St. Louis ? St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa believes his team’s second eight-game losing streak, which ended Saturday night, had nothing to do with the team’s failure to land an impact player by the trade deadline.

La Russa flatly dismissed the notion that players might have been unhappy that they didn’t get more help. The Cardinals, who ended the slump with a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday night, got second baseman Ronnie Belliard and struggling pitcher Jorge Sosa for the stretch run.

The manager said anybody who criticized the team for not improving more is just trying to “stir up some friction and trying to point fingers.” La Russa and general manager Walt Jocketty said the team made every effort to make a major deal, with a corner outfielder at the top of their wish list, but the price tag was always too high.

“There wasn’t anything that was even close to reasonable,” La Russa said. “The Yankees got (Bobby) Abreu, they took on the $30 million like it’s another day at the beach. Who else took that?”

La Russa believes that he has to do the best he can with what he’s got. The Cardinals led the NL Central by 21â2 games entering Sunday’s game against the Brewers but with a 59-50 record after consecutive 100-win seasons.

It’s been much more challenging this season, with another eight-game skid in June and a season-long search for a fifth starter, inconsistency from three of the other four starters, and a make-do look in left field and second base before the Belliard trade.

“You can do anything you want to as a fan to compare, but this is our season,” La Russa said. “We’ve just got to gut it out and compete and get our numbers and see where we stack up.”

Jocketty said there are unreasonable expectations for the deadline, saying that Abreu was the only major player on the wish list to change teams.

Multiyear contracts and the wild card have made it tougher to trade, with virtually the entire NL in the running for a postseason spot.