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player ready...The Cardinals stumbled to the end of their most wretched road trip in 35 years and returned home an unraveling club in search of the pulse they apparently forgot to pack.
Cincinnati starter Aaron Harang ushered the Cardinals to a 5-4 loss Thursday, their seventh in a row and the last stop on what could be their farewell tour to 2007. The Cardinals come back to Busch Stadium on Friday night to face the Cubs and start the final homestand of the season six games under .500, closer to fourth place than they are to first.
“We are in a … well, it’s hard to say we’re in a must-win situation because we’ve been in a must-win situation this whole trip and didn’t do anything,” shortstop David Eckstein said. “We only have one life left. We have to take full advantage of that this weekend.”
The 0-7 trip was the Cardinals’ first winless trip of at least seven games since 1972, when a Lou Brock-paced club lost 12-0 to Pittsburgh on the last day of a seven-game trip. This one took a team that was a game out of first place in the National League Central and sank it to five behind the Cubs and 4 1/2 behind the Brewers.
A minor ninth-inning rally Thursday put the tying run on base. But even that jewel had its imperfection. Albert Pujols opened the inning with a double and scored on Jim Edmonds’ RBI single. With no one out, Edmonds was the tying run at first. He didn’t budge as the next three batters flied out to give David Weathers his 30th save.
The offense offered little support. The Cardinals hit .232 on the trip and averaged 3.6 runs a game — or as many earned runs as the starters allowed for every three innings they pitched.
“We’re losing because we’re not scoring runs and we’re not stopping them from scoring runs,” Edmonds said, drolly. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time.”