Cards Are Back at Full Strength

ST. LOUIS — Reinforcements are arriving almost daily for the St. Louis Cardinals. With almost zero effect.

Ray Lankford returned to the lineup from a hamstring injury Friday, Brian Jordan was back from a bulging disk Sunday and Tom Pagnozzi, recovered from a long-term hip injury, should be behind the plate Tuesday. Slugger Mark McGwire arrived at the trading deadline.

With 45 games to go, the Cardinals finally have their full everyday lineup, and then some. But they’re a season-low 11 games below .500, 9 1/2 games behind the Houston Astros in the NL Central, and running out of time.

Sunday’s 8-0 loss to Philadelphia made it nine losses in 11 games for the defending division champs. During that stretch, they dropped five of seven to the Phillies--who have baseball’s worst record.

“Every day, I guess we can keep saying we’re poised for the greatest comeback in baseball history,” third baseman Gary Gaetti said. “Yet it’s only human to feel like the burden of having to climb that big hill is getting real heavy.”

Manager Tony La Russa hardly sounds optimistic.

“We’ve got to get hot, and that’s something we haven’t done,” La Russa said. “Mathematically, we’re alive.”

Barely.

Entering Monday’s game at New York, the Astros had 44 games remaining. If they play .500 ball the rest of the way, the Cardinals would have to go 32-13 to catch them, and that’s a remarkable pace for a team that has been at the .500 mark only once all year.

One shocking statistic tells most of the story: The Cardinals have scored two or fewer runs in 48 of their 117 games. Efforts of one of the best rotations in the major leagues have largely been wasted.

The Cardinals have really missed Jordan, who batted cleanup last year and led the major leagues with a .422 average with runners in scoring position. This year he has been limited to 38 games and has nine RBIs.

Acquiring the most feared slugger in the game hasn’t helped one bit so far, because McGwire arrived in the worst slump of his career.

He is three for 34 with 12 strikeouts and one RBI. His .088 average is so embarrassing that La Russa requested McGwire’s impressive season stats, 34 home runs and 82 RBIs, be shown on the scoreboard during his at-bats.