Thursday’s final score from Busch Stadium: Pirates 6, Cardinals 2.
Let’s play a Hard Nine.
What is the meaning of this?
These things
1) The Pirates made a point. After getting smoked like parking-lot bratwurst at a Pittsburgh sports tailgate hangout, losing all four games to the visiting Cardinals, the Pirates ventured into The Lou and stood up for themselves, winning two of three games in the rematch. We’ll see a lot of this until the end of the 162-game road: NL Central teams clobbering each other, stitching wounds, and getting back in there to take the next round. Among the six divisions, the NL Central is the only precinct with five winning teams.
2) The Cardinals were seemingly in good shape after winning on Tuesday. But, no. After outmuscling the Pirates with four home runs in the series opener to come away from a 10-inning brawl with a 9-6 decision, the Redbirds got sleepy. In losing two consecutive games to the Yinzers, the Cards were outscored 13-2. In addition to winning the two wipeouts by an average of 5 and ½ runs, the Pirates out-hit the home team 25-13 and had more wallops in the extra-base count, 7-3.
3. The Cardinals wasted what should have been a successful homestand. After defeating the KC Royals in close games played Friday and Saturday, the St. Louis offense slept in on Sunday, marshalling only five hits in a boring 2-0 shutout loss. After opening their stay at Busch Stadium with two straight wins, the Cardinals flopped by losing three of the final four games in their yard.
This, after they began the homestand by winning three of the first four. In their three drubbings the Cardinals scored two runs – total – in 27 innings of ball. Given extra weight to those circumstances, a 3-3 homestand felt a helluva lot more like a failure than a draw.
4. For the sake of posterity, we must make note of this: the Cardinals were 3-1 with the animated support of the Tarps Off! cheering section organized by the club baseball team from Stephen F. Austin in East Texas. But once the bros left town, the Cardinals malfunctioned in two consecutive setbacks. Hey, perhaps the Pirates were tremendously inspired by the news of Aaron Rodgers deciding to quarterback the Steelers for one more season.
5. It wasn’t a crisp, efficient series for the St. Louis starting pitchers. In their 15 combined innings Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy and Dustin May were cannonballed by the Pirates for 11 earned runs. That’s a 6.60 ERA.
6. The low point of the homestand was the latest blown save by Cards closer Riley O’Brien. I wrote a comprehensive column here at STL Sports Central, detailing all of the areas of substantial performance decline exposed over O’Brien’s last 10 appearances. It’s startling. And the only place you’ll read about it with any substantive depth is here at STL Sports Central.
That right there is known as a “promo” when I should have written “could you just go ahead and read the damn thing” instead.
7. The STL offense is having a somnambulant May. Wait, what? Yep, a fancy-pants word if there ever was one. Forgive me. I could have gone with the slightly less show-offy word such as “slumbrous,” or perhaps “dormant.” But to paraphrase an old lyric from The Boss: “I bought this Thesaurus and I learned how to make it talk.”
What am I babbling about? Oh, yeah. Through their first 18 games in May, the Cardinals averaged a mere pittance of 3.5 runs per conflict. This has been a change-jar offense on too many May days.
8. The Cardinals are 10-8 in May. And that’s OK. But after posting back-to-back dubyas over the Dodgers early this month, the fellers have slouched to an 8-8 mark. After losing the final two games of the sun-kissed series at San Diego de Alcalá the Cards are 5-6.
9. I’m not being negative here. I appreciate the season that our beloved tanagers are having. Despite some recent letdowns, the Cardinals will wake up in their Cincinnati lodgings with a 28-21 record, a .571 winning percentage, and a hunger to bust loose on those annoying Redlegs.
Thanks for reading.
And thanks for putting up with me.
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.