The St. Louis Cardinals longest winning streak of the season came to a close Sunday afternoon, but there is plenty of reason to think this team still has fuel left in the tank.
Through most of this season, the majority of the Cards numbers were buried in a sea of mediocrity, but since the All-Star break, the team finds its position looking better.
Even before the streak, the Cardinals were beginning to see some offensive numbers slowly begin to normalize.
Since the break, the Cardinals have the third best batting average in the National League — .273. The same team whose offense has felt so flat this season is now outhitting both the Los Angeles Dodgers (.262) and the Washington Nationals (.267).
Before the break, the Cardinals batted .258, giving them the eighth spot in the NL.
And it’s not just batting average.
The Cards have the second highest on-base percentage in the NL (.354), behind only the Colorado Rockies (.356). Pre-break they sat at .329 for 8th in the NL.
The Cardinals are simply doing a better job of getting on base. In fact, the team’s current OBP would have led the NL before the break.
The team has bounced from 10th to third in total runs scored since the break with a total of 148 so far.
They’ve climbed from ninth to second in hits (275); from sixth to fifth in doubles (56), and from 10th to third in RBIs (141).
The Cards also boast the fourth most walks in MLB (third in the NL) with 115 since the break. Prior to that, they sat in ninth.
While most of the numbers show a team trending solidly in the right direction, they also illustrate a few notes of caution that could be headaches moving forward.
The Cardinals have grounded into the most double plays of any team in the NL — 29. That’s a habit that has to break.
They need to get the ball into the air and stop looking to avoid the shift. In the words of Willie Keeler “hit ‘em where they ain’t.”
Another point of concern is that the team ranks fifth in strikeouts among NL teams. I should point out that the majority of this was prior to the streak, but they still need to hang on to this newfound patience at the plate.
Their strikeouts have actually increased since the first half when the team ranked eighth in the NL.
In addition, the Cardinals rank 10th in home runs in the NL. That’s something this team (and its fan base) just isn’t used to experiencing.
No one has denied the power vacuum that has existed for the team most of the season, but for the most part, they’ve managed to get by without it. When young players like Tommy Pham and Paul DeJong are putting up respectable power numbers, it sort of masks the teams need for a truly dominant power hitter.
While the third and fourth spots in the lineup are producing well, they don’t incite that fear of lineups past.
Maybe that’s a good thing. Being underestimated was the fuel that fed the 2011 Cardinals.
Either way, there is plenty of good reason to not let the end of the streak leave you too discouraged. After the coming two games in Boston, the Cardinals have a long stretch where they should be able to pull quite a few wins.
Besides, only the streak ended, not the run.
Corey Noles has covered the Cardinals and MLB for a variety of publications and outlets since 2011. Find him on Twitter @coreynoles, or via email at coreynoles@att.net.