ST. LOUIS _ For an organization that prized continuity and rooted its recent success in more than a decade of leadership stability, the St. Louis Cardinals sent a sudden, jarring message by firing manager Mike Matheny late Saturday night.
The Cardinals announced the move shortly after a soggy, sloppy 8-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds dropped them to 47-46 with one game remaining before the All-Star break. Matheny's dismissal comes at the end of a turbulent week for the Cardinals that featured questions about his communication with players, a tense clubhouse, in-house criticisms about the team's energy level, and familiar losses that teetered from concerning to chronic.
It is the team's first in-season firing of a manager since 1995 and the first leadership change for Bill DeWitt Jr.'s ownership group during a season.
"These decisions are never easy, but we felt that a change in leadership was necessary as the team prepares to enter into the second half of the season," said John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, in a prepared statement.
Bench coach Mike Shildt will serve as interim manager.
The Cardinals posted a release on all the changes on Twitter first, after the clubhouse had cleared of media and less than 20 minutes after Matheny had last been seen in his office. The firing surprised the clubhouse, two players said after leaving the ballpark. Hitting coaches John Mabry and Bill Mueller were also fired Saturday night. A news conference is scheduled for Sunday morning to detail the reasons for Matheny's firing, whether there will be a search for a new manager, and the new order of the coaching staff. Mozeliak and DeWitt did not return messages late Saturday night.
Moments before his firing, Matheny had fielded questions about the Cardinals' sixth consecutive loss at Busch Stadium. Like the questions, the loss had recurring themes.
Rookie Jack Flaherty pitched five scoreless and efficient innings, but the second rain delay of the evening kept him from coming out for the sixth inning. The bullpen inherited a 2-0 lead from Flaherty _ and within two batters it had been halved. In order to get two innings from rookie reliever Jordan Hicks, Matheny made a double-switch that removed cleanup hitter Marcell Ozuna from the game. In the past, Matheny has explained how such moves are geared toward getting outs, not adding runs, and then securing a win. It was more telling than it was successful.
With few trusted arms in the bullpen, Matheny wanted to get the second inning from Hicks, not another reliever. Ozuna had gone zero-for-three in the game and nudged home one of the team's runs, but he hasn't been the force offensively to keep in the game. Tommy Pham entered Saturday's game with a higher slugging percentage and on-base percentage than Ozuna, and Pham was bumped down to No. 8 in the lineup "to get him right," Matheny explained.
It went wrong immediately on Hicks (3-2).
Six of the seven batters Hicks faced reached base. He hit the first batter, walked the second, and when the fourth hit a sharp grounder back at him for an infield single the game was tied. Eugenio Suarez's two-run single punctuated the four-run inning against Hicks. The rookie attempted to shoulder blame for the game saying he's "supposed to come in and be lock out." The Reds added four runs against the Cardinals' bullpen. It became one of the ugliest games of an ugly stretch of baseball that has forced the Cardinals to face some ugly truths about this year's team and its direction.
"There's really not much to say. It's just not good," said infielder Matt Carpenter, who started the game with his 19th leadoff homer, two shy of Lou Brock's club record. He spoke before Matheny's firing. "We're just not getting it done. Bottom line."
Catcher Yadier Molina was more succinct.
"Disappointing," he said. "We should do better."
At the podium for what would become his final post-game news conference, Matheny remained steadfast about his view of the team and that it still had "a good run" in it.
"Multiple," he corrected.
Matheny insisted that the personnel, the roster, the talent, and the work ethic were all kindling for an eventual firestorm. He did not agree with the premise that a team circling .500 after 93 games of a season had already shown the kind of team it is.
"No," he said. "That's opinion. It's not for us. In our eyes, look at the pieces and the pieces are there, for us to go on a good, strong run, and have the kind of season that gets turned and start running the direction we want to run. Pieces fall into place where we need them to go. Happens every season. We've got a long way to go. I don't care how many we've got done. We've got a lot left. Go on a couple of good runs, next thing you know, you're running people down."
The team Matheny described several times this weekend as the team he thinks the Cardinals could be are actually the team the Reds have become. After losing a ninth consecutive game to the Cardinals on June 9, the Reds have been resurgent. They've won 21 of their past 30 games. They've dragged the Cardinals, 13-19 in that same stretch, down closer to them than the Cardinals are to first place in the National League Central. A loss Sunday and the Reds would have only three fewer losses than the Cardinals.
A change at manager coincided with the Reds' surge. Former Cardinals' minor-league coordinator and longtime coach Jim Riggleman took over as interim manager on April 19.
In the team's release, the Cardinals thanked Matheny "for his service to the Cardinals over the past six and a half seasons."
Matheny, 47, had this year and two more years remaining on his contract extension, which he received late in 2016. That was the first year of two consecutive without a playoff berth, though it came after an unprecedented run for a first-time manager.
The former Cardinals' catcher inherited a World Series championship team when he was hired after Tony La Russa's retirement in 2011. Matheny, who had not managed at any level before being hired, steered the team back to the playoffs the next four years, and in 2013 won the National League pennant before losing the World Series to Boston. Matheny was the first manager in baseball history to reach the postseason in his first four seasons as manager.
His 591-474 record ranks fifth all-time for the club.
The last time the Cardinals fired a manager in the middle of a season was 1995 with future Hall of Famer Joe Torre. And that was the first time since 1980.
In Matheny, the Cardinals saw the continuation of past success and their established practices as well as a strong, well-spoken leader for a younger, rising team. The Cardinals' release said nothing of when or if a managerial search would begin. There are available candidates that have connections to the Cardinals that they value, including former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, current Class AAA manager Stubby Clapp, and San Diego Padres bench coach Mark McGwire. Shildt has also been groomed from scout and coach in the minor-league system to bench coach most recently as a possible manager candidate. Third-base coach Jose Oquendo interviewed for the Cardinals' opening at the same time as Matheny.
Girardi, who left the Yankees at the end of last season, and Mozeliak have a rapport, though it's not known if Girardi would like to return to managing.
Pitching coach Mike Maddux has been considered for manager openings with other clubs, though he then pivoted to remain a pitching coach.
The team Matheny leaves is a lot like the one that lost Saturday's game. It can count on solid starting pitching, washed away Saturday only by 2 hours, 43 minutes of rain delays. It's a team that struggles to score runs. It leaves the bullpen exposed and has yet to settle on solid roles for a handful of relievers. And it often has shoddy defense or baserunning. One of the last things Matheny said as manager was that it will be better.
"This is a better team than how we've been playing," he said before leaving the podium and, it turns out, leaving the job. "We know that. It will shine through at some point."
