Offensive struggles continue for St. Louis Cardinals

The offensive struggles continued Monday night for the St. Louis Cardinals as the team fell 6-0 to I-70 rival Kansas City Royals.

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The key question for starting pitcher Shelby Miller entering the game was whether or not he would be able to limit the number of walks and home runs he allowed. Pitching seven innings and out there to start the eighth inning, Miller allowed one walk and struck out two batters. Unfortunately for the Texan native, he gave up another home run to end the shutout in the top of the seventh inning.

Until the Alex Gordon‘s home run led off the seventh, Miller had been in total control of the game. He had only allowed a few singles and a walk up until that point.

This was the 12th start of the season for Miller and his first career start against the Royals. Miller moves to 0-2 this season in interleague starts, having taken the loss last week against the New York Yankees. Here’s where it gets rather sad for Miller. In his first nine starts, he posted a 2.79 ERA. In the last 17 innings, Miller has allowed 15 earned runs for a 7.94 ERA in that span.

Games against the American League have not been kind for Miller. Entering tonight, he was 2-3 with a 6.99 ERA in six outings.

The Cardinals were limited to three hits as the offensive struggles continued. Randal Grichuk accounted one for while Matt Holliday hit two singles. Holliday drew a walk as did Mark Ellis.

The single by Holliday in the first inning extended his home on-base streak to start this season to 29 games, tying Hall of Famer Jim Bottomley (1925) for the fifth longest in franchise history. Albert Pujols reached 29 times to start the season in 2009 while Solly Hemus (1953) owns the franchise mark with 33 games.

The back-to-back shutouts for the Cardinals were the first since this past August.