Cardinals latest embarrassing loss has John Mozeliak's fingerprints all over it

It finally looked like the St. Louis Cardinals were turning their season around. They had gotten off to a rough start but were victors in four of their last five games entering Sunday's game including the first two matchups of this weekend's series against the New York Mets.

The Cardinals got a strong start out of Lance Lynn on Sunday, but their offense continued to scuffle, mustering just one run in eight innings against Jose Quintana.

Despite that, the game was tied at one and headed to extra innings. Extra innings are where this game took a turn for the worst for the Cardinals and saw John Mozeliak's fingerprints all over it.

John Mozeliak is to blame for latest embarrassing Cardinals loss

The bullpen has been a major strength for the Cardinals so far this season, and Mozeliak deserves a ton of credit for that. The late-game dominance of Andrew Kittredge, JoJo Romero, and Ryan Helsley cannot be overlooked. However, Mozeliak's bullpen lacks depth. That came back to bite the Cardinals on Sunday.

With Kittredge, Romero, and Helsley all pitching in the first two games of this series, they were unavailable for Sunday's game. That makes sense, but the options that Oli Marmol had at his disposal were underwhelming at best. Ryan Fernandez and Giovanny Gallegos ate 2.2 innings out of the bullpen, but there was only one more arm Marmol could trust. That arm being Matthew Liberatore.

Liberatore has pitched well out of the bullpen this season but hadn't gone more than two innings in an outing before Sunday. Marmol was intent on using him until the game ended, whether the Cardinals won or lost. That ended up backfiring.

The Cardinals took the lead in the 11th inning, but abysmal base running from Willson Contreras eliminated any chance St. Louis had at getting more than a one-run lead. Liberatore was sent out to pitch the bottom of the 11th despite already pitching 2.1 innings, and it's safe to say it did not work.

The Mets got a clutch RBI single from former Cardinal Harrison Bader to tie it and then got a walk-off two-run home run from Mark Vientos to end it. These are both right-handed hitters who are significantly better against left-handed pitching. Despite having a right-hander Nick Robertson sitting in the bullpen, Marmol inexplicably stuck with Liberatore who was pitching well but wasn't put in the best position to succeed. Neither Robertson nor John King were even warming up in the bullpen by the time this game ended.

If Robertson is unavailable to be used in that spot against the righties while Liberatore was likely gassed, why is he on the team? That's on Mozeliak for the lack of depth and on Marmol for refusing to use what he's got.

Yes, Keynan Middleton being out undoubtedly impacts things, but this game shows one glaring weakness on this Cardinals team. Mozeliak did not do enough for the bullpen and it showed today. Mozeliak made the wrong managerial hire and made the wrong decision to stick with said manager and it showed today. Mozeliak's fingerprints were all over this game, and not in the way Cardinals fans would've hoped.