Cleveland puts on a clinic, adds three solo homers to nudge Cardinals back toward .500
The most obvious thing left now for the Cardinals is outrunning history.
What seemed inevitable for weeks inched closer to official Friday night as a loss to Cleveland Guardians moved the Cardinals to the brink of playoff elimination. The Guardians, in a race for the best record in the American League, won their 90th game by pulling away from the Cardinals with three solo homers in the late innings on the way to a 5-1 victory at Busch Stadium. Pending the outcome of Arizona's game in Milwaukee, the Cardinals are nearing a second consecutive year without a playoff appearance, and they continue to circle .500 with the risk of tumbling to another off-brand distinction.
A losing record this season would mean back-to-back losing records for the first time in a full season since 1958-59.
That is the longest streak in the four major North American sports.
The Cardinals (77-76) have gone 65 years between consecutive losing seasons, and the next closest in the majors is the Dodgers at 37.
Before Jose Ramirez continued his pursuit of a 40-40 season, Cleveland pounced on an error early to take a lead and did not need much with the game's best bullpen looming. They got it anyway with a pair of solo homers off start Kyle Gibson, and a late homer from former Cardinal Lane Thomas to set the final score. In what could be his final home start near his Missouri home, Gibson – who has a team option for 2025 – allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits through six innings. The Cardinals flashed a few threats, but finished the game like they've spent the season: struggling to produce with runners in scoring position.
The Guardians' bullpen entered the series as the only group of relievers in the majors with a combined ERA less than 3.00, and that shortens games exactly as they did Friday. Two relievers split four innings and held the Cardinals scoreless.
Rookie's error proves costly
It wasn't long before Thomas Saggese had a handful of tests in his first start at third base.
The Cardinals' rookie and versatile fielder spelled Gold Glove Award-winner Nolan Arenado at third Friday night, and by the end of the fourth he'd been involved in two plays that had the potential to shape an innings. Both were connected to Cleveland runs.
One led to a Cleveland run.
In the third inning, Ramirez singles to right field to score Daniel Schneeman. Leadoff hitter Angel Martinez raced from first to third on the base hit, and right fielder Jordan Walker had a play. His throw arrived a blink behind Martinez, but when Martinez lost touch with the base, Saggese did not have control of the ball to apply the tag. It had slipped from his glove. Cleveland loaded the bases in that inning, after that moment, but Gibson slipped free of further trouble with a popup.
The veteran right-hander got two quick outs – both hit to shortstop Masyn Winn – to open the fourth inning, and reached the back portion of the Guardians' lineup with the chance to leave the fourth inning still down by a run. That went sideways when a groundball to Saggese at third became an error. The rookie threw high to first base, and instead of a groundout, Bo Naylor cruised into second on the infield hit with the errant throw. That put him in position to score on Schneemann's two-out single.
Saggese's play wasn't likely to end the inning, but a single would not have produced a run, and Cleveland doubled its lead before the Cardinals answered.
A duo of doubles will do
Unable to muster much against Cleveland starter Ben Lively in the opening innings, Saggese bounced a rulebook double over the wall in the third only to be left stranded. The doubles continued in the fourth – and were able to put the only dent in Lively's line.
Eventually.
Alec Burleson started the inning with a double. He took third on a groundout. And when Arenado skied a fly ball to second base it appeared that the Cardinals would let slip the opportunity to snip into Cleveland's lead. Brendan Donovan's walk got the inning to Lars Nootbaar on his bobblehead night. He would have a tongue-out, sliding catch in center field that was a photo-perfect recreation of his bobblehead, and he would provide the Cardinals' run. Nootbaar hooked a flyball that fell down the left-field line between fielders to score Burleson and briefly cleave the Guardians' lead in half.
The Cardinals teased two other rallies but they both ended in frustrating fashion. With two on the seventh, the Cardinals used pinch-hitter Luken Baker against lefty reliever Erik Sabrowski. Baker struck out on three pitches. In the eighth, Paul Goldschmidt got to third on Arenado's two-out single, and Donovan laced a line drive straight to a leaping shortstop.
The ball dropped out of Schneemann's glove to lose that out.
But it didn't regain the run for the Cardinals.
Schneemann retrieved the ball and tossed it to second for the forceout that ended the inning and extinguished the Cardinals' chance at a run quicker than the ball first left his grasp.
Ramirez takes aim at 40-40 club
Although it's hardly gathering the attention of the founding member of the 50-50 club, Dodgers' DH Shohei Ohtani, Cleveland's remarkable third baseman Ramirez has more than week remaining to join the exclusive 40-40 club.
He put himself even closer as Cleveland pulled away Friday.
Ramirez started the series with 35 home runs and 39 stolen bases. His 36th home run of the season regained a two-run lead of the Guardians in the fifth inning, and his 40th steal came in the top of the seventh. Since Jose Canseco became the first member of the 40-40 club, five other players have joined it, including Ohtani this season on his way to the first 50-50 season. Atlanta's Ronald Acuna Jr. went 40-40 in 2023.
Ramirez would be the first third baseman in the group if he gets there and only the second infielder, following Alex Rodriguez, who was a shortstop in 1998's 40-40 season.
Former Cardinal Thomas joins home run binge
Ramirez's solo shot in the fifth combined was the first of three consecutive solo home runs to extend the Guardians' lead, and that of which came from a familiar face in a new place.
Lane Thomas, the former Cardinals' outfielder, led off the eighth inning with a solo shot that nearly took out the fries in Big Mac Land. Thomas' 14th homer of the season caromed off the stands just to the left of the neon fries in the signature Busch advertising board. The homer beefed up the Guardians' lead to four runs.
Acquired by Washington in the Jon Lester trade the Cardinals made scrambling for pitching in 2021, Thomas became a regular with the Nationals, hit 28 home runs for them in 2023, and got them a good return from Cleveland at the trade deadline. The homer against his former club was his sixth in 47 games since joining the Guardians.
The first two of the trio of unanswered homers came off Gibson. Ramirez tagged an elevated, 90-mph fastball into the nook of seats near the right-field foul pole. Second baseman Andres Gimenez followed an inning later by starting the sixth with a homer. His ninth of the season traveled an estimated 395 feet out to right field to claim a three-run lead for a bullpen that rarely needs that much at all.
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