About Cardinals low-scoring games

The St. Louis Cardinals rank among MLB leaders in low-scoring games on both sides of the ledger.

Felipe Lopez and Ryan Ludwick (AP photo)Through 60 games of the 2010 season, many St. Louis Cardinals would already assume the club has had more than their fair share of games when their offense failed to score enough to win. They would also expect that the team’s pitching staff has had a good number of contests in which they held their opponent at bay.

Researcher Tom Orf pulled the evidence.

Offensively, St. Louis is third in the major leagues in number of games shut out with six. They were held to one run eight more times and lost all those games. The Cardinals are fourth in MLB with the most games having scored one run or fewer at 14.

Expanding the aperture to include games of scoring two runs still keeps the Cardinals in the bottom quarter of baseball. They are tied for seventh with 19 two-or-less run games and actually managed to win two of them.

Including contests when scoring three runs or less, including Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Dodgers, the Cardinals drop to the bottom half of MLB. They rank 18th with 24 three-or-fewer run games. Oddly, when scoring exactly three runs, their record is just 1-4.

MLB runs scored, 2010, through June 9

0 RUNS 1 RUN OR LESS 2 RUNS OR LESS 3 RUNS OR LESS
Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L
1 PIT 7 0 7 1 BAL 18 0 18 1 HOU 27 2 25 1 PIT 38 8 30
1 LAD 7 0 7 2 HOU 16 0 16 2 BAL 27 1 26 2 BAL 37 2 35
3 STL 6 0 6 3 PHI 15 1 14 3 PIT 25 5 20 3 SDP 33 13 20
3 SFG 6 0 6 4 STL 14 0 14 4 SEA 25 1 24 3 HOU 33 4 29
3 PHI 6 0 6 5 SEA 13 0 13 5 CHC 23 2 21 5 SEA 31 4 27
3 MIL 6 0 6 6 SFG 12 0 12 6 SDP 20 6 14 6 CLE 29 4 25
3 HOU 6 0 6 6 PIT 12 0 12 7 STL 19 2 17 6 OAK 29 3 26
3 ATL 6 0 6 6 LAD 12 4 8 7 SFG 19 2 17 8 PHI 28 7 21
6 OAK 12 1 11 7 PHI 19 4 15 8 CHC 28 3 25
7 CLE 19 0 19 18 STL 24 3 21
7 OAK 19 2 17

Switching over to pitching, the Cardinals are again among MLB’s leaders in most games holding the opponent either off the scoreboard or with few crooked numbers.

St. Louis pitching has tossed five shutouts, tied for seventh in the big leagues. Their no and one-run game total of 12 is ninth-most. When adding two-run contests, Cardinals pitching jumps up to fourth in MLB at 22 and holds that ranking with three-run opponent scoring games are included.

MLB runs allowed, 2010, through June 9

0 RUNS 1 RUN OR LESS 2 RUNS OR LESS 3 RUNS OR LESS
Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L Rk Team G W L
1 SDP 9 9 0 1 SDP 18 17 1 1 SDP 28 25 3 1 ATL 35 27 8
2 OAK 7 7 0 2 SFG 15 12 3 2 SFG 24 18 6 2 TBR 34 30 4
2 NYM 7 7 0 3 NYY 14 14 0 3 TBR 23 21 2 2 MIN 34 28 6
2 COL 7 7 0 3 NYM 14 14 0 4 STL 22 14 8 4 STL 32 23 9
5 SFG 6 6 0 5 TBR 14 14 0 4 TOR 22 20 2 4 SFG 32 22 10
5 PHI 6 6 0 5 OAK 13 13 0 4 NYM 22 19 3 4 SDP 32 28 4
7 STL 5 5 0 5 FLA 13 12 1 7 PHI 21 17 4 4 NYY 32 30 2
7 TOR 5 5 0 5 COL 13 13 0 7 NYY 21 20 1 8 SEA 29 20 9
7 TBR 5 5 0 9 STL 12 10 2 9 COL 20 19 1 8 NYM 29 22 7
7 LAD 5 5 0 9 LAD 12 10 2 9 ATL 20 16 4 8 CHC 29 17 12
7 BOS 5 5 0 9 BOS 12 12 0

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