Cardinals can't capitalize on Montgomery's solid start

ST. LOUIS -- The start to the night was less than ideal for Jordan Montgomery with Tigers slugger Javier Báez touching him up for an early two-run homer, but the Cardinals' left-hander ultimately found his groove by retiring 11 of 13 hitters over a three-plus inning stretch.

Then, despite Montgomery sitting at just 89 pitches -- 60 of which had been strikes -- and surrendering just three hits in a five-inning stretch, he was curiously pulled after the 6th inning by manager Oliver Marmol.

Just like most every move made by the Cardinals during one of their worst stretches of baseball in a half-century, it went awry again.

Reliever Jordan Hicks walked the leadoff hitter, drilled a batter with an 0-2 pitch and then grooved another two-strike pitch in the middle of the plate and pinch-hitter Riley Greene laced a two-run, go-ahead double into right. There were plenty of histrionics the rest of the way, but the Montgomery decision proved to be the turning point in the Cardinals' 5-4 loss to the Tigers for their seventh straight defeat.

In the swap of Jordan for Jordan, why Hicks over Montgomery when the former had struggled most of the season and the latter was seemingly settling in Friday night at Busch Stadium?

“Of course, I want to go back out there,” said Montgomery, who got a no-decision and failed to notch a victory in a fifth straight outing. “I was at [89] pitches, but whatever, not my decision.”

As it turned out, the Cardinals’ frustration was only beginning. They left the bases loaded in the seventh when catcher Willson Contreras -- brought in to add his valuable bat in the middle of the lineup -- tapped the ball back to the pitcher.

Then, in the eighth inning, Lars Nootbaar drilled a ball into the right-center gap that would have scored Paul DeJong from first base, but the ball caromed into the seats for a ground-rule double, resulting in DeJong stopping at third. From there, Brendan Donovan worked a 10-pitch walk and fellow pinch-hitter Nolan Gorman worked the count full before striking out. As for that potential tying run at third, it never came around to score.

“That feels about right right now,” said Marmol of the unlucky aspect of Nootbaar’s double. “It feels about right.”

In the ninth, Paul Goldschmidt had a leadoff double, but Contreras and Nolan Arenado followed with strikeouts. The Cardinals' bench was irate about the first two strike calls on Arenado, and bench coach Joe McEwing and Marmol were ejected from the game. The game ended with Dylan Carlson foul-tipping a pitch, and the Cardinals argued that the ball wasn’t caught, but the play is not deemed reviewable by MLB rules.

It left the Cardinals 0-11 in series openers, the only MLB team without a victory in that scenario. That’s already a franchise record to begin a season and they are within three of the all-time NL/AL record set by the St. Louis Browns in 1897.

“I feel like we’re a talented group and if you keep them under three runs, you always feel like we should be able to score more than three,” Montgomery said. “Just another tough one tonight. We’ll get back out there tomorrow and give it another shot.”

The Cardinals might not have needed to rally late had Montgomery been allowed to go deeper into the game. Montgomery came into Friday having lost four straight decisions, but that was largely due to a lack of run support as the Cardinals had been shut out in three of his recent starts.

Montgomery, who owns five of the team’s seven quality starts, surrendered a double to Tigers catcher Jake Rogers in the fifth inning, but retired six of the next seven batters. Montgomery admitted to being surprised at his removal considering his increasing comfort level against the Tigers lineup.

“Oli knows that I want the ball, but that’s not my decision,” Montgomery said. “I’m not going to beg him. They know I’m a competitor and I’ll take every inning I can get. … It wasn’t about fatigue. We’ve got guys in the bullpen we trust, and it didn’t work out.”

Marmol sees Friday’s loss as a symptom of the Cardinals’ inability to put together a complete game during their losing streak.

“If you look at how things have gone, you get a good start, and something happens with a reliever or vice versa. Or the offense [fails] and stuff hasn’t lined up.”