Cardinals Drop Six Games Out of Playoff Chase When Offense Sputters Again

A Cardinals offense that scored a whopping 47 runs over the first six games of the three-city, nine-game road trip appears to have worn down the past two nights, costing the club more ground in the chase for one of the final Wild Card slots.

The Cardinals mustered just five singles, grounded into 18 outs on the infield and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position while falling 2-1 to the Giants at Oracle Park on Tuesday night.

The Cards (72-74) lost for a second straight night largely because of their offensive struggles. They needed several late rallies to get Monday’s game tied at 3 in the ninth inning and lost 5-4 in 11 innings. On Tuesday, the Cardinals didn’t have an extra-base hit, rolled into two double plays and avoided an eighth shutout in the ninth inning only when Nathan Church and Bryan Torres paired two singles.

Pinch-runner Victor Scott II stole second base to get into scoring position in the top of the ninth, but designated hitter Ivan Herrera grounded out to shortstop to end the game. The Cardinals dropped six games back of the Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot int he National League playoff chase.

"I feel like we've been playing a lot of one-run ball games this whole year and this was just another one of those," manager Oliver Marmol said to Cardinals TV. "I was talking to (rookie catcher) Leo (Bernal) about what it teaches us as we continue to play these close games with everything on the line on every pitch. It's what you want to train under. We came up short today, but I still like the way we're competing."   

The Cards’ best threat of the night came in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases without the benefit of a hit. However, rookie slugger Joshua Baez fell behind in the count early and flied out to center field to end the threat.

The offensive struggles came as something of a shock after the Cardinals scored 23 runs in Los Angeles to take two of three from the Dodgers and 24 runs in hitter-friendly Coors Field, where they won another best-of-three series.

The offensive outage ruined another strong outing by rookie left-hander Quinn Mathews, who pitched a career-best six innings and limited the Giants to just two solo homers. Mathews, 25, was pitching 30 miles away from his Stanford University collegiate roots and struck out four Giants, while walking two.

"I do like the way (Mathews) competes because he stays in the moment and he's done a much better job of doing exactly that, staying positive and continuing to plow through, regardless of what's going on," Marmol said. "So, today was a good outing for him."

Rapidly blossoming reliever Gordon Graceffo also pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning by striking out Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge and getting Jung Hoo Lee to line out to center field.

"What he was able to do against Devers and Eldridge -- those were big at bats -- and to get two punch outs and get Lee to fly out to center, that's a big part of that game," Marmol said. "Once that happened, I was hoping we could throw on a couple (of runs) and tie it up. But (Graceffo) did a fantastic job." 

Giants starter Landen Roupp (9-13) limited the Cardinals to just two hits over six innings. 

Cardinals’ All-Star slugger Jordan Walker grounded into a rally-killing double play in the sixth inning after the first two had reached. Then, in the eighth inning, Walker flied out to right field with the tying runs on base.

Mathews got a bad break in the first inning when he high-and-away pitch well off the plate was driven the other way by 6-foot-7 Giants first baseman Eldridge. The 2-2 fastball left Eldridge’s bat at 102.5 mph, and it traveled 389 feet to give the Giants a first-inning lead.

In the second inning, Mathews fell behind No. 9 hitter Christian Koss, who hit the four-seam fastball 373 feet for his fourth homer of the season.