Phillies starter Vince Velasquez is standing on a shaky mound | Extra Innings

A case could easily be made that no team in the Phillies’ first 136 years caused them more pain than the St. Louis Cardinals. Just mention 1964, and you can make several generations cringe in our city. Even those too young to have lived through the Phillies’ epic collapse from 6 1/2 games up with only 12 left to play know many of the gory details that led to a seventh World Series title for St. Louis.

The pain inflicted by the Cardinals grew in 2011 when they took a five-game National League Division Series with a 1-0 victory over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Ryan Howard made the final out and tore his Achilles tendon in the process, ending not only a season but also the second great era in Phillies baseball. The Cardinals went on to win their 11th World Series title.

And so the torture began again Monday night as the Phillies opened a six-game road trip with a 6-0 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Since going 12-5 from 2006 to 2009 in the new Busch Stadium, the Phillies are 12-24 in that ballpark and have won only one series.

The Phillies managed just three singles and did not advance a runner to second base in seven innings against Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas. They finished with five hits, matching Vince Velasquez’s number of walks and runs allowed in four innings.

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— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@philly.com)

Vince Velasquez’s inability to go beyond four innings forced manager Gabe Kapler to go deep into his bullpen Monday night, and that has become a disturbing pattern for the right-hander. He has covered more than five innings in only two of his six starts, which puts the Phillies in a difficult situation, especially at a time when the bullpen is shorthanded.

Go back to his final nine starts of last season, and Velasquez has pitched beyond the fifth inning only twice in his last 15 starts. Kapler thought Velasquez’s four unintentional walks were his undoing Monday.

“I thought Vince had good stuff,” Kapler said. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to put hitters away again. That was probably the thing that stands out for me was the walks. I don’t think Vince got beat by the [three] home runs [he allowed]. I think he got beat by the walks.”

Asked if Velasquez had done enough good work in April to remain in the rotation, Kapler was non-committal.

“I haven’t made any determinations beyond today,” the manager said. “I’m still evaluating what we saw tonight.”

Like Nick Pivetta, who was optioned to triple-A Lehigh Valley last month, Velasquez does have options remaining. Also like Pivetta, Velasquez could be a bullpen candidate at some point.

Pivetta has a 3.50 ERA in three starts with the IronPigs and has struck out 27 in 18 innings. If there’s a red flag, it is that he has also walked nine batters in those three starts. The other Lehigh Valley options for the Phillies are Cole Irvin, who has a 2.25 ERA in six starts, and Enyel De Los Santos, who was just sent back to the IronPigs on Sunday after working two innings out of the bullpen.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto was more disturbed by Velasquez’s lack of trust Monday night, and he had no trouble expressing his displeasure about it in Scott Lauber’s game story. “That’s my job, to do the thinking,” Realmuto said. “He’s best when he just gets up there and focuses on execution. All of our pitchers, guys work best when they think about executing their pitch and they let [backup catcher Andrew Knapp] and I do the game-calling. We do our preparation. We know what guys’ strengths and weaknesses are and where to go and when to go to it.”

Home-plate umpire Bill Miller questioned reliever Hector Neris’ delivery Friday during the Phillies’ home game against the Washington Nationals, but after speaking with rules enforcer and MLB vice president Joe Torre, Kapler is convinced his late-inning reliever did not break any rules. Lauber has the details.

In case you missed it, I wrote a story about Phillies infield instructor Bobby Dickerson over the weekend and how he has some unconventional ways of drilling players.

Here’s a look at the philly.com top 25 minor-league prospects we published last month, a list headed by pitcher Spencer Howard. Also, be on the lookout for some stories on minor leaguers Alec Bohm and Luke Leftwich later this week.

Tonight: Aaron Nola vs. St. Louis’ Dakota Hudson, 7:45 p.m.

Tomorrow: Jerad Eickhoff vs. St. Louis’ Jack Flaherty, 1:15 p.m.

Thursday: Off day before stretch of 17 straight days of games.

Friday: Jake Arrieta opens interleague series in Kansas City, 8:15 p.m.

Saturday: Zach Eflin vs. Royals, 7:15 p.m.

Right fielder Bryce Harper entered this season ranked in the top five in Fangraphs WAR (wins above replacement), OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) and on-base percentage among outfielders since he entered the big leagues as a 19-year-old rookie in 2012. His career WAR coming into the season was 30.5, which ranked fifth among outfielders since 2012. His .900 OPS ranked fourth and his .388 on-base percentage was third.

Not including Monday night’s game in St. Louis, he was ranked tied for 11th in WAR (1.1), 31st in OPS (.841) and 22nd in on-base percentage (.374) among big-league outfielders. Harper’s numbers for the season went down in the Phillies’ 6-0 loss to the Cardinals after he went hitless in four at-bats, dropping his batting average to .226.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Question: Thought your Sunday article about retiring numbers was great. Who came up with that rule, when and why? And why can’t it be altered? It seems like baseball is changing everything else. Why can’t the Phils change their attitude/ideas about retiring numbers?

— Jan M., via email

Answer: Thanks for writing Jan. You referenced my colleague Matt Breen’s outstanding column that urged the Phillies to abandon their policy of retiring numbers only of players who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

I could not agree more that the numbers of Jimmy Rollins (11), Chase Utley (26) and Ryan Howard (6) deserve to be retired by the Phillies. None of them might make it to the Hall of Fame, but that does not change the fact that they were the core of one of the two great eras of Phillies baseball. Without each and every one of them, the franchise does not have a second World Series title.

There’s nothing preventing the Phillies from changing their policy because numbers are retired at the discretion of each team. I’d add that Cole Hamels’ No. 35 also should be retired. Hamels is fourth all-time in Phillies history in pitching WAR at 42.4, behind only Robin Roberts, Steve Carlton and Grover Cleveland Alexander, all of whom are Hall of Famers. Hamels is also in the franchise’s top 10 in wins (sixth), innings pitched (sixth), strikeouts (third) and starts (fourth).