The Cardinals’ Comedy of Errors : Fielding Mistakes Prove Costly in 4-3 Loss to the Padres

The St. Louis Cardinals don’t need umpire Don Denkinger to start them on a path to destruction anymore.

They are doing it themselves nowadays.

Take Thursday afternoon’s 4-3 loss to the Padres, which came as the result of three Cardinal errors.

Two unearned Padre runs came on throwing errors. A third run scored when center fielder Willie McGee missed what appeared to be a playable ball.

The fourth run was on a Carmelo Martinez’ homer. There are exceptions to every rule.

St. Louis may be the defending National League champions, but don’t bet on the Cardinals to repeat this season. They have lost 10 of 11 after a 7-1 start.

“We kept saying we were fortunate to be 7-1, 7-2 and 7-4,” Manager Whitey Herzog said. “Now, we’re fortunate to be 8-11. I don’t know. Maybe . . . we are this bleeping bad.”

The Cardinals’ self-destruction began in the second inning against the Padres when Martinez reached base on third baseman Terry Pendleton’s throwing error. Martinez stole second, his first steal since 1984, before Garry Templeton singled him home.

But that was nothing compared to the Padres’ sixth.

After Kevin McReynolds hit a leadoff single to left, pitcher Danny Cox wanted to hold McReynolds close to first. However, Cox didn’t want to make a wild pickoff throw, which allowed McReynolds to reach second.

One out later, Terry Kennedy hit a fly ball to McGee that appeared to be the second out. It didn’t turn out that way. The ball fell beyond McGee--it was scored a double--giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.

“I can’t believe that ball got over Willie’s head,” Herzog said. “ . . . it just took off at the end.”

Herzog had a more definitive explanation than McGee.

“He hit it well and I missed it,” McGee said. “Either you make that play or you miss it.”

With Martinez on second later in the inning, the Cardinals missed an opportunity for the third out. Second baseman Jose Oquendo made a diving stop on Graig Nettles’ grounder, only to throw the ball into the first base dugout, allowing Martinez to score.

“Jose made a hell of a play,” Herzog said. “He just hurried his throw.”

Despite the poor defense, St. Louis had to feel good about its offense. The Cardinals had been shut out in five of their 10 previous losses.

Give the credit for stirring the offense to former Padre Ozzie Smith, whose three stolen bases made it possible for him to score all of the Cardinal runs.

“With our ballclub, we should be able to score without hitting,” Smith said. “We should manufacture more runs with our overall speed, which we haven’t done.”

Much of their overall speed belongs to leadoff hitter Vince Coleman, who was unable to reach base in five plate appearances. Coleman did tie a major-league record with three sacrifice flies, but that’s not something he’s especially proud of.

“It would’ve been a lot different if I made those sacrifice flies into singles,” Coleman said. “I could’ve opened up the game.”