Adam Wainwright on Cardinals’ skid – ‘More urgency wouldn’t hurt’

The St. Louis Cardinals aren’t panicking over having the worst record in the National League, but Adam Wainwright offered a suggestion amid St. Louis’ latest swoon.

“More urgency wouldn’t hurt,” the veteran pitcher told reporters, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, after the Cardinals were swept over the weekend by the Pirates.

The Cardinals (25-35) enter Monday 7½ games behind the first-place Brewers (32-27) in the NL Central and have lost five of their last six contests, scoring just 14 runs over that stretch.

Wainwright, in his 19th season with the club, was asked if the underachieving Cardinals are concerned about being in last place 60 games into the season.

“I don’t think ‘concerned’ is the right word,” he said, according to the Post-Dispatch. “I think ‘pissed’ is the right word. I think everyone is pissed at a lot of different things. We come in here and we look around and we’re like, ‘What the heck?’ Some things can’t be explained. You’ve just got to go and perform.”

The Cardinals appeared headed in the right direction two weeks ago, when they reeled off 11 wins in 14 games after a 10-24 start. But they have gone 4-8 over a rough 12-game stretch punctuated by their weekend sweep in Pittsburgh, where they combined to leave 27 men on base over the three games.

“It’s the same thing all year — this series,” Wainwright said. “We’ve been one big moment away from winning all of these games.”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol that it was “tough to string anything together offensively” against the Pirates but balked at the idea that his team had regressed to their April form.

“Not even [expletive] close,” he told reporters. “No, not close. It doesn’t feel that way at all. In April, we handed over a lot of games in a lot of different ways. Pittsburgh beat us. That feels different than April.”

Right-hander Miles Mikolas, who recorded the loss Sunday after allowing two runs and 10 hits over five innings, acknowledged the Cardinals have “a lot of ground to make up.”

“For the people out there getting upset, it’s understandable, but I wouldn’t count us out,” Mikolas said. “This isn’t the start we wanted, but we have veterans and young guys starting to step up. It’s time to see who wants it — be a leader and get the job done.”

The Cardinals fittingly will turn to the 41-year-old Wainwright, who will start Monday’s series opener in Texas against the first-place Rangers. The three-time All-Star is 2-1 with a 6.15 ERA in five starts this season.

“We need to go on a run here where we win a lot of games and find ways to win games and not find ways to lose games,” Wainwright said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.