Cardinals unable to sweep three-game series

The St. Louis Cardinals have failed all six times to sweep three-game series this season, but almost always come close.

Jim McIsaac/Getty ImagesOne by-product of the 2010 St. Louis Cardinals having put together just one winning streak of more than three games is the odd circumstance of them not having a single three-game series sweep* during their first 69 games.

Six times this season, the Cardinals have taken the first two games of a three-game set, only to lose the final contest each time. In a most interesting angle, St. Louis fell exactly one run short in five of those six game threes. (In all other one-run games this season, the Cardinals are 11-9.)

Another oddity is that three of the six series were within a ten-day period in April and the other three have been during June, with none occurring in May. The most recent four occurred at home, including both series in the just-concluded homestand – against the Seattle Mariners mid-week and the Oakland A’s last weekend.

Cardinals going for three-game sweep, 2010

Opponent G1 win Score G2 win Score G3 loss Score
at CIN 4/5/2010 11-6 4/7/2010 6-3 4/8/2010 1-2
at MIL 4/9/2010 5-4 4/10/2010 7-1 4/11/2010 7-8
HOU 4/12/2010 5-0 4/14/2010 2-1 4/15/2010 1-5
MIL 6/4/2010 8-0 6/5/2010 5-4 6/6/2010 3-4
SEA 6/14/2010 9-3 6/15/2010 4-2 6/16/2010 1-2
OAK 6/18/2010 6-4 6/19/2010 4-3 6/20/2010 2-3

Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for the above table.

* As part of their season-long five-game winning streak, the Cardinals did sweep the Atlanta Braves out of town in four straight from April 26-29.

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