PHILS HALT REDBIRD CHARGE BUT CARDS STILL TAKE SERIES.

ST. LOUIS DROPS FINALE, 7-5, AFTER FIGHTING BACK FROM HORNSBY DAY HIGH; REDBIRDS WIN FIVE-GAME SET, THREE GAMES

Twenty-four hours after Sportsman’s Park turned itself into a baseball carnival for Rogers Hornsby, the Cardinals came crashing back down into the usual hard racket of National League business Sunday afternoon.

The Phillies saw to that.

Philadelphia spoiled the close of the homestand with a 7-to-5 victory over the Cardinals, preventing St. Louis from climbing above the .500 shelf and knocking the Redbirds immediately backward again after Saturday’s triumphant Hornsby Day celebration.

But while the Cardinals dropped the finale, they still captured the five-game series from the Quakers three games against two after recovering from the rough opener earlier in the week.

So the afternoon carried irritation more than disaster.

The Cardinals missed an opportunity.

That was the sting.

Saturday’s 9-to-2 mauling of Philadelphia had the whole city buzzing again. Hornsby received his Most Valuable Player honors before a packed Sportsman’s Park gathering while the Cardinals battered the Quakers all over the lot afterward and finally clawed themselves back to even water at 18 victories and 18 defeats.

One more victory Sunday would have pushed St. Louis over the hump for the first time in weeks.

Instead the Phillies packed their bags with the final word.

Philadelphia played considerably steadier baseball than it had during the ugly Hornsby Day collapse. The Quakers had kicked the ball around like a sandlot club Saturday, committing five errors while the Cardinals stormed over them inning after inning.

Sunday they answered with much firmer baseball and repeatedly kept St. Louis from building the sort of crooked-number innings that buried them earlier in the series.

The Cardinals never disappeared from the fight.

That perhaps made the defeat harder to swallow.

Every time Philadelphia threatened to break the game wide apart, St. Louis answered just enough to keep hope alive around Sportsman’s Park. The Redbirds scratched and battled through the late innings and forced the Phillies to keep working for every out instead of coasting quietly toward the train station.

But the Cardinals spent too much of the afternoon chasing.

That remained the whole trouble.

The Phillies controlled the pace often enough to keep the Redbirds from fully seizing the argument. St. Louis threatened repeatedly but never managed the single avalanche inning that turned the earlier games of the series in their favor.

And so the Cardinals finished the homestand exactly where they have spent most of the spring:

hovering around the even mark without truly escaping it.

Still, the week was not without important encouragement.

The Cardinals looked considerably livelier against Philadelphia than they had against the Giants earlier this month when the club appeared half dead and badly overmatched.

The pitching has begun settling somewhat. The defense, once among the shakiest outfits in the circuit, now appears steadier despite the miserable Sportsman’s Park field conditions that continue tormenting visiting clubs.

In fact, one of the strangest developments of the entire homestand has been watching opposing clubs struggle more badly with the rough footing than the Cardinals themselves.

Boston looked helpless on the dirt.

Philadelphia frequently looked worse.

Meanwhile St. Louis gradually tightened.

That matters.

Taylor Douthit’s revival also continued becoming one of the week’s major stories. Only a short time ago the young center fielder looked hopelessly buried beneath a terrible batting slump. Now he suddenly appears full of confidence again and continues supplying hard contact nearly every afternoon.

Ray Blades remains one of the club’s steadiest run producers.

Les Bell continues driving the ball with authority.

And Hornsby himself still sits at the center of everything, both on the field and throughout the city.

The larger issue now becomes consistency.

The Cardinals finally won a series.

That is real.

Taking three of five from Philadelphia mattered, especially after the ugly New York beatings earlier this month.

Challenge waiting in front of Hornsby’s outfit as Cincinnati now arrives for the next round of National League warfare.

The Cardinals had their celebration Saturday.

Sunday returned them to ordinary baseball reality.

And ordinary baseball reality still says this:

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post