ATLANTA — The word executive John Mozeliak used twice in a short answer to describe the fraught, weathered condition of the Cardinals has the benefit of being both noun and verb, and with two tagalong letters added, it moonlights as an adjective.
As they’ve tumbled from first place, the Cardinals experienced the word in all three fashions. Successive injuries and losses have created a “compounding stress,” Mozeliak said. They stress to score runs when they’re not stressing to cover innings.
They have a stressed roster.
“I think right now, honestly, getting rained out is probably not the worst thing in the world for this club, and it allows us to take a timeout or break because right now we’re not playing great baseball,” said Mozeliak, the club’s president of baseball operations, in a phone conversation Saturday afternoon.