A 2010 season that began with such high hopes has come down to this: desperate for satisfaction and eager for entertainment, Cardinals fans have settled for booing Brandon Phillips.
The Cincinnati Reds' second baseman has been honored all weekend, before and after every plate appearance at Busch Stadium. There will be another tribute to Phillips on Sunday at 1:15 p.m. when the Cardinals and Reds conclude an anticlimactic three-game series.
Phillips has to love this. He craves attention, and Cardinals fans are giving him exactly what he wants.
The traditionally polite St. Louis baseball crowd won't snarl at the Cardinals, and Phillips makes for a convenient villain.
In losing quietly 6-1 Saturday afternoon the Cardinals fielded a starting lineup that included third baseman Pedro Feliz, second baseman Aaron Miles and right fielder Nick Stavinoha.
And there was no Colby Rasmus, who was given yet another day off before emerging from Tony La Russa's ARF house to slash a late double while pinch-hitting for Stavinoha.
Hey, when you have an offense that's scored three or fewer runs 12 times in the last 19 games, who needs a guy, Rasmus, that has compiled the fifth-best combined onbase and slugging percentage among major-league center fielders this season?
Before the Rasmus double, Stavinoha had gone 0 for three and hit into an inning-ending double play in the sixth. Miles struck out twice and committed a crucial error that set up three unearned runs in the first inning. And Feliz — the front office's big solution to the third-base problem — went hitless for his fifth consecutive game and is batting .170 in his last 12 games as a Cardinal.
Chairman Bill DeWitt, GM John Mozeliak, La Russa and Cardinals players are fortunate men. The Cardinals' latest poor performance and loss went largely ignored as another huge crowd (44,4597) fixated on Phillips. The Cardinals ought to send Phillips a thank-you card.
Cardinals fans are taking their frustration out on Phillips instead of dwelling on a more urgent matter: the troubling capitulation of a Cardinals team that has lost nine of its last 11 games in going 5-14 since Aug. 14.
The Cardinals are 52-55 over their last 107 games. A franchise that proudly deploys a nucleus of run producers Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday, starting pitchers Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia and top MLB defensive catcher Yadier Molina has managed to win only six games more than the Kansas City Royals since May 4.
Cardinals fans are incredibly loyal; their energy clearly helped lift the home team to a 3-2 victory Friday night in the series opener. But the goodwill soon went to waste, with Reds rookie lefty Travis Wood outpitching Wainwright and the Reds outplaying the Cardinals in a no-contest.
"We're having a tough time of stringing things together and today was a good example," La Russa said.
The disturbing pattern of late-season crumpling is still in effect.
The 2009 Cardinals lurched through a 7-14 stretch late in the season as a prelude to being swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers. The 2008 Cardinals skidded through an 8-18 stretch. The 2007 Cardinals were doomed by a 2-14 collapse in September. The 2006 Cardinals nearly coughed up the division title by losing nine of their final 12 regular-season games before recovering with a remarkable October run to capture the World Series.
The love of Cardinals fans remains unwavering, but there are limits to the healing power. So much is going wrong.
Pujols ended an 0-for-18 slump with a sixth-inning single Saturday, only to ground into a double play against Reds phenom Aroldis Chapman to end the eighth.
And the Cardinals have lost seven of the last eight games started by Wainwright or Carpenter. Frankly, I did not believe that was possible.
Obviously, it's a weird time at the ballpark.
La Russa hasn't been restrained in praising his friend, Reds GM Walt Jocketty, the former Cardinals' GM.
"He's got a lot of best qualities," La Russa said before Saturday's game. "I'll tell you, he never separated himself from the guys in uniform when we struggled. It wasn't, 'I've done my job.' ''
I suppose this is where I should note that Mozeliak has been fairly outspoken in his criticism of the Cardinals this season. Earlier this week in Houston, Mozeliak spoke of the Cardinals of having "underachieved." He's also called them "flat" and has alluded to "chemistry" issues.
La Russa was even more generous in his praise in an interview with the New York Times. "You would have to look long and hard to find someone that doesn't like and respect Walt," TLR said.
Actually, the search would end rather quickly: at the door to DeWitt's office. DeWitt fired Jocketty after the 2007 season.
If Phillips is getting the last laugh, so is Jocketty.
Jocketty's new team not only leads his old team by eight games in the NL Central standings, but the Reds are built to last a while. Their rotation has received 254 innings from rookie starters this season, a group that includes Wood and Mike Leake. There are other young starters, such as Johnny Cueto, 24, and Homer Bailey, 26. The bullpen has featured rookies Chapman, Logan Ondrusek, Jordan Smith and Enerio Del Rosario.
The Cincinnati lineup is led by leading NL MVP candidate Joey Votto, 26. There are three young outfielders in Jay Bruce (23), Drew Stubbs (25) and Chris Heisey (25). And there's a promising trade chip in first-base prospect Yonder Alonso. And Reds chairman Bob Castellini can grow a payroll that was set at $76 million this season.
The Cardinals already have a $95 million payroll that isn't enough to put together a complete team. Now they must find a way to re-sign Pujols, who can become a free agent after next season.
All of this may be enough to make a grumpy St. Louis manager retire.
