CHICAGO _ Inside the losing clubhouse, a cellphone began to ring.
It pierced the silence, this obnoxious sound from one of the lockers, repeating over ... and over ... and over. But nobody moved. Nobody tried to dig up the phone. Its owner must've been in the shower. It just kept ringing.
Here at Wrigley, the Cardinals never answered the call.
"We got beat," Lance Lynn said. "Plain and simple. So we've got to go on to the next series and win. ... We've got to win the next one ... the next one ... the next one."
What a soul-crushing weekend for Cards fans.
The Cardinals arrived with a chance to win three games and tie the Cubs for first place.
The Cardinals left without winning one of the games.
This weekend at Wrigley encapsulated the ordinary St. Louis Cardinals: a fine team, sure, but one that lacks the bats and bullpen and defense to win tight games.
In other words: a third-place team.
And as for the defense, not just defense in regard to errors or non-errors. It's more nuanced than that. And there were numerous maddening moments all weekend that didn't show up in a box score _ but sure as heck affected one.
Man. This team. The Cards came to town winners of 11 of 14.
What was the difference between those series and this one?
"Big hits," manager Mike Matheny said after Sunday's 4-3 loss. "We got big hits in the last series. We had pretty good starting pitching in this series, the same in the last. We got in those situations where we could really turn the momentum. I'm not saying it's easy to do. It's hard to come by those. Some teams never get them. I know our guys want that opportunity to have that big hit. And it was happening when we were at home, and they're hard to come by right now."
Yadier Molina, the thumping heart of this Cards club, had a rough afternoon, grounding into two double plays.
Paul DeJong and cleanup hitter Jose Martinez faltered with two on and one out.
It happened all weekend. The Cubs seized the days and the opportunities. The Cardinals? They watched the days go by like a Jose Quintana four-seamer. They let the opportunities slip away like a bunted ball into a pitcher's glove.
I will say, no Cub has created more opportunities to seize than Anthony Rizzo, the Leaning Tower of Wrigleyville.
I'll preface it by saying he honestly seems like an awesome guy. All-Star. Beat cancer. Endured some bad Cubs years before being a part of the historic turnaround. Does sincere, powerful charity work. He even quoted "Anchorman" from the dugout during Game 7 of the World Series.
But good golly, this guy leans into pitches like it's backyard Wiffleball. It could be a dance move. And sure enough, the towering lefty leaned in just enough, allowing a Tyler Lyons pitch to glance off the sleeve of his jersey. It hit him in the arm but didn't even hit him in the arm. And Rizzo, the great tactician, got on base _ and ended up scoring the go-ahead run.
"The ball wasn't that far in, but it's a ball he's been hit on a lot this year," Matheny said.
It was just one of numerous infuriating moments in Sunday's infuriatingly long game. A nine-inning game with just seven runs went three hours and 44 minutes long. It was as if the baseball gods were trying to punish the Cardinals fans _ not only will you lose, but you've also got to sit there and watch it for like half your day.
The Cards are now six back.
On to Cincinnati.
"The best way to move on from that is _ you just can't let three games dictate the end of your season, because we have more baseball to play," the eternally optimistic Adam Wainwright said. "We made it very hard on ourselves. But we have more ball to play, and we play the teams we need to play.
"We play against the Brewers for three (in St. Louis to end the season), and before that, four against the Chicago Cubs. That's going to be a crazy week. A crazy week. Honestly, anything could happen. The Cubs could leave here and lose every game (before arriving in St. Louis). We could win every game. Who knows. The Indians won 22 games in a row. We could go on a little run here, we can play the teams we need to play, we have the guys capable to win, we just have to go out and win. That was a great game we played today, we just didn't win."
That's the thing. The Cards played great in some facets.
It's not like they're the Chicago White Sox.
But they're not the Chicago Cubs, either.
