St. Louis Cardinals, Ryan Hillsley (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The St. Louis Cardinals were unceremoniously eliminated from the playoffs after the Philadelphia Phillies swept through.
It’s been a magical season with a lot of storybook potential. But Cardinals fans didn’t enjoy the happy short story they had hoped to see.
Instead, the team got into a terrible predicament, and he was familiar with this team. They couldn’t run. Not even to save their season.
The Cardinals lost 6-3 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday.
This was not how anyone wanted to see the end of the legendary careers of Albert Pujols or Yadier Molina. After historic efforts in their final seasons, fans were hoping to see the two people who spent decades in Major League Baseball finish things off in championship fashion. While the two got hits in their last match, that was the case. The team couldn’t put together enough attacking to get some running to extend their season.
The team played so many games over the season that they couldn’t score a run, but there were also matches where they scored a lot of kicks that could have been embarrassing for the other team. Since September, the Cardinals have found themselves struggling more at the plate. Hopefully this is something the team takes up in the off-season.
For now, let’s consider the NL Wild Card series with the Phillies and who can blame for the epic loss.
Ryan Hillsley, the closest Cardinal, faces some of the blame
Before the season ended, Cardinals closest Ryan Helsley jammed a finger on his hand, causing him to leave the game with one exit in the team’s penultimate game of the season. The Cardinals went on to win that game 8-7.
Helsley did not appear in the last game of the season to prepare for the playoffs.
In Friday’s noon game, the Cardinal secured a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning thanks to Juan Ypez at home. Helseli enters the match in the eighth inning. He advised the show crew that he would be fine and healthy on the court.
Helsley was about to hit Brandon Marsh, and Kyle Schwarber knocked out Nolan Arenado to finish match eight. He seemed sharp to get the outs. They couldn’t get a lock in the Cardinals half of the eighth inning, with Tommy Adman and Lars Knotbar out. Pujols are built on the first plinth.
Technical manager Ole Marmol Helseli returned to the match in the ninth game. The decision seemed smart when Rhys Hoskins pulled out. And then JT Realmuto rolled one out to the left. They visited the hill to make sure the jug was ok. Helsley then walked with Bryce Harper. Throwing coach Mike Maddow and coaching staff visited Helsley on the hill to make sure the jammed finger did not disturb the normally effective flamethrower. Nick Castellanos walked to load bases. And then, Helsley hit Alec Boehm with a pitch to score for Realmuto.
Helsley was quickly removed from the game. André Balante was brought in to replace the sick jug. Although everything was fine, he later learned that Helsley had lost sensation in his hand. The saying goes that honesty is the best policy, and this is not practiced in this case when it matters.
The match opened wide against the Phillies, who scored a win that shocked fully-sold out fans and the Cardinals fan base expecting more.
Helseli has gone down very well along the stretch. At an exit speed of over 101mph, it was fun to watch. Hopefully he’ll take the vacation to fully heal his hand before ramping up for next season.
Hopefully, he’ll practice the art of honesty, too.
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