Cardinals ‘pissed’ after Pirates sweep sets new low

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright says the team is “pissed,” not concerned, after they got swept by the rival Pittsburgh Pirates.

The St. Louis Cardinals were expected to be one of the top teams in the National League entering the 2023 season. They had the star power, a new supposed long-term catching option in Willson Contreras, and called up their top prospect in Jordan Walker. Instead, they sit near the bottom of not just the NL Central, but the entire league.

St. Louis entered this weekend looking to pick up some wins in a pivotal series against the rival Pittsburgh Pirates. They had not won a series since May 21 when they took three out of four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They not only lost the series to the Pirates but they got swept after their 2-1 loss on Sunday.

After the game, starting pitcher Adam Wainwright said, via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals were not panicking when asked about how the team feels about being in last place. When offered the word concerned as an option, Wainwright said “pissed” would be a better word.

Adam Wainwright says the Cardinals are more ‘pissed’ than concerned about being in last place

“I don’t think ‘concerned’ is the right word,” said Wainwright, h/t the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I think ‘pissed’ is the right word. I think everyone is pissed at a lot of different things. We come in here and we look around and we’re like, ‘What the heck?’ Some things can’t be explained. You’ve just got to go and perform.”

During Sunday’s game, the Cardinals couldn’t muster more than one run, which arrived on a solo home run by Adam Knizer. Other than that, the Cardinals were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Starting pitcher Miles Mikolas gave up a two-run single to Ji Hwan Bae in the first inning and gave up 10 hits in total in five full innings.

In this latest one-run game, the Cardinals are now 6-13 on the year in said games.

St. Louis pitching has given up the third-highest batting average to the opposition at .270. Only the pitching staffs of the Oakland Athletics (.280) and Colorado Rockies (.273) have given up higher batting averages.

The Cardinals may have gotten swept, but they are still 7.5 games back for first place in the NL Central, which is wide open, and there is still plenty of season left for them to turn things around. But, they have the worst winning percentage in the entire NL with .417, lower than the Washington Nationals’ .424.

St. Louis’ tough test will continue, as they face a Texas Rangers team that has won eight of their last 10 games and scored over 10 runs in a game 16 times this season, which is tied with the most in the last 100 years, per ESPN Stats and Info.