Cardinals standing behind Aledmys Diaz, misplays and all

3:23 AM ET

LOS ANGELES — The St. Louis Cardinals made an organizational decision to believe in their young players and build with those players. They have first- or second-year starters in center field, right field and shortstop, and they have hitched their future to those players’ growth curves.

There will be days when their fans will wish they had signed costly free agents at all of those spots, and Friday was one of those days.

Shortstop Aledmys Diaz made three errors in the Cardinals’ 8-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. While Diaz wasn’t the only Cardinals player to misplay a ball Friday and none of his three chances was entirely routine, the scrutiny fell on him in part because he leads the major leagues with nine errors.

While Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz made three errors Friday, he also hit his sixth home run. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

He didn’t avoid reporters after a rough game. In fact, he walked right over and faced their questions.

“I played very bad defense today and it cost a lot of runs,” Diaz said. “I think [Michael] Wacha made good pitches, got ground balls and we weren’t able to make the plays on defense, so I’m frustrated for sure.”

If there are Cardinals fans grumbling about Diaz’s defense, they should probably take a moment to reflect on the larger context. One could argue that the costliest error Friday wasn’t even an error. It was a little tapper hit by Yasiel Puig that ticked off Wacha’s glove, a potential double play spiraling into a …

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