The Cardinals found rock bottom Wednesday night at half-filled Busch Stadium.
On the same night that the defending world champions achieved their league's worst run differential with an 18-1 loss to the Houston Astros, an organization boasting of "Baseball's Best Fans" declined to say how many stayed home.
The beating became so bad that the Astros began declining extra bases during a six-run eighth inning. And infielder Aaron Miles pitched the ninth inning and gave up three hits, including a two-run home run.
Astros starting pitcher Wandy Rodriguez entered with the league's worst road ERA. He left with his first win over the Cardinals.
The Cardinals announced a sellout crowd of 42,171 but declined to provide actual attendance, a policy changed at the start of the season's final homestand.
The loss assured that the Cardinals (71-81) would fall short of a winning season for the first time since 1999. It also reduced their "tragic number" for elimination from the NL Central race to two. Another loss tonight combined with a Chicago Cubs win over the Pittsburgh Pirates would end the defending world champions' hopes for a postseason berth.
This likely will become the first season since 1995 that the Cardinals or Astros won't finish among the division's top two.
Instead, a duo that has won 10 of the last 11 division crowns now possesses two of the league's three worst run differentials.
Blame it on an unknown quantity.
Catcher Justin Towles started the year at Class A Salem and on Page 451 of the Astros' media guide. By late Thursday night, he was a leading cause of the Cardinals' 13th loss in 15 games. Towles, better known as J.R., contributed two-run singles in the second and fourth innings off Cardinals starter Braden Looper to give the Astros a 4-0 lead that went unchallenged.
Towles, who played in the July Futures Game alongside Cardinals prospects Colby Rasmus and Brian Anderson, graduated three classifications to reach Houston this month.
He entered Wednesday with three hits in 13 major-league at-bats. He more than doubled that total while jacking his RBI total from one to nine.
Towles' two-out double to left field gave the Astros a 2-0 second-inning lead. In the fourth, La Russa ordered shortstop Cody Ransom intentionally walked with runners at second and third to again reach Towles with two outs.
This time Towles singled to left as Carlos Lee and Mike Lamb scored for a 4-0 lead.
Looper (12-11) never solved the unknown quantity.
Towles used his third at-bat to score Ransom for a 5-0 lead with a one-out double to right field. One hitter later, Looper was hooked for Andy Cavazos. Towles resurfaced to accept a bases-loaded walk in the eighth for his sixth RBI. And he capped it off in the ninth with the two-run home run against Miles.
Like Towles' breakout, Looper's beating came out of the blue.
Looper beat the Astros three times in relief last season before going 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three starts this season and his career 2.07 ERA was his lowest against an NL Central opponent. Most recently, Looper shut out the Astros for seven innings of a 7-0 win Aug. 22. Looper had not lost anywhere since Aug. 17 and not at Busch since July 7, his last outing before the All-Star Game.
While Towles tormented Looper, Rodriguez (9-13) did a number on the Cardinals bats when the home club wasn't sacrificing outs on the bases.
Shortstop David Eckstein's leadoff double was negated when he became the back end of a double play trying to advance when Astros first baseman Lance Berkman smothered left fielder So Taguchi's first-inning grounder.
Right fielder Ryan Ludwick missed a second-inning home run by mere inches when his one-out drive ricocheted off the top of the left-center field fence. Ludwick settled for a double and failed to advance.
Catcher Yadier Molina took third base with one out in the fifth inning but was nabbed for the second out when Looper bunted through a squeeze bunt. Looper then struck out to end the threat.
Rodriguez's success against the Cardinals was as surprising as Looper's trauma. Until Wednesday, the lefthander was 0-4 with an 8.71 career ERA against the Redbirds. Wednesday's win was only his second on the road since June 5.
The Astros pressed their lead to 7-0 against Cavazos in the seventh inning with three consecutive angles and an error charged to Ludwick, whose crime was throwing to a base vacated by third baseman Miguel Cairo.
The inning kept on against Kelvin Jimenez, who hit the first batter he faced, Towles, allowed a pair of two-out singles and witnessed his team's third of four errors. A five-run rally gave the Astros a 10-0 lead and saddled Cardinals pitching with double-digit runs for the 20th time this season.
