Thursday night’s game in St. Louis very well could be the point of no return for the St. Louis Cardinals as they fell to the Chicago Cubs in game three of three game series. With both Houston and Philadelphia winning while Milwaukee lost, a shaking up of the Wild Card standings was inevitable. St. Louis remained 4.5 games back of the Brewers, while the Astros passed them up in the standings, moving to 3 games back with the Phillies. Tony LaRussa’s ball club would have it hard enough to be chasing two teams, now adding a third team to the mix makes it that much more difficult for the Cardinals to find a way into the playoffs.

A tight ballgame was being had in St. Louis, with pitching that was very solid for the first 4 innings of the matchup. Todd Wellemeyer and Rich Harden both performing well with the rain falling in St. Louis. Unofrtunately, Wellemeyer would be on the bad end of an error from sure-handed firstbasemen, Albert Pujols. Uncharacteristically of Pujols, everyone in the ballpark was in disbelief as the error allowed two Cub runners to cross home plate later in the inning. Two runs were only given up by Wellemeyer, both unearned. St. Louis got themselves on the board in the bottom of the 6th-inning when Albert (Pujols) dobuled to left that scored Aaron Miles. Pujols’ RBI double gave him 100 RBI’s on the season and puts him in company with Al Simmons and Ted Williams as the only players in history to begin his career with eight straight 100-RBI season. Felipe Lopez followed Ryan Ludwicks groundout with a sharp single to center, scoring Pujols easily. The 6th-inning would be the only inning the Cardinals would manage to score in, as they were shut down the rest of the way, but not without threatening, though.

In the bottom of the 8th-inning, Aaron Miles lead off the inning with a single, bring up the always dangerous Alert Pujols, yet again. Carlos Marmol, who was pitching for the Cubs made an attempted pickoff move to first, but didn’t step off the rubber before faking a throw. Thus is a balk in baseball, which would allow each runner to move up one base. Homeplate umpire, Mike Reilly did not call the balk, which very well could have cost the Cardinals the game. Sadly, I was able to catch the balk instantaneously, while these Major League umpires couldn’t pick it up. Any of the three other umpires could have stepped forward, but no call was made by any of them. As an umpire I know the stress that is put on you, as I umpire youth league baseball from ages 12-18. I hate to blame an umpire for a loss because I’m simply not the person that tries to find excuses for a bad outcome, but this call could have been a huge swing for the Cardinals at that point in the game.

With the Cardinals 4.5 games back in the Wild Card now, the door seems to be closing more rapidly as the Astros continue to make yet another late-season run for a playoff bid. Philadelphia doesn’t look to be going anywhere either with MVP candidate Ryan Howard leading the way for the Phils. Although, the Brewers seem to be fading for the second straight season, that will not be enough, as the Cardinals look to chase Houston and Philadelphia as well. LaRussa has done a great job with keeping this team afloat all season long, let’s just hope the recent injuries won’t be the demise of the St. Louis Cardinals for the 2008 season.