ST. LOUIS - Tony La Russa always has been a sore loser, quick to lash out at the slightest provocation during postgame news conferences.

But the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager has been taking a decidedly different, positive-thinking tack during a September swoon that is threatening to become one of baseball’s most spectacular collapses. St. Louis (80-76), which led the NL Central by seven games with 13 to play, lost its seventh straight Tuesday night and was just 1½ games ahead of second-place Houston (79-78) heading into Wednesday’s games.

La Russa wants players to know there’s still time to pull out of the nosedive and avoid a place in history alongside the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, who wasted a 6½-game lead with 12 to go.

“We have a chance to play in October,” La Russa said Tuesday night after ace Chris Carpenter failed to hold a three-run lead in a 7-5 loss to the San Diego Padres. “Take the alternative where you’re out the race. That’s what you look at, and we’re not out of the race.”

Not long ago, there was no race. But St. Louis went 1-6 last week on a trip that ended with a four-game sweep at the Astros.

If St. Louis and Houston are within a half-game of each other after Sunday, when the regular season is scheduled to end, San Francisco must return to St. Louis for a makeup of a Sept. 17 rainout. If the Cardinals and Astros have identical records after that, St. Louis would travel to Houston for a one-game tiebreaker playoff Tuesday.

St. Louis could match the record for the largest September lead held by a team that failed to win, shared by the 1934 New York Giants and 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“We’re just finding ways to lose,” Jim Edmonds said. “We’ve just got to keep fighting. We’ve still got a lot of time.”

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La Russa’s calm also may reflect a realization that the Cardinals, given season-long injury woes combined with payroll issues that created holes in the rotation, outfield and second base much of the season, might deserve their unimpressive record.

Mark Mulder, a 16-game winner last year, went 6-7 with an ERA above 7.00 before undergoing shoulder surgery last month. Closer Jason Isringhausen is also out following hip surgery earlier this month. Edmonds went a month between starts due to post-concussion syndrome before returning to the lineup on Tuesday. MVP candidate Albert Pujols and leadoff hitter David Eckstein both missed significant time with pulled side muscles.

Jeff Weaver is the second reclamation project the Cardinals have used as their fifth starter, after Sidney Ponson was released. An assortment of players got shots in left field before the midseason emergence of rookie Chris Duncan, and there was no regular at second base until Ronnie Belliard was acquired near the trade deadline.

Those trials prepared La Russa to lower his expectations.

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Lately, he’s had to exhibit patience with his ace. Carpenter, who wasted a 5-2 lead on Tuesday, has lost twice during the slump while allowing 12 runs in 14 innings, but instead of criticism from his manager there was only praise for trying to put the team on his shoulders.

“He’s just trying too hard at those key times, and he gets out of his rhythm a little bit and he’s making mistakes,” La Russa said. “That’s the kind of mistakes you respect because a guy cares and he’s trying to do more than he has to.”

Carpenter, not surprisingly, would hear none of that.

“If I start thinking about what type of game it is, that’s when you get away from what makes you successful, and that’s concentrating on making pitches,” Carpenter said. “Unfortunately, I let it get away.”

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The optimistic view of the slide is at least the Cardinals have been competitive, with four one-run losses. That was not the case in the team’s two earlier eight-game losing streaks, neither of which knocked them out of first place.

Their first eight-game skid in June had four losses in which the Cardinals gave up 10 runs, including consecutive blowouts of 20-6 and 13-5 to the White Sox. The Phillies outscored them 24-9 in consecutive July games in the second slump.

A well-timed hit here, a crucial pitch there, and the Cardinals already would have celebrated their third consecutive NL Central championship.

“The club knows how close we are to winning these games,” La Russa said. “There’s worse ways to lose. The no-chance losses, they’re the ones that you don’t feel any optimism about.”