ST. LOUIS -- Standing in front of his locker Sunday after the St. Louis Cardinals lost another series to a last-place team, right fielder Brandon Moss wasn't about to slap a Chuck Tanner happy face on this one.
"We go through our ups and we go through our downs, and we are consistently inconsistent," he said. "That's all there is to it."
Moss and his teammates will continue the season-long search for consistency Monday night when they welcome the Cincinnati Reds to Busch Stadium for a three-game series.
At 58-53, St. Louis remains among the contenders for a National League wild-card spot, even though it trails Miami for the second wild-card spot by a half-game, pending the outcome of the Marlins' game in Colorado.
But there's no denying that the Cardinals have mostly missed a prime chance to bank some wins in the last week. In the first six games of a nine-game stretch against Cincinnati and Atlanta, two of the NL's three last-place teams, St. Louis went 2-4.
Poor starting pitching has been a problem. The Cardinals got just one quality start in those six games -- Jaime Garcia's eight shutout innings on Friday night against the Braves -- and have had to run through their bullpen consistently.
St. Louis' series loss at Atlanta's hands continued a season-long trend of failing to win at home, where it is a shocking 26-32.
"I feel like every month is the month to watch out for things," Moss said. "We have a good team. We still have two months left, so to be honest, a lot of things work themselves out in the last week of the season."
The Reds' fate is already worked out. At 45-65, they will miss the playoffs for the third straight year and are looking toward 2017 and beyond, having dealt NL RBI leader Jay Bruce to the New York Mets.
But Cincinnati at least deserves credit for not mailing in the first 3 1/2 weeks after the All-Star break. It won six straight series before dropping two of three in Pittsburgh during the weekend, although it salvaged a 7-3 win Sunday.
"These guys have not turned their backs on the fact that we expect to go out there and play hard and win games," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "It's a tribute to the guys in the clubhouse."
Monday night's pitching matchup is a repeat of the Cardinals' 5-4 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday night in the Great American Ball Park.
St. Louis' Michael Wacha (7-7, 4.35) is 6-1 with a 1.97 ERA in 12 career games against the Reds. Only Texas pitcher Cole Hamels' 1.93 ERA against Cincinnati is lower among active pitchers than Wacha's.
Cincinnati counters with rookie left-hander Cody Reed (0-6, 7.30), who was touched for five runs in five innings by the Cardinals. Reed, who hacked up four first-inning runs, has permitted 13 runs in the first inning of his eight starts.
Tuesday night's game will pit former Red Mike Leake (8-9, 4.80) against Brandon Finnegan (7-8, 4.65), and Garcia (8-8, 4.04) opposes Anthony DeSclafani (6-0, 2.94) in Wednesday night's series finale.
