Going into Tuesday night’s fourth game of the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals never had been ahead. And they finished that way by losing a game they quickly fell behind 7-0, making them one of only seven teams in baseball history never to have led at any time in a best-of-seven series. That list includes the 2004 Cardinals. That team twice was tied with the Red Sox in the first game of that year’s World Series but never led as they were swept.
The Cardinals had at least three defensive plays they didn’t make and their excellent young starting pitching tandem of Jack Flaherty, who turned 24 on Tuesday, and 25-year-old Dakota Hudson, was lacking here.