Christian Yelich's 2019 dominance of the Cardinals is reaching ridiculous levels, and it's only April.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Yelich has seven home runs in five games against St. Louis this season. He's also hitting .563/.696/1.938 with 15 RBI, seven walks and 31 total bases versus St. Louis.
Yelich's dominance of the Cardinals isn't really a new thing, either. The 2018 NL MVP holds a career .329 average against the redbirds and had a 1.030 OPS against St. Louis in his MVP season last year.
What we've seen in 2019 however, is putting Yelich in all-time Cardinals killer territory.
Over the years there have been a lot of notable players who just own St. Louis pitching.
The Pirates slugger was unstoppable against the redbirds in the 70's and 80's.
Parker hit .314/.362/.510 and totaled 29 home runs and 126 RBI in 190 games versus the Cardinals.
In the 1980's, the Cardinals and the Mets had one of the best rivalries in baseball in the old NL East. Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry always seemed to step up his game against St. Louis.
In 140 career games against St. Louis Strawberry hit 27 home runs and drove in 89 runs. In 1988 alone Strawberry hit .364/.462/.764.
Jeffrey "one-flap-down" Leonard abused the Cardinals in the 80's, especially in 1987.
In '87 Leonard hit .340 in 12 games against St. Louis, and he carried that success into the postseason.
Leonard hit .417 with four home runs in the 1987 NLCS against the Cardinals. Oh yeah, St. Louis won that series in seven games.
No matter the uniform, Aramis Ramirez torched the Cardinals.
The long-time NL Central staple with the Pirates, Cubs and Brewers holds a career .309/.366/.520 slash line against St. Louis.
He also hit 28 home runs in 216 career games against the Cardinals and always seemed to show up in the clutch.
In just 29 career games against St. Louis, Thome made his mark.
The hall of famer hit .430 against the Cardinals with 18 home runs and 40 RBI in those 29 games.
The kid from Lafayette High School never held back against his hometown team.
Howard hit a ridiculous 23 home runs and drove in 69 runs in just 70 career games against the Cardinals. That's a home run every three games.
Howard also has a crazy 1.083 OPS against St. Louis in his career.
The Reds' Canadian slugger has pretty much abused everyone in baseball since he debuted in 2007, but he especially likes hitting against his central rivals from St. Louis.
Votto's OBP is .444 for his career against St. Louis, and has 73 extra-base-hits in 172 games against the Cardinals.
It always seemed like Pedro Alvarez couldn't hit against anyone but the Cardinals.
The slugging infielder hit 18 home runs in 85 career games against St. Louis, and in 2012, Alvarez hit .397 with 18 homers and 23 RBI against the Cardinals.
I'm pretty sure Corey Hart hung around for 11 years in the big leagues just based on the fact he killed Cardinals pitching.
Hart hit 17 home runs in 95 career games against the Cardinals and slugged .490 for his career against St. Louis.
The others
Three guys who ended up joining the Cardinals later in their careers feasted on the team before that.
Carlos Beltran's playoff dominance of St. Louis is legendary, but I think the playoff image we'll all remember from Beltran is him looking at a nasty Adam Wainwright curveball to end the 2006 NLCS.
In 154 games against the Cardinals, Lance Berkman hit 39 home runs, drove in 118 runs and held a 1.016 OPS.
On the pitching side, it always seemed like the guy that gave the Cardinals the most trouble in recent years was Bud Norris. They just couldn't figure him out.
Christian Yelich is well on his way to joining the ranks of these Cardinals killers, especially if he has an extended stay in Milwaukee.
Some guys just have a team's number.