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On the same night that the defending world champions achieved their league's worst run differential with an 18-1 loss to the Houston Astros, an organization boasting of "Baseball's Best Fans" declined to say how many stayed home.
The beating became so bad that the Astros began declining extra bases during a six-run eighth inning. And infielder Aaron Miles pitched the ninth inning and gave up three hits, including a two-run home run.
Astros starting pitcher Wandy Rodriguez entered with the league's worst road ERA. He left with his first win over the Cardinals.
The Cardinals announced a sellout crowd of 42,171 but declined to provide actual attendance, a policy changed at the start of the season's final homestand.
The loss assured that the Cardinals (71-81) would fall short of a winning season for the first time since 1999. It also reduced their "tragic number" for elimination from the NL Central race to two. Another loss tonight combined with a Chicago Cubs win over the Pittsburgh Pirates would end the defending world champions' hopes for a postseason berth.
This likely will become the first season since 1995 that the Cardinals or Astros won't finish among the division's top two.
Instead, a duo that has won 10 of the last 11 division crowns now possesses two of the league's three worst run differentials.
Blame it on an unknown quantity.
Catcher Justin Towles started the year at Class A Salem and on Page 451 of the Astros' media guide. By late Thursday night, he was a leading cause of the Cardinals' 13th loss in 15 games. Towles, better known as J.R., contributed two-run singles in the second and fourth innings off Cardinals starter Braden Looper to give the Astros a 4-0 lead that went unchallenged.
Towles, who played in the July Futures Game alongside Cardinals prospects Colby Rasmus and Brian Anderson, graduated three classifications to reach Houston this month.
He entered Wednesday with three hits in 13 major-league at-bats. He more than doubled that total while jacking his RBI total from one to nine.
Towles' two-out double to left field gave the Astros a 2-0 second-inning lead. In the fourth, La Russa ordered shortstop Cody Ransom intentionally walked with runners at second and third to again reach Towles with two outs.
This time Towles singled to left as Carlos Lee and Mike Lamb scored for a 4-0 lead.
Looper (12-11) never solved the unknown quantity.
Towles used his third at-bat to score Ransom for a 5-0 lead with a one-out double to right field. One hitter later, Looper was hooked for Andy Cavazos. Towles resurfaced to accept a bases-loaded walk in the eighth for his sixth RBI. And he capped it off in the ninth with the two-run home run against Miles.
Like Towles' breakout, Looper's beating came out of the blue.
Looper beat the Astros three times in relief last season before going 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three starts this season and his career 2.07 ERA was his lowest against an NL Central opponent. Most recently, Looper shut out the Astros for seven innings of a 7-0 win Aug. 22. Looper had not lost anywhere since Aug. 17 and not at Busch since July 7, his last outing before the All-Star Game.
While Towles tormented Looper, Rodriguez (9-13) did a number on the Cardinals bats when the home club wasn't sacrificing outs on the bases.
Shortstop David Eckstein's leadoff double was negated when he became the back end of a double play trying to advance when Astros first baseman Lance Berkman smothered left fielder So Taguchi's first-inning grounder.
Right fielder Ryan Ludwick missed a second-inning home run by mere inches when his one-out drive ricocheted off the top of the left-center field fence. Ludwick settled for a double and failed to advance.
Catcher Yadier Molina took third base with one out in the fifth inning but was nabbed for the second out when Looper bunted through a squeeze bunt. Looper then struck out to end the threat.
Rodriguez's success against the Cardinals was as surprising as Looper's trauma. Until Wednesday, the lefthander was 0-4 with an 8.71 career ERA against the Redbirds. Wednesday's win was only his second on the road since June 5.
The Astros pressed their lead to 7-0 against Cavazos in the seventh inning with three consecutive angles and an error charged to Ludwick, whose crime was throwing to a base vacated by third baseman Miguel Cairo.
The inning kept on against Kelvin Jimenez, who hit the first batter he faced, Towles, allowed a pair of two-out singles and witnessed his team's third of four errors. A five-run rally gave the Astros a 10-0 lead and saddled Cardinals pitching with double-digit runs for the 20th time this season.
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