Try as I might, I can’t get mad at the Cardinals.

These days they’re playing baseball only slightly better than the Rams play football. And I have contempt for the Rams; that organization represents the two worst traits you can attach to a pro sports franchise. The Rams are (1) clueless and (2) gutless.

The Cardinals have been different. This was a team to admire, a team to respect, a team that almost always played a hard nine, a team that respected the game. The Cardinals tapped into an underdog vibe and rode it through most of the summer. And they were led by players who finally got an opportunity to show what they could do in the bigs. It was an endearing team. Even during slumps and bad spells, it was a team worthy of our approval.

So what’s been happening this month makes me sad more than anything. The Cardinals are throwing it away, all of those good feelings they’d generated from the start of the season, until late August. They’ve taken a nice surprise of a season, a delight of a season, and they’re discarding much of their fine work by staggering to the finish line. Remember all of those doom-and-gloom 90-loss predictions made before the season? Late in the season, the Cardinals are that team. And that’s disappointing.

The Cardinals lost to Arizona 4-2 on Monday night at Busch, and are 6-16 since Aug. 29.

That’s a shame.

 There’s certainly no embarrassment in losing to Arizona’s Brandon Webb, a Cy Young Award winner and one of the game’s top pitchers. But it was another unfocused, fuzzy loss. Felipe Lopez got picked off base. Troy Glaus ended a late threat by getting doubled off second base. Jose Oquendo, the third base coach,  erred in stopping Cesar Izturis at third base when Izturis seemingly had a good opportunity to score on a single to center at an important moment of the game. And the Cardinals gave away too many ABs. “A very frustrating game,” is how manager Tony La Russa framed it, several times.

With another drab loss, the Cardinals fell to 80-76 … and with six games left to play, it would really tarnish and taint the season if this team finished under .500. I don’t think anyone realistically expected the Cardinals to finish above the Cubs, and for a while now it seemed pretty obvious that they weren’t going to be able to win the NL’s wild card spot. But as recently as Aug. 27 the Cardinals were 14 games over .500 (74-60), and were set up to finish respectably. Again, it would be such a waste for them to soil all of their good work in these final days.

I know this team has taken some hard knocks this month. They lost slugger Rick Ankiel to a season-ending hernia surgery,  Glaus hurt his shoulder, and catcher Yadi Molina has been sidelined with a deep thigh bruise. And collectively, the players began leaking oil. Fatigue and declining morale have been obvious factors in the fade. And at the trade deadline, no help came from the cavalry

But how much slack should we give the Cardinals for this 6-16 fade?

Some of this erosion is due to neglect … or at least a failure to really concentrate and be mentally sharp.

Joe Sheehan and my friends at The Baseball Prospectus like this mantra: OBP is life, and life is OBP.

(OBP as in onbase percentage)…

And in the Cardinals’ case, that’s spot on. 

From April 1 through Aug. 27, the Cardinals had a .352 OBP — and in the NL only the Cubs (.359) were better at getting runners on base.

 But during this 6-16 slide, the Cardinals’ OBP is .309…   and only Pittsburgh and Colorado have a lower OBP during the corresponding period. 

By failing to maintain their standard of quality at bats, an attribute that lifted them through much of the season, the Cardinals let their blood supply, their oxygen tank, run low. And it’s just choked the offense. Again, I know the Cardinals have taken some wallops and lost a couple of important contributors. But a lot of this just comes down to locking in and grinding out good ABs. And they haven’t been doing it.

Take a look at some of the OBPs during the last 22 games:

* Pujols, .383.  … a drop from where he’d been (.453 through Aug. 27).

* Glaus, .323 … it was .373 through Aug. 27.

* Ludwick, .281 … out of gas.

* Schumaker, .312 … another drop.

* Molina, .275 … was slipping before the injury.

* Izturis, .294 … which, come to think of it, is just about normal.

* Ankiel, .227  …. only 20 ABs, and he was playing hurt.

* Aaron Miles, .339 … not bad for him.

* Adam Kennedy, .286 … nothing to add to that.  

* Lopez, .395 … really, the team’s best offensive performer as of late. Which certainly is an indictment, eh?

Not that the pitching has been sharp; it hasn’t. Over the last 22 games, the starters are 5-11 with a 4.48 ERA. But in 15 of the 22 games, this STL lineup scored three runs or fewer while their starting pitchers were still in the game.

And when the Cardinals have gotten runners on base, they’ve often been doomed by poor hitting with runners in scoring position. Some of the recent performances with RISP include:

Ludwick 3-18, .167;

Schumaker 3-14, .214;

Glaus 1-10,  .100

Miles  1-11,  .091

Izturis  0-14,  .000  (yikes).

Pujols is 7-21, .333.  But he’s had some big misses.

So this has been a perfect storm; low OBP combined with a drop in performance with runners in scoring position.

One more thought before I close it down for the evening: is there a reason why Brian Barton isn’t playing? With so many of the Cardinals on fumes, the rookie outfielder is 5 for his last 12, a batting average of .417, and he has a double and a triple. He could provide something of an energy boost for a flat team. I don’t get it.

Thanks for reading…

-B