Whatever magic helped the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series last year is long gone. In a World Series rematch on Friday the Cards lost 14-4 to the Detroit Tigers. The Cardinals best starter this year, Braden Looper, went just four innings, gave up nine hits and seven runs. With this defeat the Cardinals fall to 16-23. The Cardinals used six pitchers tonight, none, except Tyler Johnson, gave up less than a hit. Both Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez went deep for the Tigers, and starting pitcher, former North Carolina standout, Andrew Miller went six innings giving up four hits and two strikeouts.

Despite this being just one game in the series this performance from the Cardinals represents the type of year they’ve been having. To say that they’ve had a lack of pitching would be an understatement. Despite bringing in such talent as Kip Wells (23 losses within last three years) they have not been able to put together a formidable rotation. Kip Wells’ struggle continues this year, going 1-8 with a 6.75 ERA, and Anthonys Reyes going 0-6 with a 5.08 ERA. They have had to use former bullpen cog Brad Thompson for the fifth spot in the rotation. Adam Wainwright has not played to his potential this year, with a 6.34 ERA. So far their best starter is Braden Looper, who prior to the 2007 season had not started in an MLB game. No offense could carry a team to a winning record with that kind of rotation. Letting Jeff Suppan go in the off-season was very unfortunate on the Cardinals part, and letting Jeff Weaver go was very unfortunate on Jeff Weaver’s part (0-6 record with a 14.32 ERA prior to going on the DL for right shoulder tendinitis-yikes).

Of course however this is a defending World Series champion team. They can and will not be expected to play this way throughout the year. They were never at a point last year when they were in the overwhelming majority to win a championship (Just 83 victories last year). This team is the underdog. But the underdogs must first qualify for the Playoffs to make an impact in the post-season. The Milwaukee Brewers (First place in the NL Central division, 8.5 games ahead of the Cardinals) are having a turnaround season with young talent. The Cardinals need for a pitcher to make an impact. The rotation and bullpen combination simply will not cut it in such a competitive division. Whether the GM needs to make moves or not, a change is in order. Sure the Cardinals can come from behind, but it won’t just happen naturally. Perhaps there will need to be some new faces in the Red Bird’s pitching staff to bring another championship to St. Louis.