Cardinals' Series performance was forgettable

ST. LOUIS -- The sign at Busch Stadium pleaded: "Will the real Cardinals report and play?"

The answer in Game 4, just as in the first three games, was emphatic: No!

The team that led the major leagues with 105 victories and had the National League's best offense and second-best pitching staff, fell flat on its face in the World Series in a stunning sweep by the Boston Red Sox. The lineup was littered with historically bad performances at the plate, most notably by their trio of MVP candidates.

And, before Jason Marquis gutted out six innings in a 3-0 Game 4 loss on Wednesday night, St. Louis had gotten very little out of its rotation. He was the first starter to last long enough to qualify for a victory: The three who preceded him lasted a total of 11 2/3 innings and allowed 15 runs.

Cardinals pitchers allowed at least one run in the first inning of all four games. St. Louis was dominated so completely, it never even led once.

The Cardinals waited 17 years between World Series trips, only to go home with a dubious distinction: Only one team had more victories before getting swept, the 1954 Indians, who were 114-43 before losing to the New York Giants.

St. Louis went quietly. The Cardinals scored one run in the last two games at home, where they had been 6-0 in the postseason, and were a woeful 4-for-28 with runners in scoring position in the Series.

The life seemed drained out of the Cardinals after their most forgettable play of the Series, pitcher Jeff Suppan's freeze-up between third and home with one out in the third inning of Game 3. Instead of tying the score at 1 on a run that the Red Sox had been conceding, Suppan ran into a double play.

They never recovered.

Starting with that at-bat, the Cardinals reached base on only seven times in 54 plate appearances the remainder of the Series, with a homer, a double, three singles and two walks.

against a Red Sox staff that was considered far from dominant. They advanced only four runners into scoring position in Game 4, when Boston starter Derek Lowe retired 13 in a row at one point.

It seemed it was shaping up as a sluggers' series after the Red Sox's 11-9 victory in Game 1. After that, the Cardinals scored just three runs.

Cleanup hitter Scott Rolen, second in the NL with 124 RBIs, was 0-for-15 with one RBI. He finished the year in a 12-for-75 skid after coming back from a strained left calf in mid-September.

No. 5 hitter Jim Edmonds, who hit 42 homers and had a career-best 111 RBIs, was 1-for-15. Reggie Sanders was 0-for-9 with five strikeouts before getting benched in favor of John Mabry in Game 4. Mabry continued that trend, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Albert Pujols and Larry Walker had their moments, but never with any support from the rest of the offense. Walker was 4-for-5 in Game 1 and homered for the Cardinals' lone run in Game 3. Pujols had three of St. Louis' five hits in Game 2.

Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds were horrible in the clutch, going a combined 1-for-12. None of them got a chance for redemption in Game 4.