Frustrating fifth frame a microcosm of Cards' current stretch

CINCINNATI -- In the throes of one of their most crushing skids of the season, Wednesday’s unsightly fifth inning -- both the top half and the bottom half -- summed up the current plight of the struggling Cardinals.

Brendan Donovan opened the inning by hammering a double toward the right-field corner, but he never advanced beyond second base after Paul Goldschmidt grounded out and Lars Nootbaar and rookie Victor Scott II struck out. Tommy Pham was a hit by a pitch, but he didn’t advance either.

Already down four runs at the time, things went from bad to worse for the Cardinals, who lost 9-2 on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park and were swept in the three-game series by the rival Reds. Veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson, one of the Cardinals’ bright spots this season, allowed his third and fourth homers of the night in the bottom half of the fifth. Then came errors from Pham in left field and Donovan at second base and two other defensive misplays that added more agony to an already painful night for the reeling Redbirds.

“That was a frustrating inning because you’ve got some guys up. … You talk to [Goldschmidt] about what he’s trying to do compared to what the outcome was, and it’s the opposite,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s frustrating for everybody. … That was the one [inning] that was really frustrating based off the leadoff double and [Donovan] is still standing there after three outs.”

The Reds, fueled by a 10-1 home run advantage in the series, swept St. Louis for the first time since June 2021. That left the Cardinals as losers of four straight and nine of the past 13 games. A night after falling to 60-60, the Cardinals will head back to St. Louis as a sub-.500 team for the first time since they were 36-37 on June 19.

That comes as they are about to begin a 22-game stretch against winning teams (Dodgers, Brewers, Twins, Padres, Yankees and Mariners). Their current skid and the difficulty of their upcoming schedule are two reasons why FanGraphs gave the Cardinals just a 5.7 percent chance of making the playoffs.

“We have a team where we can rattle off wins, no matter who’s in the other dugout,” said Gibson, who was outspoken when the Cardinals started 15-24 and fought their way back to 48-42 in almost two months. “We still feel confident about that. Sure, we’ve hit a tough road trip here. We’ve had a bad five games, but we have a team that can have five good games and people are talking about us again.

“This Wild Card race and the division race are going to be tight, and we still have a lot of games with Milwaukee, and I feel like that can go in our favor. We’re going to be playing meaningful games to the end of September, and I’ve got no doubt that this team can get through this stretch and start playing quality baseball again.”

Gibson retired the first seven hitters he faced before he encountered trouble. After walking No. 8 hitter Will Benson and allowing a single to Noelvi Marte, Jonathan India broke out of a slump by crushing a wayward sweeper for a three-run homer. India had been in an 0-for-23 skid prior to hitting his 10th home run of the season.

Later in the third, Tyler Stephenson drove a cutter over the wall in right-center field for another long ball that increased the Reds’ lead to 4-0.

A second homer to India and TJ Friedl’s smash over the Cardinals bullpen in the fifth tied Gibson’s career high for home runs allowed in a game with four. Coincidentally, he last allowed four home runs against the Cardinals in July 2022 with the four blasts coming consecutively.

“I just left too many pitches over the middle,” Gibson surmised. “Most of the times, you’d say I’d like to have one or two pitches back, but those four [home run] pitches just weren’t good pitches.”

Like Gibson, slugger Alec Burleson still thinks the Cardinals can play their way out of their most recent funk and back into a playoff chase they are now on the fringe of.

“I’m not worried about who’s in the other dugout, but it’s a matter of trusting in one another and playing the brand of baseball we can play,” said Burleson, who drove in the Cards’ first run on Wednesday. “We haven’t gotten away from that, but some things haven’t gone our way, and as an offense, we’re scuffling. We’ve proven that we’re capable of coming out of something like this.

“I don’t want to say keep doing what we’re doing because it hasn’t been good. But we’re putting in the work. We just have to keep pressing forward.”