The St. Louis Cardinals, who have lost 14 of 16, were eliminated from postseason contention on Friday night when rookie J.R. Towles' two-run double lead the Houston Astros to a 6-3 victory.
"It was academic," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "The thing that's more irritating is just the current stretch of having a tough time winning a game.
"We're right there, we just can't punch through. An at-bat here, a pitch there, it's really been tough."
Towles, who set a franchise record on Thursday with eight RBIs, also made a key defensive play behind the plate for the Astros, who are 7-12 in September but have won three in a row.
The Cardinals (71-82) are assured of their first losing season since 1999. Entering this season, they were the lone NL team without a losing record in this decade.
That was no consolation to the manager.
"To have that run that many years, I don't feel better because this is the first losing year," La Russa said. "I feel worse that this is a losing year."
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The Cardinals didn't go quietly.
They loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth against rookie Stephen Randolph. Brad Lidge relieved and faced pinch-hitter Albert Pujols, who hit a memorable game-winning home run off him in the 2005 NLCS. Lidge walked him on four pitches, but then got Yadier Molina on a groundout for his 16th save in 22 chances.
Pujols has missed three starts with a strained left calf muscle.
"We had a really good opportunity in the last inning with Kirk Gibson coming out from the tunnel," teammate Scott Spiezio said. "It was pretty cool, but they walked him. We gave it our best shot."
Lidge said the game plan was to get ahead of Pujols with sliders.
"Of course I'm not trying to walk him, I really am trying to throw a strike," Lidge said. "At the same time you've got to be smart when you fall behind to a guy like that in a situation like that."
Lance Berkman hit a two-run homer in a three-run first for Houston and Brandon Backe won his second straight start.
The Cardinals were down 3-2 and had runners on first and third with one out in the seventh when Towles prevented the tying run from scoring. He leaped out of his crouch to snare a high delivery from Dennis Sarfates on a 2-2 pitch to Rick Ankiel. Ankiel struck out on the next pitch and Sarfates fanned Ryan Ludwick to end the threat.