St. Louis Cardinals: Strikeouts outweigh hits in a month for the first time

Strikeouts occurred more times than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history which means the St. Louis Cardinals need to figure out how to get some of their hitters back racking up hits.

After capping off the month of April by getting swept in Pittsburgh, the St. Louis Cardinals find themselves with a record of 15-12.

Even though the Cardinals sit second to last in the NL-Central, the club is only 1 1/2 games behind the first place Cubs.

Looking at player performances, there have been exceptional ones after one month of play (Tommy Pham and Jose Martinez) and there have been worrisome ones (Matt Carpenter and Dexter Fowler). Carpenter and Fowler have something in common with what transpired in baseball last month: they both have more strikeouts than hits.

And they are not the only Cardinals in this category as Carpenter and Fowler are joined by Paul DeJong with Marcell Ozuna (27 K/27 H) and Kolten Wong (12 K/13 H) not too far behind in terms of the regular starters.

Currently, there are 8.75 strikeouts per game which would be the most in MLB history if the season ended today. However, this is not a big surprise as strikeouts per game have gone up every season since 2008 going from 6.77 to 8.25 in 2017.

The issues is with the amount of hits which currently sits at 8.34 per game.

1969 was the last year when hits per game sat below 8.40, a year that featured 5.77 strikeouts per game.

More from Redbird Rants

• Cardinals: 3 insider insights as St. Louis approach the Winter Meetings
• Cardinals: The best Silver Slugger performances at each position.
• Cardinals: Free-agent Cody Bellinger hitting with Matt Holliday
• The St. Louis Cardinals are in rare company with this free agency stat
• St. Louis Cardinals: 3 free agent bench options to consider

While this is a cause for concern due to Robert Manfred wanting to attract more people to baseball, this is after a month that featured a record number of game time temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and plenty of postponed games.

Back to the St. Louis Cardinals, the team has struck out 243 times which is two below the league average.

Two playoff teams are right there with them in the Dodgers (243) and the Nationals (244).

However, strikeouts are not a determinate of a team’s success as the Royals are tied for the least amount (200) and are 7-21.

For the sake of doing so, let us see how last season’s playoff teams are doing in terms of strikeouts.

Turns out, the teams are nearly split between above and below the league average with six below (WAS, LAD, CLE, MIN, CHC, and BOS) and four above (HOU, ARZ, NYY, and COL).

Next: Top 10 prospects and their 2018 season so far

In short, strikeouts being more abundant than hits should not be a concern…yet. Let the warmer temperatures set in for a while and see if that can help the bats get hot and stay hot.