Paul Skenes goes 0-3 vs St Louis
Paul Skenes and the St Louis Cardinals
someone more qualified than I could certainly break down how the cardinals offense is wearing down Paul Skenes… But I can tell you he is still being stingy with us, for certain with under 3 ERA:
- Skenes is 12-1 vs MLB
- however Skenes has 3 losses (and a no decision) to the Cardinals!
- June 11th, 2024: Skenes holds us back in his debut vs the Cardinals, with neither a win or a loss accounted to him
- L July 23rd, 2024: while the Cardinals lost 2-1 on 6/11/24, they won 2-1 vs Skenes on 7/23/24… Nolan Arenado and Alec Burleson provided the RBI.
- Skenes notched 8 strikeouts vs St Louis in each of these two games, 2 earned runs this game, and 9 hits total between the two
- L September 16th, 2024: Skenes owned us in this game and got a quality start too, but ended up being shackled with the loss… Arenado, Pages, Donovan, and Nootbaar all had RBI in this game but only one run was attributed to Skenes
- L April 8th, 2025: last night we scored 5 runs which tops any team to score vs Skenes…
-Victor Scott II with 2 RBI and a run scored, 2 for 5 on the day leading off
-Donovan RBI, walk, 2 for 3!
-Burleson and Pages both 1-4 with an RBI apiece
Ok so this last one brought some concern about JoJo… Romero that is. He was amazing with St Louis in their terrific 2023… terrificly bad for the Cardinals that is. Romero had a 2.22 FIP that year for us, which made him an instant wow bullpen arm with a 2.82 xERA. Last year he fell back a bit but was still good for 3.84 xFIP and 3.36 ERA.
Let it be noted the Cardinals are the only team to have scored at least 4 runs in every game this year so far. Brendan Donovan has 17 hits already. Guess who has the top offense in the NL: The Cardinals. And in the AL the Yankees.
As per positional fWAR so far, the Cubs and Cardinals lead the National League. The Cardinals lead MLB in batting average so far. They are #1 in on base %. And top 5 in home runs. In runs scored, the Cubs have scored 84, the Yankees 78, and the Cardinals 66. Every other team has scored less.
The Cubs and Cardinals have gained the most benefit from good defense this year so far. So why are the Cardinals under .500 on the season? The pitching!
We are now at -1 run differential on the season, despite one of the best offenses in MLB. What good news could come of this? Our team pitching staff ERA is north of 6.0, but the team FIP is under 4. This puts our pitching staff more in the middle of the pack, instead of last place *with Milwaukee second to last in ERA.
St Louis is last in left on base percentage with an absurdly low 51.5% men left on base. This cannot sustain and will get better for our pitchers. How much is the question. Our pitchers need to work on striking players out, or else improve from a middling groundball rate as a staff.
The Cardinals bullpen is among the worst by ERA and xFIP, but top 10 by FIP. So the verdict is still out on the ‘pen. As it will be always, to some extent.
The Cardinals starting pitching staff ERA appears to be an atrocity; however the FIP is more passable and the xFIP means we have an average starting pitching staff, which feels most right to me.
The Cardinals have been a confusing team thus far who have already taken us to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in an 11 game span. The Cubs appear to be the real deal so far with the best run differential in MLB at +32.
Going by run differential it’s the Cubs, Reds, then Cardinals. Somehow the Brewers are 6-5 with a negative 16 run differential though, so they still appear to have the devil magic.
Today’s game is an early one so I won’t say much more. It begins before noon. Comment away, we don’t have much time.
Album Hall of Fame: Alice In Chains – ‘Dirt’ perfect album start to finish, rock out
-dr. howl signing off
