Cardinals play deep into October, again fall short

ST. LOUIS — Mike Matheny has led the Cardinals deep into October all three seasons since replacing Tony La Russa as manager. When St. Louis falls short each year, he bears the weight of expectations. An injury to Yadier Molina, shaky starting pitching by Adam Wainwright, John Lackey and Shelby Miller, a lack of clutch hitting in the middle of the batting order and defensive gaffes led to a five-game loss to San Francisco in the NL Championship Series. "It wasn't our best ball," reliever Randy Choate said Friday as a handful of players cleaned out lockers at Busch Stadium. "It's always easy to second-guess." And Matheny is sure to hear a lot of that this...