Good evening from Busch Stadium; tough loss for the Cardinals… again… this time 5-4.

I tried to cover many of the second-guess situations in Monday’s column, so now I’ll dabble into another area: bad bullpens in Cardinals history.

– After Sunday’s blown save, let’s update the fire-damage report:

Cardinals relievers now have 24 losses on the season.

And this was their 26th blown save of 2008.

How does this rate with other teams, in Cardinals history? Well, first of all the data is incomplete. STATS has save data going back to 1954. So these numbers and rankings represent everything that’s happened between the 1954 season and now.

* The boys, with 24 losses, still have a ways to go to reach most defeats by a STL bullpen.

The most is 32, by the 1999 Cardinals. The 1988, 1954, and 1997 teams had 31 bullpen losses.

 And there are nine STL teams that had between 25 and 28 losses.

* But the highest number of blown saves are another story.

The 2008 Cardinals, with those 26, are closing in on the top two “leaders” … the 1998 team (with 31) and the 2003 team (with 30).

* And the 2008 Cardinals currently have the worst save percentage in our tracking since 1954.

Let’s take a look at the weakest save percentages in STL history, 1954-2008:

2008:  53.5 percent. You’ve seen it. I don’t have to write about it.

1972:  56.5 percent. This ‘72 group had only 23 save opportuinities, and saved 13. The blown saves? Well, Don Shaw was 0 for 3 in save opps, and three guys each failed to save their one chance – Tony Cloninger, Rich Folkers and Al Santorini. Ray Bare was 1 for 2. Dennis Higgins was 1-1. And the saves leader, Moe Drabowsky, was 9 for 11.

2003:  57.5 percent. This group, like the 2008 Cardinals, was impacted by an injury to Jason Isringhausen. Izzy was fine after missing the first two-plus months of 2003, saving 22 of 25. But the rest of the bunch struggled to save games. Cal Eldred was 8 for 14. Jeff Fassero was 3 for 6. Steve Kline was 3 for 7. Dustin Hermanson was  1 for 6. Kiko Calero was 1 for 4.  Jason Simontacchi was 1 for 3. There were other isolated blown saves by guys like Mike Crudale, Lance Painter, Russ Springer. And, curiously, Woody Williams. Remember that one? Tony La Russa brought in one of his starters, Woody Williams, into a crucial September series and game at Chicago and Woody allowed two runs to score in the 8th as the Cardinals lost 8-7 to Cubs.

1979:  58.1 percent. This was an interesting collection of arms. Take a look: Mark Littell 13 for 19, Buddy Schultz 3 for 4, Darold Knowles 6 for 10, Will McEnaney 2-4, Roy Thomas 1-2, Tom Bruno 0-1, George Frazier 0-2, Silvio Martinez 0-1. Wow.

1998:  58.7 percent. This is how you squander 70 homers from Big Red. This one is even more interesting, with many familiar names, some who later became good starters, or in one instance, TV analysts.  Here ya go: Jeff Brantley (now on TV) 14 for 22, Juan Acevedo (who replaced a hurting Brantley) 15 of 16, Rick Croushore 8 for 11, Curtis King 2 for 8, Kent Bottenfield 4 for 5, Mark Petkovsek 0 for 5, Braden Looper 0 for 2, John Frascatore 0 for 2, Mike Busby 0 for 2. Some of these guys were peddled for big contributors who would help the Cardinals win in the early 2000s. Looper went to Florida in the Edgar Renteria deal; Bottenfield was sent to Anaheim as part of the Jim Edmonds deal, and Acevedo went to Milwaukee for Fernando Vina. So maybe this was a dandy ‘pen, overall? Look at what it netted in trades.

1983:  60.0 percent. Talk about an eclectic, eccentric gathering…. The future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter struggled, with 21 saves in 30 attempts. But look at his other partners in the pen: Dave Von Ohlen (2 for 4), Doug Bair (1 for 3), Jeff Lahti (0 for 3), Jim Kaat (0 for 1), Neil Allen (0 for 1). But you can’t blame John Stuper (1 for 1), Eric Rasmussen (1 for 1) and … drum roll … Joaquin Andujar (1 for 1).  Who the hell was this guy, Von Ohlen, with the exotic name?

Speaking of closers:  

– The Cardinals don’t have Brad Lidge to kick around anymore. After Albert Pujols hit the mammoth HR off Lidge in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS at Houston, it took Lidge a couple of years to shake it off. In 2006 and 2007, he was 0-3 against the Cardinals with three blown saves in nine chances, and his ERA was 7.88.  But this season, his second first in Philly, the fully revitalized Lidge is perfect in his 28 save opportunities. And in four appearances against the Cardinals this season, Lidge was 3-for-3 in his save opps, with a 2.25 ERA.

– Yeah, it got scary for him Sunday night in the ninth. The homer by Troy Glaus. The bases-loaded threat with one out. But Lidge just blew away youngsters Nick Stavinoha and Joe Mather with Ks to end the disturbance. His sliders to the newbies were filthy. Had Mather managed to do something, Pujols was up next. While Pujols’ success vs. Lidge has been overstated, AP is still 7-f0r-24 vs. Lidge (.292) with four walks and eight RBIs. (And of course THAT home run). It would have been fun to see the rivals go at it again with the game on the line. But Lidge wisely attacked the inexperienced hitters to terminate that fantasy matchup.

– Would have been nice to have a veteran bat in that situation, eh?

– LA Dodgers in next for three, starting Tuesday. And Manny Ramirez is 8 for 13 with 2 homers in Dodger Blue.

– Return (home) of Chris Carpenter on Tuesday. I’m sure he’s looking forward to that.

Time to go home… thanks for reading.  

-B