St. Louis Cardinals: Cardinals continue to squander dominant starting pitching

The success of the St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation hasn’t translated to the win column due to an ineffective bullpen and an unproductive lineup.

The St. Louis Cardinals own the best starters’ ERA in all of MLB at 3.35. With three starters in the top ten of ERA, headlined by Mike Leake at 2.64, and the resurgence of Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals starters have been dominant on the mound.

Except there’s two sides to every story. A 4.60 bullpen era, which ranks 13th in the National League, explains the Cardinals’ sub-.500 record of 26-28.

Brett Cecil not living up to his lofty contract, Jonathan Broxton finding barrel after barrel (and getting released), and relievers like Kevin Siegrist and Matt Bowman failing to be consistent paint an even clearer picture as to why starting pitching continues to be spoiled.

Jesse Rogers, who covers the Chicago Cubs for ESPN, added salt to the wound after the Cubs swept the Cards when he tweeted this:

Not all that surprising as the Cardinals continue to play sloppy, inconsistent baseball. Repeatedly jumping out to leads, the Cardinals have struggled closing the door against any opponent. In the most recent series at Wrigley field, the Cardinals held a 2-run lead in each game, but failed to get one win.

To take a closer look at this ongoing issue, let’s look at the month of May for the St. Louis Cardinals:

An NL-best 3.13 starters ERA combined with a bullpen ERA of 4.15 ERA resulted in 13-13 May record. Solid starts foiled by bullpen meltdowns have defined the early season struggles for the Cardinals.

The bullpen is not the only one to blame for the inability to hold leads.

The Redbirds’ offense has proven to disappear in the later innings. The Cardinals plated 111 runs in May, which was 12th in the NL. Dissecting each game into thirds shows how the Cardinals failed to finish games in May:

• 1st through 3rd inning: .269 AVG, .361 OBP, 49 runs scored, 67 SOs
• 4th through 6th inning: .289 AVG, .345 OBP, 35 runs scored, 59 SOs
• 7th through 9th inning: .229 AVG, .292 OBP, 23 runs scored, 72 SOs

Typical game trends for most teams in baseball — feeling out the starting pitcher in the beginning innings, seeing the starter for the third time in the middle innings and then facing fireball relief specialists in the final innings. That being said, the Cardinals are well below average in offensive output in the last three innings.

The St. Louis Cardinals rank last in all of baseball with fifty-two runs scored in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. For comparison, the Cubs rank ninth in MLB with seventy-nine runs scored in the last three innings. In the last three innings, the Cardinals are in the bottom third in AVG and OBP in all of baseball.

The Cardinals’ offense seems to coast through games with poor at-bats galore. A bullpen that can’t hold a lead paired with an offense that has a hard time scoring runs in the later innings is a recipe for disaster.

It’s not solely the bullpen’s fault for surrendering late leads.

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• St. Louis Cardinals sign Oscar Mercado and four others to MiLB deals
• St. Louis Cardinals: Paul Goldschmidt named 2022 NL MVP
• Lars Nootbaar is a prime Cardinals trade candidate
• Cardinals: Former MLB GM calls Jordan Walker a superstar for 2023
• Cardinals: Cubs looking to make major moves this offseason

Dexter Fowler has hit a few late inning home runs, Matt Carpenter hit a massive walk-off grand slam and Randal Grichuk had an Opening Day walk-off hit. Aside from that, there has been little clutch hitting for the Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals are batting .232 w/RISP, which shrinks to .189 w/RISP during the last three innings.

Failing to get big hits can also be blamed for the Cardinals squandering great starting pitching.

Many things must change for the Cardinals to capitalize on starting pitching, but like Aaron Boone said on the Bernie Miklasz show, the key to the Cardinals’ success is Matt Carpenter. If he can get on base more and find his stroke, the Cardinals offense will be more productive.

Sorting out the bullpen is important, but getting more production from the stars like Fowler, Carpenter and even Stephen Piscotty will pay dividends. A better, more reliant offense could eliminate the number of high leverage situations for relievers.

Next: Offensive struggles loom large

Let’s hope to see more timely hitting and a more effective bullpen tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. Maybe we’ll even see a little bit of John Gant tonight, too. Feel free comment below or follow me on Twitter to discuss the latest news about the St. Louis Cardinals.