Breaking down the St. Louis Cardinals expanded record

The 2024 version of the St. Louis Cardinals can't seem to get out of its own way. The .500 mark is a brick wall that has been impenetrable by this team, and errors, misjudgements, and mismanagement by Oliver Marmol at times have cost this team some key wins.

After losing the series to the Miami Marlins, the Cardinals sit at 36-37, and they hold the second Wild Card spot (still) despite being one game under .500. Thankfully, the rest of the National League is muddled somewhere between 1 game below .500 and 4 games below .500, making the Wild Card race a slow drudge to mediocrity.

A lot can be learned about a team when looking at its record through a variety of lenses. The chart below details the expanded record for the St. Louis Cardinals after 73 games.

We can glean plenty from this chart. First, the Cardinals' record likely doesn't reflect who they truly are. Their Pythagorean record -- which takes into account run differential (the Cardinals have a run differential of -25) -- is indicative of this. Essentially, the Cardinals have experienced some luck to be where they are with their record.

As is often the case with a middle-of-the-pack team, the Cardinals are generally winning against bad teams and losing to good ones. They have a 4-game lead against sub-.500 teams with a losing record and they are 5 games under .500 against teams with a winning record. They've played a significantly greater amount of games against weaker opponents, a product of the National League having just 4 teams with records north of .500.

The Cardinals are a team with a record of 12-11 in 1-run games; this statistic has some of the most variability year over year, but it can be a sign of a stout bullpen. The Cardinals clearly have a talented bullpen with pitchers like JoJo Romero, Andrew Kittredge, and Ryan Helsley holding down the fort in the back. Ryan Fernandez and Matthew Liberatore have been invaluable pieces in the relief corps as well.

According to Tankathon, the Cardinals have the 4th-toughest strength of schedule remaining (.514 opponents' winning percentage). They have yet to play the Yankees this year, and they have plenty of games against division leaders remaining. They have played 4 fewer home than road games so far, so hopefully home field advantage benefits the team during this imbalance in opponents.

When evaluating the St. Louis Cardinals' expanded record, it shows who this team truly is. With more blowout victories -- particularly ones against bad opponents -- hopefully, the Cardinals can balance out their record and make a push toward the postseason.