The quicksand the Cardinals stepped into several weeks ago has almost swallowed their season whole and threatens to drag some awards darlings down with it.
Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright, one win removed from his pledge not to lose again this season, was strafed by the Cubs for 12 hits and five runs in a 7-2 loss Tuesday at Busch Stadium. The loss assured the Cardinals of dropping an eighth consecutive series to a losing team, a plunge that has nearly drowned their postseason aspirations. Players still afloat for individual year-end accolades, like Albert Pujols for the MVP, have not been immune. Wainwright lost for the fifth time in his past six starts.
Wainwright (18-11) called it a "confounding" season for the once buoyant Cardinals. The same adjective applied to a start that saw him strike out eight and allow seven hits to the bottom three batters in the Cubs' order. Belleville native and Cubs starter Randy Wells held the Cardinals to one run in his eight innings, and he delivered two RBIs off Wainwright.
The Cardinals' righthander is in the thick of the Cy Young derby with his overall numbers, including a 2.50 ERA. He has three scheduled starts to distance himself from this downturn.
"I don't know what people think, to be honest with you," said Wainwright, who finished third in Cy Young voting last year despite leading the league with 19 wins. "And to be honest, I don't care. I have to go out and pitch like nobody is watching but my team and the Cardinals' fans from now on. I can't worry about the other junk. If I win (the award) that'd be great. But I thought I won it last year, too. I can't worry about it."
Wainwright entered Tuesday as one of only two pitchers in the NL to rank in the top five in wins, ERA and strikeouts. He remained there with Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay despite Tuesday's misadventure. Before the game, manager Tony La Russa rejected the idea that Wainwright's recent streak of losses would dampen his Cy Young chances because, the manager asked, "What did he do to lose those games?"
The Cardinals scored fewer than three runs in four of Wainwright's past five losses. He's hardly alone. Tuesday was the 43rd time the Cardinals have lost in 48 games this season in which they've scored fewer than three runs.
Wainwright's skid corresponds with the Cardinals' free fall, which has dropped them from a game ahead of Cincinnati a month ago to seven games back today. Wainwright offered an apt analogy for the dazed sensation in the Cardinals' clubhouse, one clearly caused by a fall from great heights.
"It's kind of like one of those games when as a pitcher you're feeling great, you're cruising, and then all of sudden they put four (runs) on you, five on you in one inning," Wainwright said."That's sort of what's happened to our team. We were just getting into a good groove. We swept Cincinnati in Cincinnati after they talked a bunch of smack. We beat Chicago (on Aug. 13) ... and then we lost a bunch of games. It happened so fast.
"You can look at this season in a two-week span."
Wainwright knew the analogy because he lived the analogy Tuesday. The righthander was cruising, feeling great with his stuff, and striking out four of the first six batters he faced. Then the bottom of the Cubs' order hung two runs on him in the second. By the end of the fourth, the Cubs had a 5-0 lead built on bloop hits, a walk, two bolts and a series of what Wainwright later called "good swings on some good pitches."
You can look at the loss in a three-inning span.
In the second, Wainwright walked rookie Tyler Colvin with two outs, pushing a runner into scoring position. RBI singles from No. 8 hitter Darwin Barney and Wells followed the walk. In the third, a two-out single from Xavier Nady looped into left field for a 3-0 lead. In the fourth, Colvin and Barney opened the inning with a single and double, respectively. Wells hit an RBI single and Blake DeWitt pushed the lead to five runs with a one-out single.
"You hate to say in September in a game you've got to win against a division rival that the balls didn't go where people were, but that's really all I can say," Wainwright said. "I didn't make very many bad pitches."
Wells may have, but got away with them.
Making his first start at the ballpark nearest his hometown, Wells (7-13) struck out five and didn't walk a batter. Colby Rasmus, who added a solo homer in the ninth, led off the fourth with a single to center, and he scored on Matt Holliday's double. Holliday got to second with no outs but didn't score. The Cardinals' lack of lineup depth, compounded by Pujols' absence to rest his sore elbow, allowed Wells an escape - and not just in the one inning.
"We got stuffed by their pitcher," La Russa said. "We helped him. We made it easier on him. We could have made it tougher."
Wainwright has rejected the notion that bulk innings are wearing on his numbers, and La Russa flatly said "innings are not the issue" on Tuesday. No pitcher in the NL has thrown more in the past two seasons than Wainwright's 4571/3 innings. His 1-5 stretch overlaps with the team rearranging his schedule to steal him additional days of rest and keep him stronger in September.
That was the plan.
The season has taught the Cardinals what to do with plans.
"This is not our season," Wainwright said. "This season has not gone like we thought it was going to go. But it's not over."
