In a perfect world, the St. Louis Cardinals punch their ticket to the World Series at home. But in a perfect world, they don’t leave runners in scoring position eight times. Or make errors in crucial moments. Or depend on the bullpen to be perfect, yet again.
I guess this isn’t a perfect world.
Matt Holliday hit an early homer and went 3-for-4 in the Cardinals' 4-2 loss to the Brewers in Game Four.
With Kyle Lohse pitching on 12 days’ rest, it was a toss up whether he’d be lights out or knocked out. Against the Brewers’ bats, with the home crowd support, either option was entirely plausible. For the first three innings, it looked like the extended rest left him calm and collected with lighting stuff.
With Tony La Russa playing a handful of gut feelings by starting Allen Craig, sitting recently crowned Comeback Player of the Year Lance Berkman, and flip-flopping David Freese and Matt Holliday in the lineup, the chips looked to fall in his favor early.
Matt Holliday — working on breaking out of a slump — hit a shot that sneaked over the right field corner for his first home run in 57 at bats.
In the third, it was another of La Russa’s gut feelings, Allen Craig, who did it for Torty and blasted one into the Cardinals’ bullpen.
2-0 Cardinals.
But with Freese and Holliday on with two outs, Molina grounded into a force out and the rally ended.
Two doubles, a single and an incredible Jerry Hariston slide to avoid Yadi’s tag at the plate tied it up in the third, and you just had a feeling that the momentum had shifted. Especially after a one-two-three inning from Wolf and another runner stranded in the fourth.
Yes, as an official member of the Ryan Theriot Fan Club, I’m obligated to gawk at his stellar double play that killed the Brewers rally in the fourth. Prince Fielder hit a hot shot to Theriot’s right. He dove, snagged it, and started the inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. I believe my exact tweet was, “NICE PLAY THERIOT!!”
But, to be fair, I also have to point out that the fourth Milwaukee run scored the following inning on a Theriot error.
Perhaps the real kicker, though, came in the sixth inning.
Holliday hit a lead off double, then aggressively took third on a long fly ball from Yadier Molina. Runner at third, one out, down by two with the threat of Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford looming. A strike out and a fly out and another potential rally dies.
Lather, rinse and repeat.
The bullpen came into the game in the 6th for the Cardinals. Mitchell Boggs let a run score. Arthur Rhodes got the ground out but was foiled by that Theriot E4. Dotel showed he’s still got the goods facing Braun, Fielder and Weeks. Salas pitched two scoreless.
But a David Freese single in the eight was wasted, as was a two-out Berkman pinch-hit single in the ninth.
So the series is once again tied.
Not that this should be a surprise. These familiar foes have now played 22 times this season. They’ve each posted “Ws” in 11 of them. But it doesn’t stop there. Cardinals’ beat writer B.J. Rains tweeted shortly after the game, “Cardinals-Brewers tied 11-11 in season series….Runs are 90-88 Brewers, teams tied at 23 home runs and both are 6-5 at home.”
Don’t think that fact is lost on Tony La Russa.
“I think it’s classic because playing each other so many times, we’re dead even,” manager Tony La Russa said. “It comes down to that day, who makes the pitch.”
The positives remain for St. Louis — they hit the ball. Freese stayed hot. Pujols kept hitting. Holliday un-slumped. And Berkman contributed in his lone at bat.
But the defense faltered, the pitching showed vulnerability, and the offense failed to take advantage of the runners that battled to get on.
But again, should we really be surprised?
This 2011 Cardinals team hasn’t earned the nickname “Cardiac Cardinals” for no reason!
We’ve all heard the cliches — they play best with their backs against the wall, they play better when everyone counts them out, their heart keeps them in every game. And as much as a loss like this is disappointing, it’s not devastating. We’ve been here before. And with our hearts in our throats once again, we’ll watch as Jaime Garcia gets a second chance to shut down the beasts, knowing that, as bad as things can look one day, it only takes one game to regain the series lead.
Plus, there’s one more thing in that USA Today article — something Pujols doesn’t want forgotten.
“We’re pretty much the only team that’s played pretty well in Milwaukee. Flip the page and hopefully come back to tomorrow. It’s a great series. Nobody is going to run away,” Cardinals star Albert Pujols said.
Nobody’s running away, that’s for sure. Right now we need one — game five. Tonight at 7:05 p.m.
Game on.
Tara is a St. Louis Cardinals reporter for Aaron Miles’ Fastball and a contributor to Around the Horn. Follow her on Twitter @tarawellman.
