For St. Louis Cardinals fans, Friday night’s 5-0 defeat in the National League Championship Series Game 5 offered a continuation of a frustrating trend. A night after the club scored eight runs against San Francisco, the offense laid a goose egg against non-hard throwing Barry Zito.
When Cardinals scoring has been low, it has been very low. In four post-season losses, they have averaged just one measly tally.
Yet, when they have been high, they have been very high. In seven playoff wins to date in 2012, the Cardinals offense has plated an average of 7.4 runs.
That average scoring difference of 6.4 runs between wins and losses is the largest spread in team post-season history.
For comparison, let’s look at the team’s offensive output in recent playoff years.
St. Louis Cardinals, post-season run-scoring, team history
| Cards | Gms with | Gms with | Gms with | Gms with | Gms with | R/win minus |
||||||||
| Playoffs | Losses | Runs | R/loss | 0 runs | 1 runs | Wins | Runs | R/win | 8 runs | 9 runs | 10+ runs | R/loss | ||
| 2012TD | 4 | 4 | 1.0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 52 | 7.4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6.4 | ||
| 2011 | 7 | 29 | 4.1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 81 | 7.4 | 4 | 3.2 | ||||
| 2009 | 3 | 6 | 2.0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 2006 | 5 | 9 | 1.8 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 55 | 5.0 | 1 | 3.2 | ||||
| 2005 | 4 | 6 | 1.5 | 3 | 5 | 31 | 6.2 | 1 | 4.7 | |||||
| 2004 | 8 | 19 | 2.4 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 49 | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 4.6 | |||
| 2002 | 4 | 11 | 2.8 | 2 | 4 | 25 | 6.3 | 1 | 3.5 | |||||
| 2001 | 3 | 4 | 1.3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 4.0 | 2.7 | |||||
| 2000 | 4 | 13 | 3.3 | 1 | 4 | 32 | 8.0 | 1 | 1 | 4.8 | ||||
| 1996 | 4 | 3 | 0.8 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 30 | 5.0 | 1 | 4.3 | ||||
| 1987 | 7 | 17 | 2.4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 32 | 4.6 | 2.1 | |||||
| 1985 | 6 | 6 | 1.0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 36 | 5.1 | 1 | 4.1 | ||||
| 1982 | 3 | 9 | 3.0 | 1 | 7 | 47 | 6.7 | 1 | 3.7 | |||||
| 1968 | 4 | 6 | 1.5 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 7.0 | 1 | 5.5 | |||||
| 1967 | 3 | 5 | 1.7 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 5.0 | 3.3 | |||||
| 1964 | 3 | 7 | 2.3 | 1 | 4 | 25 | 6.3 | 1 | 3.9 | |||||
| 1946 | 3 | 5 | 1.7 | 1 | 4 | 23 | 5.8 | 1 | 4.1 | |||||
| 1944 | 2 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 3.3 | 1.8 | ||||||
| 1943 | 4 | 5 | 1.3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 2.8 | |||||
| 1942 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 4 | 19 | 4.8 | 1 | 0.8 | ||||||
| 1934 | 3 | 7 | 2.3 | 1 | 4 | 27 | 6.8 | 1 | 1 | 4.4 | ||||
| 1931 | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 4.0 | 3.0 | |||||
| 1930 | 4 | 4 | 1.0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4.0 | 3.0 | |||||
| 1928 | 4 | 10 | 2.5 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 1926 | 3 | 8 | 2.7 | 1 | 4 | 23 | 5.8 | 1 | 3.1 |
Note that the Cardinals have been held to an average of one run or less in their post-season losses four times before. (Also, the 2012 Cards have been held to zero or one run three times already, but it is not their worst showing.)
The team has averaged 7.4 runs or more in their playoff wins two other years, including as recently as 2011. (Also, this year’s club has scored eight more runs four times already, tying 2011 with the most such games ever.)
However, as noted in the column at the far right, never has there been a gap as wide as 6.4 runs in scoring average by the Cardinals between their post-season wins and losses. In fact, they have never been close to this schizophrenic before, with the biggest prior gap at 5.5 runs in 1968.
In other words, the extent of the feast-or-famine nature of 2012 Cardinals scoring is unprecedented in team post-season history.
Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for pulling the above data.
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I want to believe the Cardinals can pull this off, really I do, but common sense tells me if Vogelsong is on tonight, the Cardinals are toast.
After the game Friday i am with you Crdswmn.I have a bad feeling about tonite and game 7.The offense has looked clueless at times and nobody steps up.I really hope to be wrong tonite but i see a SF win bigtime 8 or 9 to 0
If the Cards don’t win this series, some (not me) will attempt to rationalize it by saying it is Matheny’s first year and no one expected them to even get this far…
I could probably rationalize it easier by saying that any manager that gets a team to the NLCS with Pete Kozma as your starting shortstop is a “genius”.
Do any of you have any idea at all what Tony was fighting against? And I’m not talking solely about his long struggle to keep AP in SL. That was only a facet of the complex struggle in matters which define a rapidly changing game. The one that was most visible. The lack of imagination and most importantly, the lack of adjustments that highlight this teams current quandary………….. this just in…. ..Matt Holiday out…and its isn’t back stiffness………. good for Matt….he finally stood up.
Yes, such a quandry. a 3-2 lead in the NLCS division series. My, my, what a quandry
I was thinking tonight was the time when Holliday would pull ahead of our #8 hitter in post season RBIs. Dang.
Holiday will be in the lineup tomorrow. He has mental issues. Its supposed to be raining out here for the nest 5 days. Tomorrows game will be complicated. Today is the HR game plan. Yeah that works.
That’s why Matheny is saving his pitching…………. get serious though…… Tomorrow is another day.
I don’t play Kozma tomorrow. I use the vets. Try to grind one out.
2 guys on and Schumacker up.No hope at all.Damn bunch of jacklegs calling themselves big league ballplayers.Disgusting.
Famine. What a surprise that the Cards score one in a loss.
Right now i wouldn`t give a plug nickel for the Cards chances in game 7.Absolutely pathetic.No starting pitcher is can keep the team in the game.No clutch hitting……………..hell what am i saying? No damn hitting at all.Crappy defense .
“Our guys will come out and play a different brand of baseball tomorrow.” – Mike Matheny
From Pee Wee League to Little League?
Lots of doom and gloom on the radio this morning. Heard from former players Brian Jordan, Isringhausen, Andy Van Slyke, Jim Edmonds. None were optimistic.
Well, I will be at at a legal event tonight, so I will miss the game entirely and all of the post mortem bitching and moaning if the Cardinals lose. Have fun.
Tough to turn momentum on the road, but it can be done.
Considering everything, the right man will be on the mound in Lohse.
Considering my current state of emotional health, I am glad I have an excuse not to subject myself to this game. I do want them to win, but a small part of me just wants it all to be over with. Eliminate one of my sources of stress.
I will check my phone for game updates, but my battery won’t last the whole game so I can’t follow it entirely.
Chances are that in a room of Missouri lawyers, someone else may have an eye on the game, too.
It’s at the law school, so I imagine there will be students with the game on somewhere. I will be listening for excited yelling.