The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Sloppy St. Louis slumping early on
Cardinals off to worst start in nearly 30 years
NEW YORK >> Yadier Molina reached for a ball in the dirt the other day at Yankee Stadium, the sort of pitch he usually smothers with ease using his chest protector and a square set of shoulders.
This time, though, he tried to make a backhand stab with his mitt as the ball skipped by.
Poor technique, to be frank, from an eight-time Gold Glove winner widely considered one of the greatest defensive catchers in baseball history. Molina knew it, too, and slammed his mask to the ground as he chased toward the backstop.
It’s just two weeks into the season, but something seems off about the St. Louis Cardinals.
Molina is only one exam- ple. Long known for winning The Cardinal Way, St. Louis entered Monday with the worst record (3-9) in the National League and its poorest start since 1988 courtesy of shoddy play all over the diamond.
“I think it’s magnified when it happens this early,” manager Mike Matheny said. “Rightfully so.”
For an organization that takes immense pride in attention to detail and executing
properly, all the ugly miscues have been startling.
St. Louis had committed 10 errors, plunked seven batters and thrown five wild pitches through Sunday. Not to mention the 44 walks issued by a pitching staff sporting an NL-high 4.98 ERA.
The 34-year-old Molina, recently signed to a $60 million contract covering 2018-20, has permitted a passed ball in each of the past two games.
And the bullpen thus far? Yikes.
“The answer is work right now,” Matheny said. “We’ve got to work hard but work smart, making sure that we’re attacking the little things that we’re seeing that are keeping us from the results that we’re looking for.”
The hitters have hardly been immune.
The Cardinals were batting .212 with just 42 total runs, next-to-last in both categories among NL teams. Their slugging percentage of .332 was by far the lowest in the league.
“We all know that we’re going to bounce out of this funk sooner than later,” said Matt Adams, batting .174. “But it’s believing in ourselves and believing in this team. We know that we’re a good team.”
Even in mid- Apri l with 150 games to go, it’s strange to see St. Louis at the bottom of the standings. After all, this is a club that made 12 playoff appearances in 16 sea- sons from 2000-15 — five straight before falling one game short last year at 8676.
But this season, a walkoff win on opening night against the World Series champion Chicago Cubs has been about the only major highlight.
Swept this past weekend by the New York Yankees, the Cardinals hoped to find their footing back home. They took an overnight flight to St. Louis to begin a three-game series Monday evening against Pittsburgh. finished in the top four.
Kenya hadwon either the men’s or women’s race every year since 1991 before being shut out in 2014 and again last year. In fact, Kenya had taken both titles six times since 2000, so dominating the top 10 that Boylston Street began to look like a Great Rift Valley training run.
But Ethiopia has surpassed its East African neighbors on Patriots’ Day the past four years, earning its first sweep in 2016. In December, Kenyan Rita Jeptoo was stripped of her title for failing a drug test and it was handed instead to Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba.
The American drought reached almost three decades from the time Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach won in 1985 until Meb Keflezighi randownBoylston Street to raucous chants of “U-S-A!” in 2014, the year after the finish line bombings killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.
Keflezighi, 41, finished 13th this year in what he said will be his last competitive run in Boston. He plans to run the New York Marathon, which he won in 2009, one last time in the fall before retiring.
The warm temperatures that hit 79 degrees at the 20-kilometer mark in Natick slowed the runners, but the strong tailwind was a boost — especially in the wheelchair races.
Marcel Hug won Boston for the third time, outpushing 10-time champion Ernst Van Dyk down Boylston Street and finishing in 1:18:04 to beat the course record and world best by 21 seconds. Fellow Swiss Manuela Schar shattered the women’s mark by more than five minutes, winning in 1:28:17.
The winners’ times on the point-to-point Boston course are considered a world best and not a world record because of the possibility of a supportive tailwind like the one on Mon-