St. Louis Cardinals: Michael Wacha out until at least late July

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha will be missing for another few weeks due to a left oblique strain.

Just as everything was looking up for Michael Wacha and the St. Louis Cardinals, it all came crashing down.

Wacha was just three outs away from a no hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 3rd. Since then, Wacha has been tagged for 14 runs (11 earned) in the three starts following near history.

Wacha made it through just 3 2/3 innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 20th before needing to be be removed from the game.

As a whole the team has gone 8-11 since Wacha’s June 3rd outing, going from six games over .500 to four.

This does not appear to be that bad until you take into account that the Cardinals failed to win a series against the Miami Marlins or the San Diego Padres. Thankfully neither the Milwaukee Brewers nor the Chicago Cubs pulled away during that stretch as the Cardinals are just 4 1/2 back of first place.

Back to Wacha, 2018 has been his redemption season as his ERA is 3.20 in 15 starts and has allowed 7.3 H/9 (career low was 7.2 in 2013). In his two seasons prior to 2018, Wacha had an ERA of 4.56 in 303 2/3 innings and allowed 9.8 H/9.

Wacha had suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2014 which was similar to Brandon McCarthy’s, a veteran right hander who currently plays for the Atlanta Braves. This was big concern as Wacha was the playoff hero for the Cardinals in the year prior and 2014 was the first time McCarthy made 30+ starts since entering the majors in 2005.

Similar to 2014, just when Michael Wacha has put things together, he suffers an injury.

Although it is not the shoulder problems coming back, even injuries that are not as serious can throw you off completely as evidenced by Carlos Martinez.

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Hopefully Wacha comes back and is able to maintain the success he had prior to his injury.