Immediately before Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun connected for a two-run home run against St. Louis Cardinals reliever Trevor Rosenthal in Sunday’s eighth inning, FOX Sports Midwest put up a graphic. It indicated the longest scoreless streaks by Cardinals pitching, with the current streak then at 39 innings.
Prior to that, I had requested the same information from researcher Tom Orf. It follows. The data includes full innings only, no thirds. Full games are on the left, with the partial games before and after, followed by the total innings at the far right.
Consecutive scoreless innings pitched, team, St. Louis Cardinals
| IP | IP | IP | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Rk | Strk Start | End | G | W | L | CG | SHO | IP | R | before | streak | after | YR | YR |
| 1 | 9/29/1962 | 4/13/1963 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 45 | 0 | LY-21 | 27 | 5 | 32 | 53 |
| 2 | 7/6/1943 | 7/11/1943 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 0 | 6 | 36 | 0 | 42 | |
| T3 | 4/10/2013 | 4/13/2013 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 5 | 27 | 7 | 39 | |
| T3 | 9/20/1934 | 9/21/1934 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 8 | 27 | 4 | 39 | |
| 5 | 9/9/1963 | 9/11/1963 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 6 | 36 | |
| 6 | 5/31/1927 | 6/5/1927 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 8 | 27 | 0 | 35 | |
| T7 | 6/18/1968 | 6/20/1968 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 5 | 27 | 2 | 34 | |
| T7 | 8/20/1916 | 8/22/1916 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 4 | 34 | |
| 9 | 9/6/1988 | 9/8/1988 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 2 | 27 | 4 | 33 | |
| 10 | 9/26/1973 | 9/28/1973 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 5 | 32 | |
| 11 | 7/8/1944 | 7/9/1944 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 4 | 31 |
The just-ended streak of 39 innings is tied for the third longest in team history and second-longest in a single season. The longest scoreless pitching streak in team history of 53 innings began at the end of the 1962 season and continued into 1963.
What I believe is the Major League Baseball record of 56 consecutive scoreless innings pitched was set by the Pittsburgh Pirates, from June 1 to June 9, 1903.
Along with the Cardinals team record, the MLB record remains safe.
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