to begin the bottom half of the inning, risking an out instead of taking an advantageous setup that could have led to a crooked number just doesn't make sense.

There was simply no satisfactory explanation for why Warner waved Siani around, running the Cardinals directly into a costly out.

Roycroft still searching for command

Granted, the game didn’t end for the Cardinals on the Saggese flub or the Warner blunder, and the Cards hung into the affair until the bitter end thanks to the most complete effort we’ve seen from the pitching staff all season.

When the baton was passed to Chris Roycroft, though, he wasn’t able to keep the game alive for St. Louis. While it’s a difficult task to navigate around a free base runner in scoring position to begin an inning in extras, Roycroft’s troubles were still somewhat self-inflicted. 

He surrendered two walks in the 13th inning, pushing his total to four free passes over his past two games and six total walks on the season in 5.2 innings pitched. The bullpen as a whole has allowed 26 walks in 51 innings pitched this season.

For the Cardinals to hit their stride on the upcoming home stand, relievers settling into a rhythm and avoiding those free passes will be a critical storyline to monitor.