Cards' rally comes up short in rainy finale

ST. LOUIS -- If the Cardinals want to possess any hope of a postseason run, they’ll need to turn some of these series victories -- four out of seven since the All-Star break -- into sweeps. They’ve acknowledged their play into August has left little, if any, room for error over the season’s final two months.

Nor has it left much room for the existence of rain.

So call Sunday’s series finale loss to the Royals -- a 6-5 defeat at Busch Stadium -- another one of such missed opportunities. The Cardinals rallied back with a three-run eighth inning before Alex Reyes threw just six pitches in the top of the ninth. That’s when rain, thunder and lightning trailed in and evaporated any such momentum.

Reyes returned after a two-hour, 10-minute delay to surrender the game-winning hit to Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez. The Cardinals could not refind magic of their own in the bottom of the frame and were forced to stomach losing out on a sweep that would have boosted them back above .500.

“It’s too good of a team over here. I've seen it on the other side, I've seen the runs, I've seen these guys get hot before,” said Jon Lester, who allowed five runs over 5 1/3 innings. “I know it's there. It's just a matter of us going out and executing it.”

The day was primed to be a marquee victory: St. Louis’ first sweep since June 30, its third win of the season when trailing after seven innings (instead now 2-45) and one that would send the Cardinals into an off-day and further into a softer portion of the schedule with three straight victories after being swept by the Braves.

Then the rain had other plans, leaving clearer skies and three takeaways:

1) The Reyes decision
There was some chatter in the Busch Stadium press box if the three-batter minimum rule would follow Reyes into the resumption of the ninth inning. He faced just two batters before the pause -- a leadoff single and a fielder’s choice that allowed both batters to stand in scoring position because of a Paul Goldschmidt error -- and his injury history has given the Cardinals pause through this year.

Manager Mike Shildt said the three-batter question never needed to be answered, since the plan all along was to return Reyes to the mound, confident that he was able to stay loose in the tunnel and dugout for the duration of the delay.

"He kept his body moving, long delay, not many pitches into it,” Shildt said. “... Nobody had any issue with it, including Alex. He wanted to get back out and finish that inning."

It continued a fascinating conversation of this Cardinals season. They moved Reyes to the bullpen to allow him to delicately build up innings, having not thrown 100 frames since 2016, in large part due to injuries. They tabbed this year for 80-100 innings. Now, 111 games in, he sits at 50 2/3.

2) The roller coaster
Defense has followed the Cardinals through thick and thin this season. It let them down on Sunday.

A 90.4 mph rocket from Tyler O’Neill would have nabbed Whit Merrifield trying to tag up for home in the fifth; it instead short-hopped past Andrew Knizner. O’Neill was then tagged for an error in the sixth that allowed another run to score.

And a throw from Goldschmidt to second base just before the rain delay was primed to be a nifty double play; it instead found its way into center field, representing Goldschmidt’s first error on the year -- “Almost as good a chance in seeing Bigfoot,” Shildt said -- and allowed the winning run to score … over two hours later.

And it erased what was, for the most part, a sunny day at Busch Stadium.

“Probably cost us the game,” Goldschmidt said.

3) The outlook
The Cardinals entered August with every game but five against teams under .500 (and those other five are against teams they’re chasing in the standings). So far, they are 3-4.

They’ve acknowledged that now was the time to strike during this soft underbelly of the year should they have any hopes of pushing the Reds and Padres (ahead of them, among others, for the second NL Wild Card) and the NL Central-leading Brewers to the brink.

The results have not come in spades. A three-hour, 43-minute loss on Sunday -- one that elapsed just under six hours in real time -- merely slims the margins.

“Obviously, schedule is important. I think we have that in our favor,” Lester said. “A little bit of luck going forward. You get on a roll -- like today, we had a chance to come out of here with a sweep and I wasn't able to do that. I think that's kind of the building point.”