(Again) Too Little, (Again) Too Late

For the fourth game in a row, the Cardinals have scored the first four-plus runs of the game, got outscored afterwards, and had the tying run unsuccessfully come up to bat!

They did this in all three games against the Padres, as discussed in this post. And then, last night, sure enough, they jump out to a 5-0 lead (again)--dominating the first six innings (again)--then allow an ultimately futile Houston rally which nonetheless brought up the tying run (again).

This is just too weird. Baseball is random...game patterns don't repeat themselves four times in a row. I mean, St Louis simply won four in a row--with any pattern--only twice after the All-Star Break.

So check out this breakdown. During innings one through six of these four games, the Cardinals' opponents came to bat 24 times, and scored in only one of those at-bats. But in innings seven through nine, the Cards' opponents came to bat 12 times, and scored in nine of them!! This is beyond "Well, their starters are great and their bullpen is terrible." It defies logic.

Extra Esoterica
St. Louis won 100 regular season games despite never winning more than five in a row. That has got to be a record. I bet almost every team just this year had at least one six-game streak. By the way, they never lost more than three in a row, either. They're just the most consistant SOB's ever, I guess! [I will look into these notes and report back soon] Oddly enough, including the last three games of the reglular season, tonight's win was their seventh in a row!