Cardinals Can’t Seem to Find Themselves Yet

The St. Louis Cardinals claim they are undaunted. So, for the benefit of the sport and its fans, in the name of Stan the Man and all that is good and pure, the World Series will go on, off to St. Louis, the Cardinals seeking their usual game, everyone else seeking the Cardinals.

In a cast-about weekend in the Back Bay, where the Boston Red Sox fought unreliable gloves and other fits of fecklessness, it was the Cardinals who woke up this morning with the regrets.

In two icy, breezy nights that turned Fenway Park into a pitchers’ dream, the wind charging in from center field and the mist billowing in wide circles, the Cardinals gave up 17 runs, and so lost twice, Sunday night by 6-2.

A team that played from ahead all season, with the notable exception of the latter portion of the National League championship series, the Cardinals have temporarily lost touch with the Red Sox.

Their pitching staff has walked 14 batters and hit three others. It has given up 21 hits and, in Game 2 alone, six runs after two were out.

It’s no way to run a series, even against the casualness in which the Red Sox have played their defense, even against a vulnerable knuckleballer and a starter who pitched with most of two ankles intact.

Only Albert Pujols, the Cardinals’ most dynamic player, seemed terribly troubled, however, afterward stalking the clubhouse, cursing reporters who did not leap from his path. All teams, it seems, have their Kevin Browns to bear.

Ah, but the surliness did nothing to darken an otherwise optimistic Cardinal crew, which boarded its flight to St. Louis wishing it had pitched better, wishing a few of those line drives had found something other than webbing, but mostly happy to be going home, where it has won all six of its postseason games.

“This team will not give up, I promise you that,” said Woody Williams, the Cardinals’ Game 1 starter. “I feel like we could have won both of those games, as bad as we pitched.”

Despite the sudden departure of the middle of their lineup, which carried them to 105 wins and runs by the ball bag during the regular season, the Cardinals first sought to mend their pitching staff.

Jeff Suppan, who pitched brilliantly in Game 7 of the NLCS, gets the baseball Tuesday night, so they’ll start there. They’ll need to rest a bullpen that bailed out Williams in the third inning Saturday and Matt Morris in the fifth inning Sunday, and there’s an off-day today.

It’s something. It’s hope. It’s what they have left. Someone in some sport once opined that a series does not truly start until a team wins a road game, and the Cardinals have averaged 7.2 runs, batted .311 and hit 13 home runs in six playoff games at Busch Stadium.

That said, the Red Sox probably won’t roll over in St. Louis, not after the two days they just spent in the Bronx. And the people of St. Louis have no real interest in Pedro’s daddy, though they’ll miss out on a great mango tree story.

As he dressed Sunday, Cardinal pitching coach Dave Duncan relived the walks, all of the baserunners just waiting for the bat barrels to bring them home, and very nearly scowled.

“It’s a matter of not making the pitches we’re trying to make,” he said. “We’re trying. Everybody’s trying. And we’ll keep trying.”

When it was offered that the Red Sox had been quite patient, willing to take Cardinal pitchers deep into counts, Duncan suggested that would change with the day off.

“We’ll see how patient they are in St. Louis,” he said. “If they’re the same, then I’ll be impressed.”

While waiting on the pitchers to join in, they’re still waiting on a little production from the middle of their order. Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds had one hit in six at-bats with runners on base in Game 2, continuing the trend, remarkable given the Houston Astros hardly missed their bats over seven games in the NLCS, Pujols’ in particular.

The big hits have been the Red Sox’s. The big pitches too. Pujols doubled twice and singled Sunday night, neither double with a runner on base. Batting against Keith Foulke in the eighth inning with two out and a runner at first Edmonds struck out.

Like the walks, some of the offensive issues are self-inflicted. Running on a pitch to Tony Womack in the second inning, the deficit manageable at 2-0, Reggie Sanders ran past second base but did not touch it. He doubled back, stayed at second, and was run into a double play in the next at-bat, Mike Matheny lining to third base.

Near Edmonds’ locker, laughter could be heard in a side room where players stood along the walls finishing food piled on Styrofoam plates.

“You hear those guys laughing in the background,” Edmonds said. “This is a group of guys that’ll play until it’s over.”

In the meantime, they flew home carrying the inescapable truth of Games 1 and 2. They’ll play from behind. They’ll play to recover. They’ll play to rediscover their game.