As a life-long St. Louis Cardinals fan and a guy that watched this team play 140 games this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ three-game sweep of the Redbirds in the NLDS came as no surprise.
On September 9, St. Louis reached their high water mark after a 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, bringing the Cardinals’ record to 84-57.
Thirty-one days and 24 games later, St. Louis was swept out of the National League Division Series, falling to the Dodgers 5-1 on Saturday, completing their late season swoon.
The Cardinals lost every game of the series against Los Angeles in about the same way they lost 17 of their last 24: aside from Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, they didn’t pitch well, they didn’t field well, they didn’t hit – especially with runners in scoring position – and the bullpen was terrible, particularly closer Ryan Franklin.
All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols hasn’t hit a home run since that September 9 game against the Brewers. The likely National League MVP had 47 home runs after hitting two that day to help St. Louis win, but the slugger failed to go long over the last 30 days of the season.
While his batting average remained constant, hitting at or near .330, Pujols only managed to drive in 11 runs in the Cardinals next 21 games.
Over their last 21 games of the regular season St. Louis scored 91 runs, averaging 4.3 runs per game. But 35 of those runs were scored in three games. The other 18 games? The Cardinals managed just 3.1 runs per game.
The Cardinals’ offense remained inept against a solid Dodgers pitching staff. St. Louis was 4 for 30 with runners in scoring position, pushed across a measly six runs in the series and stranded 28 runners.
Matt Holliday, acquired in a July trade with Oakland, helped St. Louis win the NL Central title by providing the protection in the lineup Pujols desperately needed.
But in the playoffs, Holliday was a flop.
In the top of the first inning in Game 1 of the series, Dodgers’ starter Randy Wolf was looking at a bases loaded situation, nobody out and Holliday standing at the plate.
The leftfielder was called out looking at strike three on a pitch that was too close to take. St. Louis would only manage one run in the inning and gave up the lead in the bottom of the first when Matt Kemp homered off Carpenter.
In Game 2 of the series and the Cardinals leading 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Holliday botched a line drive hit right at him. Instead of closing out the win, the Dodgers used that momentum to push two runs across for a walk-off win that all but ended the series.
In reality, the series was over before the two teams met at Dodger Stadium.
Whatever the reasons, be it centered around the Cardinals’ inability to hit, frequent breakdown in fundamentals or Tony La Russa’s terse management of the team, St. Louis was never mentally or physically the same after that September game against the Brewers.
Since taking over as manager in 1996, La Russa has guided the Cardinals to nine playoff berths, winning two National League pennants and an unlikely World Series title in 2006.
While players speak highly of him, La Russa has always appeared outwardly aloof, broody and arrogant. Some may point the finger at La Russa, but the burden of responsibility for the Cardinals late season meltdown doesn’t rest with him alone.
The responsibility for the Cardinals collapse rests with the entire team.
St. Louis fans may not get a chance to kick La Russa around any longer because his contract expires this year. Holliday is a free agent as is Mark DeRosa, whom the Cards’ acquired from the Cleveland Indians in June.
The Cardinals will now have an entire offseason to figure out why a team once 27 games over .500 fell apart over the last 30 days of the season.
They’ll also try to figure out how to recover from this collapse and build a team for the 2010 season.
