Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220117
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
It must be poor pitching, bad hitting, mental errors or injuries causing 10 losses in 13 games. After all, Whitey Herzog is the manager.
Herzog guided St. Louis to three National League pennants in the 1980s and a World Series championship in 1982. He ranks 25th on the all-time managerial victory list and has more wins than any Cardinals manager except Red Schoendienst, who had 1,028.
In Herzog's first year as a major-league manager in 1973, his team at Texas was 47-91. Whitey understands winning and losing; he's just not quite sure what's going on this year.
The Cardinals are last in the NL East at 27-39, next to last in runs scored, and 10th in earned-run average. To make matters worse, St. Louis has blown 10 save opportunities and last week lost three straight ninth-inning leads.
St. Louis misses reliever Todd Worrell, probably out for the season after elbow surgery. It's not even certain Worrell will ever pitch again.
"I don't think there have been too many weeks in the history of baseball where any manager has suffered like that," Herzog said. "When you have three games in a row like we had. . . . We had Lee Smith on the mound with a two-run lead over Pittsburgh in the eighth inning. They got a run and then he hurt his arm. And the next two games we didn't have him."
Last Friday, left-hander Joe Magrane (3-9) took a 3-1 lead into the ninth against Montreal, but the Expos scored six runs before making an out. Magrane was 18-9 last season with a 2.91 ERA.
"He's been consistently inconsistent," Herzog said. The Cardinals are puzzling. Vince Coleman, Willie McGee and Pedro Guerrero are having solid seasons, but St. Louis isn't scoring.
"I don't really have any excuses for what we've done," Herzog said. "We're healthy. We're just not scoring."
Herzog has been through enough long summers to know things can change in a hurry. San Francisco trailed Cincinnati by 14 games on June 1 and the New York Mets were 9 1/2 games behind Pittsburgh on June 7. Both teams are back in the race.
Herzog said he isn't sure, but part of the Cardinals' problem might be the uncertain future of the club.
"We have so many players in their option year we really don't know who is going to be here next year," he said.
McGee, Coleman, Terry Pendleton, Lee Smith, John Tudor and Ken Dayley are among the key Cards eligible to file for free agency after the season.
"We may have a lot of new players next year," Herzog said. "We may have them before the year is over."
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB