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Home sweet… road?

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There’s the ever classic phrase “home sweet home”.

Well, for the St. Louis Cardinals, their “home” has been every stadium but home.

They’ve marched into Atlanta, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, among other places, and have dominated their opponents. But when their opponents come to Busch Stadium, things become an entirely different story. After blowing a 5-1 lead to lose 7-5 on Wednesday night, the Cardinals dropped to 18-26 on the road. Also, it knocked them out of second place in the division.

To make matters worse, the Cubs are 5-9 in their last 14 games, yet the Cardinals have been unable to take advantage (they’re 5-8 in that span). The Cardinals are 7-2 at home against the two worst teams in their division and 11-24 against anybody else that’s not named the Brewers or Reds.

Part of it is the poor game mechanics on basic plays. Take Tuesday night for instance. Former Cardinal catcher Eric Fryer was caught in a rundown between home and third base. Yet, it took FIVE Cardinals just for him to get tagged out.

“We got an out and that was important, because that run could have been big, but yeah, definitely, if you ask anybody, the less throws you make, the better it is,” catcher Brayan Pena said. Because of the extended rundown, the other two runners advanced to second and third. In the end, Pittsburgh won the game 5-2. As for Wednesday’s loss, Jaime Garcia actually had a successful outing. But the bullpen had entered the game, blowing away the lead… along with the game, leaving the hometown crowd disappointed once again.

With both the trade deadline and the All-Star break inching closer, the Cardinals’ front office will surely look at all available options to help the team out.

The season is far from over, but there is not much time to waste.

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