If you don’t follow researcher Tom Orf on Twitter (MU4124), you are missing out. Below are four factoids he shared as the St. Louis Cardinals dropped a disappointing 5-3 game in 10 innings to Milwaukee at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night. As always, I added the wrapping that accompanies them.
Albert Pujols, who went 0-for-5 on Tuesday, made the final out of an inning four different times and stranded six baserunners on the evening. This season, Pujols is batting .128 (5-for-39) against Milwaukee.
Factoid: The quantity of Cardinals runners left on base in ten games versus the Brewers this year have been: 13-19-13-14-11-14-12-12-11-10. The total is 129 in ten games or an average of 12.9.
Against the rest of their opponents? 679 runners stranded in 106 games or 6.4 per game. In other words, the Cardinals are stranding just over twice as many runners when playing Milwaukee compared to the rest of their opposition.
Much has been written about Milwaukee’s amazing 41-15 home success this season and some have suggested cheating has contributed. It doesn’t seem to matter as they regularly beat the Cardinals in St. Louis, too.
Factoid: Over the last four seasons, the Cardinals are 11-20 at home against the Brewers, and just 3-8 in one-run games.
A passed ball by catcher Gerald Laird in the sixth inning led to Milwaukee’s third run. That unearned tally was charged to starter Edwin Jackson.
Factoid: Tuesday marked the 33rd game this year in which the Cardinals have allowed an unearned run. Their record is just 11-22 in those contests.
One major reason the 2010 Cardinals faltered in August, essentially ending their playoff hopes, was an inability to defeat teams with losing records. While they have turned that around this season, they can’t seem to measure up to the National League’s elite.
Factoid: The Cardinals 2011 record against teams with winning records is now just 16-25.
As much as any August games can be, the final two games of this Milwaukee series are extremely important for the Cardinals to win. They are currently a season-worst four games behind the Brewers in the NL Central standings. By Thursday night, Milwaukee’s edge will be somewhere between two games and six. The latter gulf could prove to be too wide to overcome.
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