Forever, it seems, the Cardinals have been Major League Baseball's steadiest franchise on and off the field. But Saturday night in St. Louis, abruptly after an 8-2 loss to the Reds, the team fired Mike Matheny as manager.
Mike Shildt, the bench coach, was promoted to interim manager, and hitting coaches John Mabry and Bill Mueller were both also fired.
The Cardinals, 13-19 over their past 32 games with six losses in a row at Busch Stadium, have fallen to 47-46 overall -- 1 1/2 games ahead of the Pirates for third place in the National League's Central Division -- and had been prone to some bad baseball within that, including uncharacteristic sloppiness in the field. Despite Matheny's overall 591-474 record in 6 1/2 years at the helm, the front office made its first in-season firing of a manager since 1995. Tony La Russa took over in 1996 and stayed through 2011, replaced by Matheny.