STL Cardinals look lifeless against the Washington Nationals

Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals dominate Game 3 of the NLCS against the lifeless STL Cardinals, winning 8-1.

To paraphrase the classic Saturday Night Live sketch about Generalisimo Francisco Franco, the STL Cardinals are still dead.

They do have a slightly better chance than Franco of returning to life this season but based on the look of things Monday, only marginally better.

Again Monday in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals played lifelessly. This time it was Stephen Strasburg who flummoxed them, allowing just one unearned run over seven innings. The final score was 8-1.

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The Nats now lead the NLCS three games to none, having out-scored the Cardinals 13-2 and having out-hit them 28-11. The Cardinals collective batting average for the series sits at a desolate .121 with 34 strikeouts.

It’s as if that memorable 10-run first inning the Cardinals mounted to wrap up the fifth game of the division series battle with the Atlanta Braves exhausted them. Since that record outburst, the Cardinals have produced just five runs in nearly four full games. They have scored just twice in the LCS, and both were due to misplays by the Nats outfield. Neither run came across when the game outcome was in doubt.

The normal routine following games of this magnitude is to look for turning points, pivotal plays or key moments. Given the way the NLCS has gone thus far, Monday’s key moment occurred when the skies dawned clear enough to ensure that Game 3 wouldn’t be rained out.

Consider the performance of Cardinals three-hole hitter Paul Goldschmidt. In the first inning, Goldschmidt was called out on a breaking ball that caught the outside corner at the knees. In the fourth, he whiffed on a low changeup. In the sixth, he fanned on another changeup, this one in on his knees. In the ninth, facing reliever Fernando Rodney, he stared at a fat fastball for a fourth strikeout.

Goldschmidt was hardly alone. Nats pitchers struck out 16 Cardinals on the evening. Leadoff hitter Dexter Fowler went down swinging three times, including with two runners on base in the seventh

STL Cardinals manager Mike Shildt tried to jump-start his offense by inserting Jose Martinez in place of Matt Carpenter. In isolation, the move worked.  Martinez singled twice and scored the Cardinals’ only run when Nats left fielder Juan Soto threw wildly following Paul DeJong’s seventh-inning hit. By then, however, the Nats led 7-0.

As they had in previous victories, veterans Howie Kendrick and Ryan Zimmerman led the Washington offense. Kendrick doubled three times, scored twice and drove in three runs. Zimmerman twice delivered RBI hits.

Given the somnolent nature of the St. Louis offense, Washington wrapped this one up in the fourth inning, scoring four times off Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty.  It was a case of small ball blossoming into large ball. Following Victor Robles’ leadoff single, Strasburg sacrificed him to second. With two out, Adam Eaton slipped a three-hopper through the middle of the infield for a run-producing single.

That lone run became two when Marcel Ozuna failed to catch Anthony Rendon’s sinking liner in left field, allowing Eaton to score. Then after Flaherty walked Juan Soto, two runs became four when Kendrick delivered a double in the gap, pushing Rendon and Soto across.

Ozuna’s flailing effort on Rendon’s sinking fly was only his second-worst moment of the night. He opened the second with a solid double, then allowed himself to stray too far off the base on a one-hopper back to Strasburg. The Nats pitcher followed the plan that had been drilled into him since Legion ball; he ran straight at Ozuna, froze him in the basepath and tagged him out. End of threat.

So far, Martinez is four-for-six in the NLCS, and Paul DeJong is three-for-nine. The other six Cardinal regulars — Dexter Fowler, Kolten Wong, Goldschmidt, Ozuna, Yadier Molina, and Tommy Edman — are a collective four-for 64 against Nationals pitching.

The STL Cardinals last hope hangs with pitcher Dakota Hudson and whatever offense they can muster Tuesday afternoon. Patrick Corbin starts for Washington.