The Cardinals have lost their gusto since mid-May
After playing an exciting high energy brand of baseball the first 6-8 weeks of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals seem to be slowing down, and with the potential of their season on the line this early in the year they need to find their game fast. They’ll hope to get back on track tonight against the last place Chicago White Sox. What once seemed like a hyper aggressive “try and stop us” style of play that seemed free and easy has turned into several players who now seem to be pressing by trying to re-create the early season magic that had the team being labeled as “one of the biggest surprises of the season.”
Since May 20th, when the St. Louis Cardinals faced off against reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and repeat front runner for 2025, Tarik Skubal, the Cardinals have gone 10-14. Over that stretch the Redbirds offense ranks 25th in hits, 22nd in home runs, 29th in doubles, 21st in runs, 25th in walks, 15th in strikeouts, 27th in stolen bases, 25th in batting average, 24th in on base percentage, 29th in slugging percentage, 29th in OPS, 28th in ISO, 20th in BABIP, 28th in wRC+, and 29th in wOBA. Over the last 24 games the Cardinals have produced like a bottom 5 offense in the league and what early on seemed like a tremendous strength has coincided with a major drop off in win rate.
Now lets take a look at the pitching staff over that same measure of time. Their pitching ranks 30th in BABIP, 4th in groundball rate, 26th in ERA, 29th in hits allowed, 26th in runs allowed, 14th in home runs allowed, 27th in K’s, 28th in K%, 1st in BB’s, 1st in BB%, 19th in K-BB%, 14th in FIP, 10th in xFIP, 27th in WHIP, and 29th in win probability added.
The Cardinals are very quickly approaching a point of no return, in regard to their season, and they have to get back on track against the Chicago White Sox this week that will lead into a series with the Cincinati Reds this weekend. After that, they would hopefully continue rolling momentum into a 4-game series with the 1st place Chicago Cubs. These 10 games are the next and (potentially) most weighted games of the season in regard to direction at next month’s deadline. 7 wins feels like a lot to ask for from a scuffling team but any less than that over the next 10 and you begin to question the amount of traction you have going forward in a division that seems to be running away by the day and a wild card chase that just became more ferocious with the San Francisco Giants addition of Rafael Devers.
The Titanic hasn’t hit the iceberg yet for the Cardinals but passengers on the boat are certainly looking out over the bow of the ship saying, “what’s that over there?” Hopefully Captain Marmol and Admiral Mozeliak can steer the ship away from the potential path and avoid crashing this highly entertaining ride we’ve all been on. If not, grab your life vests!
-Thanks for reading