Cards wrap up

The St. Louis Cardinals were officially knocked out of the race for the postseason Friday night, but really, they never had a chance.

Anytime you start the season with a 6-1 loss on April Fool's Day, then lose the ace of the rotation with an elbow injury, it's probably not going to be a fun year.

This one was especially tough coming after a World Series win, but maybe the Cardinals used up all their good karma last October.

Consider:

* The death of Josh Hancock;

* Injuries to Chris Carpenter's elbow, Juan Encarnacion's eye, Yadier Molina's wrist, Scott Rolen's shoulder, Josh Kinney's elbow, Preston Wilson's knee, Adam Kennedy's knee, Jim Edmonds' back and legs, David Eckstein's back, Chris Duncan's groins and Albert Pujols' calf;

* Missed time by pitchers Mark Mulder, Braden Looper, Josh Kinney, Tyler Johnson, Todd Wellemeyer and Mike Maroth.

* A "slow" start by Albert Pujols, who ended up hitting over 30 home runs and might still reach 100 RBIs.

* Scott Spiezio's "problem;"

* The combined 7-31 record of Anthony Reyes and Kip Wells;

* The 11 different starting pitchers;

* Playing 35 games in the final 34 days.

St. Louis lost 12 of 17 and fell 10 games out of first place following the death of Hancock, who was killed in a car accident April 29 just hours after he pitched in an 8-1 loss to the Cubs.

At the All-Star break, the Cardinals were 40-45 and 7 1/2 games behind Milwaukee. A five-game losing streak at the start of August put St. Louis eight games back, but the Cards finished the month 15-8, during which Rick Ankiel got called up from Triple-A Memphis.

Ankiel hit a home run in his first game and hit four more with a .328 average in August.

A sweep of the Reds and winning 2 of 3 against the Pirates pulled St. Louis within a game of first place on Sept. 6 after Ankiel hit two homers and had seven RBIs. He became baseball's feel-good story of the season, but as the team traveled to Arizona, a New York tabloid published a story that Ankiel received HGH in 2004.

Since then, Ankiel is hitting .127 with no home runs and only two RBIs (before Saturday).

After losing Rolen and Encarnacion for the rest of the season, it seemed to be the last straw. St. Louis lost nine straight and 14 of the last 16 to get eliminated from the playoff race Friday night.

Need more proof of baseball karma at work? Consider then Jason Isringhausen, who missed the playoffs last year and was booed by fans during the World Series parade. This year he's converted 29 of 31 saves, has a 4-0 record, a 2.21 ERA and given up just three home runs and 26 walks in 61 innings.

Then again, there's still a week left in the season. Hope I didn't just jinx him too.

Brian Rosener is the sports editor for the Daily American Republic. His column runs in the Sunday edition and throughout the week on his blog at darnews.com.

UPDATE: Seems I jinxed Izzy, who gave up a pair of runs last night. But still, he hasn't lost a game this year.