Cardinals continue to slip, losing to Washington 4-2

The Cardinals scored only 2 runs on the afternoon. 3B Pedro Feliz was able to hit a HR in the 9th inning, inspiring a comeback effort that got Yadier Molina on base, and brought Colby Rasmus to the plate for his first at-bat since his injury; Rasmus represented the tying run, but he failed to take advantage, striking out for the third out.

Matt Holliday, Molina, and Feliz, all had multiple hits. Outfielder Jon Jay had an RBI, and Feliz got the only other RBI for the Cardinals, from his HR in the 9th.  

Starting Pitcher Adam Wainwright failed to get his 18th win of the season. He gave up two runs in both the 2nd, and 3rd innings. He pitched for 5 innings, giving up 6 hits, and 4 runs (all earned) including a HR. He also had 7 SO on the day, and his ERA remains respectable at 2.30.

The 9th inning drama should fire up the team. The key word there being "should", I think it will take a lot more than that to get this team going. I am referring to Washington Nationals' base-runners- last night, Nyger Morgan violently "bulldozed" into Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson. And today, another base-runner did the same to SS Brendan Ryan. This caused speculation that a 9th inning wild pitch, by Nationals pitcher Drew Storen to Matt Holliday, nearly hitting Holliday, might have been intentional. This cause manager Tony LaRussa to get into a heated argument with the umpires. But unfortunately, just like the Brandon Phillips incident, nothing seems to effectively inspire this team.