Cardinals Stingy Staff on Record Pace

Anyone who has been paying attention to the St. Louis Cardinals’ MLB-best 38-19 start to the 2015 season knows that pitching has been the key to the club’s success.

Not only is St. Louis’ team ERA of 2.58 first in all of baseball, it is the best by far – almost a half run per game better than the next-best staff, Pittsburgh at 3.03. Among the starters, Michael Wacha is leading the way at 2.18.

St. Louis’ offense is middle-of-the pack, raking ninth of 15 National League teams in runs scored and 18th of 30 MLB clubs. But the pitching is usually there to pick up the slack. When scoring three or fewer runs, the Cardinals have still won 13 times already this season, the most since at least 1968.

Back to the pitching. Including Sunday night’s comeback win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the 2015 Cardinals have held their opposition to two runs or less in an amazing 32 of their 57 games. During that time, the team is 26-6.

According to researcher Tom Orf, that 32 mark is tops through 57 games in Cardinals history, three games better than the wartime 1943 and 1944 clubs, which both had 29 games of holding their opponents to two or fewer runs.

Here is the data prior to Sunday, including the top 25 years of team performances through 57 games.

Rk Year #Games W L W-L% ERA CG SHO SV IP H ER HR BB SO WHIP SB CS WPA
1 2015 31 25 6 0.806 1.06 0 6 16 290 213 34 11 78 260 1.00 6 3 11.5
T2 1943 29 20 8 0.714 1.09 22 7 4 256 163 31 4 73 96 0.92 2 1 5.1
T2 1944 29 23 6 0.793 0.93 22 9 2 261 160 27 5 63 117 0.85 4 3 5.2
4 1968 28 24 4 0.857 0.87 18 7 6 258 171 25 3 52 150 0.86 4 5 9
5 2013 27 24 3 0.889 0.86 5 9 9 241 144 23 5 47 222 0.79 8 7 8.1
6 1966 26 21 5 0.808 1.08 12 7 8 233 148 28 10 58 166 0.88 5 6 8.3
T7 1964 24 20 4 0.833 1.21 15 4 4 216 141 29 12 50 132 0.88 6 3 8.4
T7 1946 24 23 1 0.958 0.88 20 7 1 216 143 21 4 54 99 0.91 3 1 7.3
T7 1942 24 19 5 0.792 1.07 18 5 2 211 149 25 6 68 101 1.03 0 2 1.3
T7 1915 24 18 5 0.783 1.05 21 6 0 205 153 24 1 43 73 0.95
T7 1945 24 19 5 0.792 1.14 19 5 1 221 161 28 2 73 74 1.06 4 5 4.9
T7 2009 24 21 3 0.875 1.13 3 4 10 215 139 27 4 54 145 0.89 2 4 8.8
T13 1927 23 21 2 0.913 0.83 22 7 0 205 126 19 2 37 69 0.80
T13 1991 23 18 5 0.783 1.43 2 2 11 208 135 33 9 48 107 0.88 15 8 6.5
T13 1978 23 17 6 0.739 1.1 14 7 2 203 114 25 2 61 118 0.86 18 8 6.8
T13 1937 23 21 2 0.913 1.04 20 3 1 207 169 24 6 38 129 1.00
T13 1933 23 21 2 0.913 0.96 18 4 2 207 139 22 2 72 81 1.02
T13 1997 23 15 8 0.652 1.53 2 2 7 206 159 35 5 63 170 1.08 21 9 7.1
T13 1988 23 19 4 0.826 1.04 3 4 12 217 148 25 3 57 123 0.94 7 8 7.9
T13 1939 23 20 3 0.87 1.1 15 6 5 205 134 25 3 48 79 0.89
T13 1971 23 19 3 0.864 1.19 18 6 3 204 146 27 3 64 110 1.03 1 1 6.4
T13 1917 23 19 4 0.826 0.89 19 2 0 212 140 21 3 61 63 0.95
T13 1981 23 22 0 1 1.06 6 3 11 220 139 26 6 35 88 0.79 16 4 8.6
T24 1918 22 14 8 0.636 0.93 18 1 0 204 154 21 2 38 68 0.94
T24 2001 22 21 1 0.955 1.3 2 4 10 200 145 29 13 53 149 0.99 5 6 7.4

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