ST. LOUIS -- For just the third time this century, the Cardinals have failed to make the postseason for two seasons running. With Friday’s 5-1 loss to the Guardians, the Cardinals were mathematically eliminated from National League playoff contention.

Last season, the Cardinals finished in last place in the NL Central, the first time that had happened since 1990. They’ll finish significantly better than that in 2024, but this is a franchise with greater expectations than finishing near .500 or eking ahead of the rival Cubs in the standings.

Such October droughts are rare for the NL’s premier franchise by World Series titles. Aside from this latest skid, only between 2016-18 and 2007-08 have the Cardinals failed to reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 1999.

“It stinks that these last few weeks haven’t gone how we wanted them to,” said Kyle Gibson. “But, I’m going to go out there whenever the next time is and I’m going to be prepared and treat it like it’s another big game. The standings are what they are, but I hope everybody goes out the next week-and-a-half and they don’t give away anything.”

It won’t take long for the club to identify the primary culprit for another Cardinal-free October. A lineup that was supposed to blend veteran consistency and youthful energy saw stalwarts such as Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado struggle like rarely before in their careers and young hitters such as Jordan Walker fall short of expectations. Those three big bats managed to go a combined 2-for-10 at the plate on Friday, another punchless evening of a season lacking pop.

As a result, the Cardinals didn’t muster enough scoring to back up what amounted to a mediocre rotation and a strong bullpen in 2024.

The Cardinals, who haven’t hit a home run since Wednesday, rank 23rd in the Majors with just 156 long balls. Cleveland was supposed to be the outlier among MLB teams, one that didn’t rely on home runs to score, but the Guardians have hit 22 more homers than St. Louis has this season.

“The consistency one through nine of the productive, quality at-bats just hasn’t been there. It’s what we’ve been missing,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “There’s no way of talking around it. It’s just what it is. Being able to consistently take at-bats and put pressure on the pitcher one through nine, we didn’t do a ton of that today.”

The Cardinals also suffer in comparison with Cleveland’s athleticism while running the bases. José Ramírez also stole his 40th base Friday night, making him one of three Cleveland starters to have eclipsed 30 steals this season. The Cardinals’ leader is Michael Siani with 19, followed by Masyn Winn and Goldschmidt with 11 each. Cleveland ranks fifth in MLB in stolen bases while the Cardinals are 20th.

Against Cleveland right-hander Ben Lively, the Cardinals managed just three extra-base hits, all doubles. One of them glanced off left fielder Angel Martínez’s glove and another was a Lars Nootbaar bloop that landed in no-man’s land near the left-field foul line. It took those bits of good fortune to give the Cardinals any scoring whatsoever.

Like so many Cardinals pitchers this season, Gibson had to work without much of a safety net. A walk to No. 9 hitter Daniel Schneemann cost him in the third inning after Martínez and Ramírez both singled to bring him around to score and a Thomas Saggese throwing error in the fourth helped lead to another Cleveland run. Arenado got a rare night off from playing the field, giving the rookie infielder his first crack at playing third base.

Cleveland muscled up for solo home runs to extend their lead to 4-1 by the sixth inning.

The remainder of this Cardinals season becomes an exercise in gathering information from which to build their team for 2025 and beyond. The club would like to get a good long look at Saggese. He handled third base fine on Friday. His error was the result of trying to make a heroic play on a slow roller hit by Bo Naylor that was going to be a hit either way. And Saggese rapped a double down the right-field line.

“He’s a good hitter. You watch him, even in spring training, and he just takes professional at-bats,” Marmol said. “I like what we’ve seen from him and it will continue to get better.”