There’s been a glaring drop-off in the Cardinals pitching this month. In April, the starters went 15-5 with a 3.30 ERA. But after another mediocre start by Kyle Lohse in Tuesday’s 8-4 loss to the Pirates, Cardinals starting pitchers are 5-7 with a 5.20 ERA this month. And it hasn’t been much better in May for the bullpen (5.05 ERA).And pitching, which carried the Cardinals in April, is elevating the Pirates now. Including Tuesday’s game, the Pirates have won seven of their last eight primarily because of their 3.21 overall ERA, and starters’ ERA of 3.47. But the surprising Pirates are now 3rd in the NL in runs scored. This isn’t a bad team.
Back to the Cardinals …
With the Cardinals in their first real slide of the season — six losses in the last seven games — the offense warrants scrutiny.
And the production is dropping.
Let’s look at the splits for April-May:
April: .279 BA / .374 OBP / .415 SLG / 4.7 runs per game.
May: .258 BA / .349 OBP/ .401 SLG / 4.1 runs per game.
During their six losses in the last week, the Cardinals are batting only .217 with a .328 OBP and a .354 SLG. And with runners in scoring position they had 8 hits in 44 at-bats (.182). They’ve left 49 on base and averaged only 3.2 runs during the six losses.
And the amazing thing is, the Cardinals have been neutralized by struggling (or worse) starting pitchers. In the last week they’ve lost games started by Jeff Francis, Jorge de la Rosa, Manny Parra, Jeff Suppan, David Bush and Phil Dumatrait.
And here were the ERAs of those pitchers going into their starts against the Cardinals:
Francis, 5.27
de la Rosa, 20.25
Parra, 5.86
Suppan, 5.22
Bush, 6.98
And Dumatrait had a career ERA of 8.01.
But those six starters combined to limit the Cardinals to 13 earned runs in 34.2 innings for a 3.37 ERA.
That’s pretty embarrassing.
The Cardinals did get a rare 3-run homer against the Pirates, this by Troy Glaus. It was only the third 3-run homer of the season by the Cardinals. Of their 33 homers this season, 23 have been solo shots. This team just doesn’t put together many big innings or timely hits.
The Cardinals had a great chance to win Tuesday’s game in the eighth and ninth innings, but Yadier Molina, Brendan Ryan and Ryan Ludwick all failed to deliver with runners in scoring position and the score tied 4-4.
That’s the way it’s been going.
Tuesday’s game opened a stretch in which the Cardinals will play 13 of 19 at home. Best that they should take advantage of that before trudging into what should be an extremely difficult schedule in June, with 18 road games, spread over two nine-game trips. The road stops include series at Boston, Detroit and Houston.
And the first 10 games of July is no Crown Candy sundae, either. The Cardinals will face the Mets, Cubs and Phillies in that little July warm-up…
Thanks for reading…
-B