Cardinals Low-Hit Games Piling Up

Last time out, we reviewed the success of the St. Louis Cardinals pitching this season. They proceeded to give up 11 runs to the Colorado Rockies that evening.

Coming off Tuesday night’s loss, during which the Cardinals managed just four hits against a Rockies starter who entered the game with an ERA over six, we will consider St. Louis’ offensive frustration this season from one angle.

Over their first 59 games of the season, the 2015 Cardinals have managed to scratch out no more than four hits eight separate times. Yet somehow, they managed to win two of those games and almost did again Wednesday night.

That eight-count is the most such outings through 59 games since 1986 and is just the third occurrence since at least 1960, according to research from Tom Orf. Only in 1984 and 1986 did the Cards have more under-five hit games, with nine both years.

In the table below, note the high number of strikeouts during those eight games this season compared to the other low-hit years.

With .303-hitting Matt Holliday likely out until at least the break and Matt Adams probably out for the year, hits are going to be harder and harder to come by for this Cardinals lineup.

St. Louis Cardinals, number of games with four or fewer hits, through first 59 games, since 1960

Year G W L PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
1986 9 4 5 288 254 13 26 2 0 2 12 28 51 0.102 0.194 0.134 0.328
1984 9 1 8 273 236 10 25 2 1 2 9 30 54 0.106 0.211 0.148 0.359
2015 8 2 6 236 216 8 24 4 0 3 8 15 74 0.111 0.182 0.171 0.353
1991 8 0 8 253 231 5 24 3 2 2 5 21 36 0.104 0.179 0.160 0.339
2014 7 1 6 223 206 4 25 5 1 1 4 16 51 0.121 0.188 0.170 0.358
1994 7 1 6 239 200 12 24 3 0 2 10 31 37 0.120 0.243 0.165 0.408
1978 7 2 5 205 185 10 20 2 0 2 9 18 22 0.108 0.186 0.151 0.338
1975 7 1 6 223 203 5 20 1 0 1 5 19 34 0.099 0.175 0.118 0.293
1973 7 2 5 228 209 11 22 4 3 2 10 16 36 0.105 0.167 0.182 0.349
1961 7 0 7 236 203 9 24 4 3 1 7 27 39 0.118 0.227 0.182 0.410
1960 7 0 7 218 205 6 21 3 0 3 5 13 32 0.102 0.156 0.161 0.317
2013 6 0 6 185 168 8 17 3 0 2 3 15 38 0.101 0.179 0.155 0.334
2007 6 0 6 192 175 3 20 4 0 0 3 13 36 0.114 0.188 0.137 0.325
2002 6 2 4 208 173 10 20 4 0 3 9 29 37 0.116 0.248 0.191 0.438
1997 6 0 6 194 171 5 17 4 0 3 3 20 49 0.099 0.202 0.175 0.378
1993 6 1 5 197 173 7 24 2 1 2 7 20 27 0.139 0.226 0.197 0.422
1990 6 0 6 189 174 1 20 3 0 0 1 12 24 0.115 0.171 0.132 0.303
1980 6 2 4 191 172 6 18 2 0 3 6 17 33 0.105 0.189 0.169 0.358
1971 6 0 5 187 172 5 19 1 1 2 5 14 34 0.110 0.176 0.163 0.339
1965 6 1 5 189 178 8 18 3 2 1 7 10 25 0.101 0.153 0.157 0.311
1964 6 1 5 196 181 4 23 5 0 4 4 13 46 0.127 0.190 0.221 0.411

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