HOUSTON • The wreckage strewn behind the Cardinals on this fateful trip offers plenty of examples of how the club has become rerouted on the way to October.
Leave it to Albert Pujols to offer the most direct explanation.
"It's been a bad road trip," Pujols said. "That's it. That's all we say. We picked a bad time to play some bad baseball."
If it hadn't already, bad veered into worse Tuesday as Houston Astros lefty Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven shutout innings and subdued the Cardinals for a 3-0 victory at Minute Maid Park. Rodriguez echoed teammate J.A. Happ, and led by those two lefties the Astros have held the Cardinals to no runs and five hits in 18 innings. The Cardinals went the first 14 years under the helm of manager Tony La Russa without being shut out in back-to-back games.
It's now happened twice in five weeks.
There's little evidence to suggest it can't happen again.
The Cardinals' nose-dive in the standings continued with a seventh loss in eight games, and the successive shutouts assured the Cardinals of a third consecutive losing series on this three-stop road to nowhere. Same as it ever was, the Cardinals didn't provide a run of support for ace Chris Carpenter and his seven solid innings. Carpenter (14-5) described a team struggling in all facets as it dropped seven games behind first-place Cincinnati in the division race.
"It seems like it's just kind of everything," Carpenter said. "We pitch well, and we're not hitting. We don't pitch well, and we score a bunch of runs. ... It just seems like it's a little bit of everything. It seems like we can't do anything right, right now."
All three of Houston's runs came in the fourth inning off Carpenter. For the fourth time on this trip, the Cardinals' starter allowed three or fewer runs. The Cardinals have won only one of those games.
The Cardinals came into Houston averaging 5.1 runs a game on this trip. But the number was misleading. The bulk of the average was taken in 10-run gulps, and the Cardinals remain chronically incapable of stringing steady offensive production together. In the 17 games since the Cardinals left Cincinnati with the lead in the NL Central, the Cardinals have gone 5-12 and scored three or fewer runs in nine of those games. Seven times they've scored two or fewer runs, including three consecutive going into this afternoon's final game of the trip.
Happ held the Cardinals to two hits in his shutout Monday. On Tuesday, Rodriguez gave up two hits in his seven innings, and he held the Cardinals to only three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
"I can't believe myself that we got five hits in 18 innings," said Pujols, who is hitless in six at-bats during the series. "That's the way it is. It's baseball. It's not like we're taking something for granted. We're going out there and giving everything we can. If you get beat like that, what can you do?"
The search for that answer continues.
La Russa said he and the coaches have changed routines, changed meetings, changed anything that can be changed to solve the riddle of the Cardinals' offense. The depth of the lineup remains the largest issue as rallies spark in the middle of the lineup and then falter or fail to gain traction. The Cardinals got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning Tuesday against closer Brandon Lyon. Matt Holliday, naturally, opened the inning with a double to deep left-center field. He did not move an inch and was left stranded there, ninety feet away from Skip Schumaker after his two-out walk. Pinch-hitter Randy Winn couldn't hold up on a check swing and struck out to end the game.
"The answer is we're trying," La Russa said. "Maybe we ought to just quit working and treat it like a sandlot game. Anything they see moving toward the plate take a swing, you know? It's not for lack of trying. We're just not making it work."
Rodriguez (11-12) continued his run of success, nibbling his ERA down to 1.65 in his previous 13 starts. Carpenter prolonged a run of frustration. The Cardinals lost all four starts on the trip by their co-aces. Carpenter entered Tuesday's game 6-2 this season in starts after Cardinals losses. He slipped to 6-3 because of three runs in the fourth inning.
Schumaker's fielding error started the rally but Hunter Pence's triple typified it. The Astros' right fielder clocked a 0-1 fastball from Carpenter for a line drive to deep center field, right to the lip of the small hill that extends 436 feet from home plate. Pence's triple scored the first two batters of the inning. Pence then scored on Chris Johnson's one-out, RBI single. Houston would send nine batters to the plate, put six on base and come away with only three runs when Carpenter left the bases loaded.
Including three at-bats in the ninth with a runner in scoring position, the Cardinals went 0 for 8. They had more opportunities than Houston to provide some runs, but it's hard to say they had a better chance.
The Cardinals reach the final month of the season in their deepest hole of the season. Pujols asked how many games were left and when told there were 32, he offered up a certain remedy for the Cardinals' road sickness: "Try to win 30 games in a row." That's the positive several Cardinals said they can cling to.
There is still a month to play.
