The Quiet of No Baseball

How fitting was it that Rick Ankiel was the last out--and a strikeout at that.  Rick's promise, just like that exhilarating promise of August, never quite came to fruition.  All the signs of trouble were there, and excuses can be made, but in the end, like Ankiel's at-bat, it turned into a lot of nothing.

On the face of it, this offense is a beast.  That seemed to be the consensus of the national pundits, who installed St. Louis as one of the favorites for the World Series.  In reality, though, it's an engine that sputters, that starts and stops when facing good (and sometimes not so good) pitching.  I don't think many in Cardinal Nation were surprised when the Redbirds only scored six runs in three games.  For once, six is not a serious number, but a telling one.

And yet, it almost was enough.  If Chris Carpenter was Chris Carpenter, if Matt Holliday catches the ball or Ryan Franklin shuts the door, the Cards could have been up 2-0 before tonight, even with just five runs.

When the story of 2009 is told, it'll be the pitching that is remembered.  Sure, Albert Pujols kept his perfect career going and may win another MVP, but it was tough to watch him go the last calendar month without a home run.  Holliday provided a spark, Colby Rasmus established himself as a legitimate major leaguer (even if he slumped in the second half), and Ryan Ludwick showed he wasn't really a fluke.  There were offensive highlights, to be sure, but that wasn't what got the Cardinals to October.

It was seeing pitchers throwing incredible games--and then seeing the next starter top them.  It was about not one but two Cy Young candidates going back to back.  It was about having a 15 game winner with a mid-3.00 ERA be an afterthought.

I think that is what makes this sweep so tough to swallow.  If you lose because the offense doesn't show, it was expected.  To lose, at least in part, because Carpenter and Joel Pineiro didn't get it done and because Franklin continued his post-extension collapse, that just wasn't what people foresaw.

So the Cardinals pack up for the winter.  So many questions for this off-season, players to be kept or replacements to be found, perhaps new leadership to be put in place.  There will be plenty at this blog, as the United Cardinal Bloggers roundtables will be coming, a review of the past season to be written, questions raised and solutions proposed.

For now, though, there is just the quiet of no baseball, of a season cut prematurely short.  A sound that never is easy to hear and one that can last for weeks to come.