We could be watching one of the greatest collapses in the history of MLB baseball. Just one week ago the St. Louis Cardinals had a comfortable 8.5 game lead with about 14 games left to play. What could go wrong? Well, since that time, the Cardinals have lost 7 straight games. The latest was last night when they lost at home to the San Diego Padres 7-5.

Losing 7 straight wouldn’t be too bad normally. However, the Houston Astros have been playing with a mission lately. They have won 7 straight games. Their latest was a 7-4 victory at Pittsburgh last night. In one week, the Astros have made up 7 games in the division and now are just 1.5 games back of St. Louis. The Cardinals have 6 games left to play. The Astros have 5 left.

The Cardinals continue to get out hit and continue to have pitching issues. The first six innings of last night’s game went like a dream for the Cardinals. They were up 5-2 going into the 7th inning. Carpenter was pitching well. Then the 7th inning happened. The Padres got to Carpenter and they scored 4 runs to take a 6-5 lead. The Padres added one more in the 8th and won 7-5.

The Padres continue their charge for the NL West. They are 2 games up on the Dodgers. LA won last night also, so the lead stayed the same. The Padres have 5 games left and they have two more games against a team in the Cardinals that’s getting desperate. Carpenter got the loss for the Cardinals last night and he’s 15-8 on the season. For the Padres, the win went to Williams. He’s now 11-5. It’s play or go home time for both of these teams.