The St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Sunday when closer Ryan Franklin gave up a ninth inning two-run homer to Matt Kemp.
It was Franklin’s fourth blown save in just six relief appearances this season and continued a trend that began last year when he was unable to close out games for the Cardinals.
The Redbirds had pushed across a run in the top of the ninth after the Dodgers Chad Billingsley and the Cards’ Chris Carpenter had shut down both teams offenses all day.
St. Louis managed just two hits off Billingsley through eight innings as the Dodgers starter struck out 11.
Both of the Cardinals hits came off the bat of Matt Holliday – a second inning double and a seventh inning single – accounting for all of St. Louis’ offense until the ninth.
Jonathan Broxton took over for Billingsley in the ninth and quickly registered two outs before Holliday got his third hit of the game, a double into deep right center.
Broxton intentionally walked Lance Berkman to face David Freese, and the Cards’ third baseman came through with an RBI single to right.
With a four-game sweep of the Dodgers in their grasp, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa initially turned to lefty Trevor Miller to face left-handed swinging Andre Ethier.
But Miller was unable to get the job done when he gave up a double to right, bringing La Russa back to the mound to bring in Franklin.
Kemp didn’t waste any time when he blasted the first pitch he saw from Franklin over the centerfield wall to give the Dodgers the win.
Not only did Franklin blow the save opportunity, he took his second loss of the season and saw his ERA balloon to 11.58.
In his six relief appearances thus far, Franklin has allowed eight hits and six runs, including three home runs, walked two and struck out two in 4.2 innings of work.
The loss ruined a fantastic effort from Carpenter and further magnified the glaring problem that is the Cardinals’ bullpen.
St. Louis doesn’t have a lot of options available, but It’s become clear that Franklin simply has lost the ability to close games.
Instead of allowing La Russa to make excuses for the failures of his players as he’s prone to do, general manager John Mozeliak needs to take charge and force the issue now.
When your closer already has four blown saves in 16 games, there isn’t time to wait on Franklin to potentially figure out his problems.
It’s going to be difficult for the Cards’ to make a trade this early in the season, especially for a serviceable closer. So the only option appears to be one of the current relief pitchers taking over the role or using a bullpen by committee approach.
Despite the limited options, continuing to run Franklin to the mound in save situations is a disaster waiting to happen. The Cardinals have little margin for error this season and can’t afford to give away wins, so making the move now is paramount to their long term success.
