OAKLAND, Calif. — The last of the big league starters with at least 16 innings pitched to allow his first run of this season could have done so three innings earlier if the Cardinals were the offense they must become.
Oakland’s Paul Blackburn skated into Wednesday’s series finale and, perhaps, final finale for the Cardinals at the Coliseum with a 0.00 ERA, and he promptly allowed three of the first four batters he faced to reach base. The Cardinals were a swing away from a statement rally against the right-hander who had yet to allow a run in three previous starts.
All they needed was that breakthrough hit.
They got two grounders.
Story of the season, thus far.
A lineup that cobbles together runs more than creates rallies stalled once again at three runs. All three came against Blackburn to bruise his ERA, but that wasn’t enough to complete a series sweep of the A’s as the Cardinals lost 6-3. Rather than finish the road trip 4-2, they soar home to St. Louis for the first division series of the season after a 3-3 trip where they scored just three runs in all three games in likely their last visit to Coliseum. The Cardinals have scored three or fewer runs in five consecutive games and 10 of their past 11.
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“We’ve been able to scratch a couple of runs across the board just by finding ways to score runs, and that’s what’s allowed us to win some ballgames and be on the right side of it and be in every game,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s our ability to do that in the moment (that wins) because from a pure production standpoint, we’re not there yet.”
The loss in the final game of the three-game East Bay stop dropped the Cardinals’ overall record at the Coliseum to 5-6. They also slipped back below .500 for the season. They have yet to win the final game of any of the six series they’ve played this year, and in those games, they’re averaging 2½ runs. The Cardinals are two shy of tying the franchise record for losing the final game of series to start a season. In 1898, the St. Louis club opened the year 0-8 in series finales. That was the year before the club adopted the name the “Perfectos.”
They’ve only had to play that way this season due to a lack of offense.
The Cardinals return to Busch Stadium with a team batting average (.226), on-base percentage (.300) and slugging percentage (.353) that are all second-lowest in the National League. Four everyday players have more strikeouts thus far this season than hits. The second spot in the order, where former Most Valuable Player Paul Goldschmidt has struggled, has producing a .186 average and .229 slugging.
“It’s hard to continue to say it’s a matter of time, but when you’re talking to guys, they’re starting to feel closer and closer to where they want to get to,” Marmol said. “You trust them. You believe in them because over time they’ve been right. There are a decent amount of guys who are starting to feel closer to where they want to be swing-wise and approach-wise and how they feel in the box. My answer would be that: We’re getting there.”
With few exceptions — Willson Contreras’ daily double or Nolan Arenado’s strong road trip — the Cardinals have lacked the drive that turns opportunities into rallies, rallies into routs.
A microcosm of their season came in the sixth inning Wednesday as they chased Blackburn (2-0) from the start. Contreras led off with his second double of the game. A ground ball got him to third base, and a misstep on his part — he got “locked up,” said Marmol — kept him from scoring on another ground ball. The Cardinals should have cut the A’s lead in half, but the inning wasn’t over, their opportunity wasn’t lost. Oakland pitched around Masyn Winn to reach the No. 9 spot in the order and the matchup both sides wanted.
The A’s turned to left-hander and ground-ball guru T.J. McFarland.
The Cardinals countered with right-handed pinch hitter Jordan Walker, who, in his career, has had one of the higher ground-ball rates. But the second-year outfielder has made strides in recent weeks to lift more line drives, to dig out or ignore the low pitch he sees more than anyone else. With two outs, the Cardinals did not need to manufacture another run. They needed to erupt.
“You’ve got to take your shot of him (doing) what we need him to do and drive the baseball, which the last couple of games he’s done more of,” Marmol said. “You have got to give him the opportunity to do it. Our best chance to get back in that game would be the drive the baseball.”
The inning ended as McFarland innings often do — with a ground-out.
The Cardinals yanked the lead away from the Athletics in the fourth inning with three consecutive hits to great Blackburn. Credit the catchers. Contreras, who started at DH due to a sore left hand from catching late Tuesday, drove in the first run with his first double of the game. Two batters later, catcher Ivan Herrera skipped a single up the middle to score two runs, tying the game and taking the lead. The Cardinals turned five base runners in that inning and 11 base runners total against Blackburn into just three runs. The only extra-base hits were Contreras’.
The game turned on the damage the Athletics delivered — even when it was briefly taken away from them. Cardinals lefty Steven Matz allowed two runs on Esteury Ruiz’s homer in the third inning and then took the mound with the lead in fifth. Three consecutive hits later and the A’s had tied the game 3-3. It could have been worse. Matz left a change-up over the plate that Shea Langeliers drilled into the left-center gap. Instead of caroming off the wall and allowing two runs to score, the ball got stuck between the base of the wall and the track. A ground-rule double put a runner back at third.
“That was a big at-bat,” Matz said. “He got me there.”
But unlike the ball, Matz had a way to get loose of the jam.
A strikeout and Matz would have capitalized on ground rules.
Instead, the A’s did unto the Cardinals as the Cardinals did unto them.
A day after the Cardinals turned productive outs into a victory, the Athletics scored a run on a ground-out and another on a sacrifice fly to take and secure the lead.
It is a brand of baseball that does thrive at the Coliseum. With its large outfield and an enormous foul territory — where Goldschmidt alone made two catches impossible at other venues — there are outs to be had and offense to create in the seams of the game, not over the wall. That’s the market’s efficiency. Given modern trends toward seats closer to the field and walls closer to the hitter, it’s unlikely the game will see a ballpark layout like Oakland’s Coliseum any time soon after the A’s uproot their franchise and intend to leave for Sacramento after this season.
Like the Coliseum, the Cardinals’ current style of offense is not sustainable.
“It’s a frustrating one,” Marmol said of the loss. “You want to win that one and sweep and go home and feel good about it in to an off-day. Overall, just didn’t produce enough offense to give ourselves a shot.”