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May 29, 2023

Swept by Pirates, besieged by losses, how can last

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas collects himself after

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas collects himself after allowing two runs to score on a single by Pittsburgh Pirates' Ji Hwan Bae during the first inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, June 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The Pirates celebrate after recording the final out against the Cardinals in Pittsburgh, Sunday on June 4, 2023. The Pirates won 2-1.

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas delivers during the first inning against the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

PITTSBURGH — There comes a time in every season when no matter the household names on the roster, the upbeat comments from the clubhouse, or the noise of small sample sizes, the standings start to have their say on every team.

As the first full week of June begins, 60 games have melted off the Cardinals’ season, the past three won by Pittsburgh, and the standings don't care what a team and its roster should be or what a team and its clubhouse insist it will be. The standings show what the Cardinals are:

They have the worst record in the National League.

The Cardinals (25-35) are 10 games under .500 (again) and only because of their forgiving peers in the NL Central are they 7 ½ games out of first place.

"No one is panicking, and that's a good thing," veteran starter Adam Wainwright said Sunday. "More urgency wouldn't hurt."

Asked if there was a level on the dial below "panic" that described the feeling within the team about being in last place — still — Wainwright was open to a suggestion.

Concerned, a reporter offered.

"I don't think ‘concerned’ is the right word," Wainwright said. "I think ‘pissed’ is the right word. I think everyone is pissed at a lot of different things. We come in here and we look around and we’re like, ‘What the heck?’ Some things can't be explained. You’ve just got to go and perform."

Led by 43-year-old Rich Hill and his lullaby curveball — rocking big-league lineups to sleep since the Bush Administration; the second one — the Pirates completed their first three-game sweep of the Cardinals since 2018. Hill's wily, season-high 6 2/3 innings was the foundation of a 2-1 victory Sunday afternoon at PNC Park. The Cardinals mustered two hits in the first two innings and that was it until the seventh. The Pirates managed two runs on four hits in the first inning and that was enough to keep the Cardinals sunk at the bottom of the division.

Rested and ready after a two-day break, the Cardinals arrived in Pittsburgh with a chance to climb the standings. Three games meant they could tie the Pirates in wins with a sweep, claw their way out of last place, and close the gap on a division leader.

The Cardinals reached for ladders.

They landed on chutes.

The Pirates (31-27) came back from five-run and one-run deficits Friday and Saturday to win and just erased the Cardinals’ offense Sunday with the exception of Andrew Knizner's solo home run. Right down to where they are in the standings, the whole weekend had a feeling of role reversal. Pittsburgh had the more dexterous roster, the nimble bench with the better matchups, the manager with deft decisions, and the closer who could throw three consecutive days, pocket three saves, and not give up a single run.

David Bednar cinched his 13th save with a scoreless ninth Sunday to casually complete the sweep of a team seven games below them in the standings. It was familiar but different. The Pirates out-Cardinal’d the Cardinals.

"Come here and you want to at the very least take the series, and we weren't able to do that," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "We got beat three straight days. Tough to string anything together offensively the last three days."

Marmol was asked if it felt like the dregs of April, revisited.

"Not even (expletive) close," Marmol said. "It doesn't feel that way at all. In April, we handed over a lot of games in a lot of different ways. Pittsburgh beat us. That feels different than April."

The Cardinals have scored 37 runs in their past 12 games, the third-fewest in the majors during that span. They’ve averaged 2.4 runs per game over the past 10, and they leave Pittsburgh hitless in their previous 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Two of their five hits Sunday came from Luken Baker in his major-league debut. He was promoted Sunday to help the Cardinals’ lineup because, in Marmol's words, they welcomed "someone who can slug."

The recent lack of offense has been a total team effort, but it's centered around the Cardinals’ season-long search for production and health in the outfield. All three of the Cardinals’ planned starting outfielders — Lars Nootbaar (back), Tyler O’Neill (back), and Dylan Carlson (ankle) — are on the injured list, leaving infielders to roam the outfield and rookies to aid the offense. In the past week, the Cardinals’ outfield unit hit .143, the lowest in the majors for any outfield. During the misspent weekend in Pittsburgh, starting outfielders went 5-for-33 (.151).

Center fielder Tommy Edman provided two of those hits Sunday, including a double on Hill's first pitch of the game.

Cardinals great Albert Pujols, at the ballpark to make his broadcast debut, saw a message.

"Swinging first pitch," Pujols said on Peacock's live coverage of the game. "Making a statement right away. That will tell you how important this game is for the Cardinals today to come out with a win."

Edman was stranded as Hill (5-5) retired the next three batters.

Sunday's game hinged like the previous two on the lack of the next key hit.

"It's the same thing all year, this series," Wainwright said. "We’ve been one big moment away from winning all of these games. We had the first game, and we blew it. We should have won that. We let it slip away. Win that game, probably win at least one more. But we didn't. That's the frustrating thing. We’ve had our chance. ... We need to go on a run here where we win a lot of games and find ways to win games and not find ways to lose games."

Although he did not see the sixth and did not get a win, Miles Mikolas did show one way for the Cardinals to keep their bearings while taking on water. Like his team, Mikolas wasn't at his best. Like the roster, Mikolas did not have all of his ideal assets. But the resourceful right-hander found a way through five innings and 10 hits allowed to hold Pittsburgh to two runs, both of which scored on Ji Hwan Bae's first-inning single. When Jordan Walker missed a fly ball in left that hopped over the fence for the only extra-base hit against Mikolas (4-2), the veteran made the most of what he had, right down to a flighty sinker, and retired the next two batters.

The Cardinals’ next stop is Texas, where the challenge only gets bigger against the first-place Rangers and the highest-scoring lineup in the land. This early in June, the standings are still wet cement.

But summer nears, and they’ll start to dry.

"Once we right the ship we have to hope we’re not too far back," Mikolas said. "Hate to rely on another 17-game winning streak to get into the playoffs. That's always a possibility with players of this caliber. For the people out there getting upset — that's understandable. I wouldn't count us out. This isn't the start we wanted to June. It's not the start we wanted to the season. It's time to see who wants it, who wants to step up and be a leader and start getting the job done."

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A nightly look at the day\'s top sports stories, and a first look at the topics St. Louis fans will be talking about tomorrow.

Derrick Goold is the lead Cardinals beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and past president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Albert Pujols is joining Major League Baseball as a special assistant to the commissioner. He also has been hired as an analyst by MLB Network.

Nolan Gorman will start the game on the bench as the Cardinals take on the AL West-leading Texas Rangers and their prolific offense.

Former second-round pick Luken Baker had two hits in major-league debut after five years in minors, and several times overlooked by the majors.

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