Cardinals End Eight Game Losing Streak Behind Paul Goldschmidt’s Three Home Runs

It’s May 8th, and the St. Louis Cardinals have the worst record in the National League at 11-24 after completion of play on May 7th. Since this is the club that won the National League Central last year with a 93-63 record, and were a pretty reasonable bet to win it again in a relatively weak division, this is something of a shock.

On May 7th, the Cardinals ended an eight game losing streak by beating the Detroit Tigers 12-6. Paul Goldschmidt hit three home runs in the victory. Since April 13th, St. Louis is 6-17. The Cardinals longest winning streak this season is two games, which they have done twice.

Speaking of Goldschmidt, this ineptitude is not his fault. The 2022 NL MVP is hitting .321 with seven homers and 20 RBIs, 14 doubles, and an OPS of .991 in 34 games. It doesn’t help that Nolan Arenado, who hit 30 homers and drove in 103 last year while hitting .293, is off to a terrible start (3, 18, .232 in 34 games). But overall, the Cardinals are about in the middle of the pack for offense.

The pitching, on the other hand hasn’t been so great. As a team. Cardinals’ pitchers have a 4.59 ERA, tied for ninth in the NL. But the starting pitching has been, well, not too good. The best starter so far has been Jordan Montgomery. He’s just 2-4 and but has an ERA of 3.29 with 38 strikeouts in 41 innings. It drops way off from there. Steven Matz is 0-4 with a 5.70 ERA, Miles Mikolas is 1-1 with a 5.79 ERA, Jake Woodford is 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA, and Jack Flaherty is 2-4 with a 6.29 ERA. Veteran ace Adam Wainwright made his first start after opening the season on the injured list; he allowed four runs and eight hits to the Tigers on May 6th, but he did strike out five and walked none so there may be some hope there.

The Cardinals have time to turn it around; we’re only 35 games into the season, and they are nine games behind the 1st place Pittsburgh Pirates in what we mentioned is the weakest division in the league. They have 16 games against NL Central foes between now and June 11th, so they have a chance to make up some ground in the standings.

Here’s some highlights of that rare victory over the Tigers: