I think the title of this post says it all. \u00c2\u00a0When a player on the opposing team questions the desire, there’s little else to say about the 2010 Cardinals.<\/p>\n
That was\u00c2\u00a0Geoff Blum’s quote to MLB.com<\/a> after yesterday’s game. \u00c2\u00a0“It didn’t look like they wanted to come out and beat us at all.” \u00c2\u00a0We talked about this some last night on the\u00c2\u00a0UCB Radio Hour<\/a> (by the way, really great show–listen on Blog Talk Radio or iTunes when you get the chance) and Mike made the suggestion that it was the last game of a 10 day road trip, that there may have been some “get this over with mentality”. \u00c2\u00a0I understand what he’s saying, but I don’t think I agree with it. \u00c2\u00a0Or, more precisely, think that shouldn’t have been it.<\/p>\n First off, I’m not sure that Blum was talking just about yesterday, but perhaps about the whole series. \u00c2\u00a0But even if he was just referring to the game Wednesday, it still shouldn’t have been an issue. \u00c2\u00a0This team is out there supposedly playing for their playoff lives. \u00c2\u00a0This is the organization that patented “play a hard nine”. \u00c2\u00a0Even if the NL Central is out of reach now (and, being that the Cards are just as close to third place as they are to first, I think that’s a darn safe assumption), you still have the wild card and, with the pitching this team has, you never know what could happen if you get into the playoffs.<\/p>\n “They didn’t want to come out and beat us at all.”<\/p>\n Those are just not words I ever expected to be applied to a Tony La Russa team and it just may be more evidence that, after fourteen years, it’s time for some sort of change. \u00c2\u00a0Even in ’07 and ’08, with a team dealing with injuries and trying to find itself, they played hard and hung around in the race. \u00c2\u00a0This team? \u00c2\u00a0It just doesn’t seem to have the energy to go out and play, at least until the late innings when they try to make a rally. \u00c2\u00a0Even that, though, has been lacking some in the last few days.<\/p>\n Rick Horton mentioned this yesterday on the broadcast: “The score is 4-2, but it feels like 20-2.” \u00c2\u00a0There’s no faith in a rally by this team. \u00c2\u00a0There are a lot of places\u00c2\u00a0you can put blame<\/a>, but as we discussed last night on the show it really seems to come down to the offense. \u00c2\u00a0There are holes in the lineup–when Colby Rasmus is not healthy and hitting #5, there’s not much after Matt Holliday–and that keeps the team from sustaining rallies. \u00c2\u00a0It’s a far cry from what we thought we had at the beginning of the season, when you looked at the lineup and thought that, at any time, you could sustain a rally from any point in the lineup.<\/p>\n