Cardinals lead MLB with three starters with sub-3.00 ERAs

Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia are among MLB’s top pitchers this season.

Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)With all the questions about the back end of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation, it seems worthwhile to remember just how successful the front end is.

Coming into Sunday’s action, the Cardinals are the only team in the Major Leagues with three starters with ERAs under three, minimum 12 starts. In fact, there are only 22 such pitchers in the league.  They are listed below.

On the bad side, the Cardinals three starters with ERA under 2.55, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia, aren’t getting enough victories. The three have just 21 wins in their 38 total starts coming into Sunday.

Only 15 starting pitchers across MLB have ERAs under 2.55. The only team besides the Cardinals with more than one is the Tampa Bay Rays with two. Ten teams have one.

Starting pitchers (22) with ERA under 3.00, MLB, 2010 through June 12

Pitcher Tm GS ERA Wins Age
3 SP with ERA under 3.00
Adam Wainwright STL 13 2.30 8 28
Chris Carpenter STL 13 2.54 7 35
Jaime Garcia STL 12 1.49 6 23
2 SP with ERA under 3.00
Johan Santana NYM 13 2.96 4 31
Mike Pelfrey NYM 12 2.23 8 26
Jon Garland SDP 13 2.81 6 30
Clayton Richard SDP 12 2.72 4 26
Jonathan Sanchez SFG 12 2.82 4 27
Matt Cain SFG 12 2.11 5 25
David Price TBR 12 2.23 9 24
Jeff Niemann TBR 12 2.48 6 27
1 SP with ERA under 3.00
Tim Hudson ATL 13 2.43 6 34
Clay Buchholz BOS 12 2.52 8 25
Carlos Silva CHC 12 2.89 8 31
Mike Leake CIN 12 2.68 5 22
Ubaldo Jimenez COL 13 1.16 12 26
Josh Johnson FLA 13 1.91 7 26
Yovani Gallardo MIL 13 2.41 6 24
Francisco Liriano MIN 12 2.90 6 26
Andy Pettitte NYY 12 2.46 8 38
Roy Halladay PHI 13 1.96 8 33
Livan Hernandez WSN 12 2.28 5 35

Thanks to Tom Orf for his research on the subject of this article.

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