St. Louis Cardinals hope changes wake up reeling team

The St. Louis Cardinals received a much-needed win last night, but earlier in the day they implemented a player and coaching shake-up in response to their recent funk.

The St. Louis Cardinals edged the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of 3-2 yesterday to snap a seven-game losing streak. At this point they’ll be glad to take any win, but a lone victory does little to change the Redbirds’ current position. The winless drought was the club’s longest in seven years, dropping them down to fourth place in the NL Central. The Cards are currently five games under .500 at 27-32.

The recent skid has been a disappointing development for a team that earlier seemed to be getting it together after a rough start to the season. The Cardinals began the year at 3-9 before going on a run to lift themselves to 21-15. On May 15, they held a 1.5-game lead at the top of their division. The resurgence was fleeting, however. Since then, St. Louis has dropped 17 of its last 23 contests to fall to its current state.

Eager to shake things up, the Cards made several personnel moves before yesterday’s game on both the player and coaching staff fronts. They designated veteran infielder Jhonny Peralta for assignment and activated Kolten Wong from the disabled list. The 35-year-old Peralta has struggled through limited playing time this year, slashing a paltry .204/.259/.204 in 58 plate appearances.

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On the coaching side of things, the team removed Chris Maloney as third base coach and reassigned him within the organization, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Maloney had been criticized for his questionable decisions to send runners. Quality control coach Mike Shildt will take over the role.

The Cardinals also announced that assistant hitting coach Bill Mueller will be replaced by Mark Budaska, who had previously been the organization’s hitting coach at Triple-A Memphis. Ron “Pop” Warner, a longtime fixture in the Cards’ minor league system, will also join the staff.

You could argue that a few coaching changes won’t have a direct impact on the team’s play on the field. You’d probably be right. But general manager John Mozeliak felt he needed to make some kind of response to send a message that the club’s recent performance was not acceptable. Per Goold:

"“You cannot blow the whole thing up,” general manager John Mozeliak said. “But we had to do something different. … I think the road trip definitely said we had to do something different. In our case, this was not working. Everybody is frustrated. This is not meeting our expectations.”"

Perhaps St. Louis is playing the right team at the right time. The Phillies own the majors’ worst record at 21-38. With a win in the series opener already under their belt, the Redbirds have to believe they can add another couple of victories over the weekend.

Despite their ugly 0-7 road trip, the Cards are fortunate that no one else has really run away with the NL Central yet. They’re still a manageable 4.5 games behind in the division. However, given the strength of other teams around the National League, the Wild Card is further out of reach at eight games back. St. Louis still has a chance to stake a claim in the Central, but they’ll need to turn things around quickly.

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After the Phillies series, the Cardinals remain at home for a four-game set against the surprising first-place Brewers. That will obviously be a big matchup with a chance to close the gap in the division. Heading into it with some momentum will be key, which makes the next two games all the more important to build on yesterday’s win.

If the Cards’ standing doesn’t improve significantly by midseason, manager Mike Matheny could be the next one out the door.

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