These missed opportunities ache.
The St. Louis Cardinals are still hoping to make the playoffs despite being a few games out of a wild card place entering Monday night. Games against below-.500 clubs, such as the Cincinnati Reds, should be the Cardinals’ to lose, since they have every motivation to give it their all to stay in the playoff chase. However, in their series opener against the Reds, they were unable to create much offense, losing 6-1.
But it wasn’t as if the Reds’ pitching staff dominated the Cardinals lineup. Andrew Abbott allowed just one run, but eight Cardinals reached base. Unfortunately, St. Louis could not drive in more than one run, with manager Oliver Marmol lamenting his team’s squandered opportunity to provide ace Sonny Gray with run assistance.
“We’re going to have to improve our execution with runners in scoring position.” It will be critical to our long-term success. We put ourselves in a position where we could have changed the game a couple of times but didn’t,” Marmol told reporters, according to Bally Sports Midwest on X.
Oli Marmol: "We're going to have to do a better job of executing with runners in scoring position. It's going to be the key to our success moving forward. We put ourselves in a situation where we could've changed the game a couple times and weren't able to."#STLCards pic.twitter.com/dE9KHqrSg8
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) August 13, 2024
Several times during the game, the Cardinals loaded the bases. The first incident occurred in the top of the second inning; after Nolan Arenado struck out to start the session, Paul Goldschmidt, Brendan Donovan, and Jordan Walker all reached base, setting the setup for Pedro Pages to be a hero and break the 0-0 tie at the moment. However, the Cardinals catcher ended the inning by grounded into a double play.
The Cardinals loaded the bases again in the next inning; this time, all they needed to do was keep the line moving after Arenado singled in a run and Goldschmidt prolonged the inning with an infield single. With a good opportunity to extend their lead, Donovan stepped up to the plate and struck out, halting the Cardinals’ rally once more.
The Cardinals’ offense fell apart in the next innings. Credit must be given to the Reds’ pitching staff for going three-up, three-down in five of the past six half innings. However, if the Cardinals had capitalized on their earlier scoring opportunities, they might not have needed to get a hit after the fourth inning.
Cardinals must get it together soon ahead of a difficult run of games
The Reds are no pushovers, but when compared to the Cardinals’ upcoming games, Cincinnati may provide the least concerning threat. Following their series with the Reds, the Cardinals will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Brewers (again), and Seattle Mariners in quick succession. All of those clubs are comfortably above.500, with the Mariners the only one of the six not currently in a postseason position.
That will be a critical stretch for the Cardinals in terms of making the playoffs. They must perform significantly better in crucial situations in order to remain in the wild card quest, as they will be underdogs in the following seven series.
