Where do I start?
You don’t need me to remind you of this, because the memories are still fresh – and most definitely not positive.
The Cardinals got swept aside at Pittsburgh, losing three games by a combined score of 13-0.
Three straight shutout losses.
That’s not all.
The Redbirds are 3-5 in their last eight games, which wouldn’t be a big deal – well, except for their failure to score a run in any of the defeats.
Their last five losses.
All by shutouts.
In these five shellackings, the Cardinals batted .154 overall and went 3 for 28 (.107) with runners in scoring positions.
A string of five losses, all by shutouts?
You could say this is rare.
Actually you could say it’s only happened once – in the same season – in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history.
And we just saw it.
Unless my nifty StatHead search engine is pranking me, here’s the deal:
From the start of the 1901 season through the first 80 games of the 2025 campaign, no St. Louis Cardinals team had ever suffered the indignity and embarrassment of getting blanked five consecutive times when losing a game.
I’m not talking about any old losing streak. Five-game losing streaks are common. This is different.
From their two straight shutout losses to end the four-game series against the Cubs, and going blankety, blankety, blank in Pittsburgh, the Cardinals managed to stop off in Cleveland to sweep the three-game series from the Guardians.
But if we look at a span of five losses – even if those losses were interrupted by one or more victories – the Cards have never put up zeroes in all five of the thrashings.
Here’s another odd twist: The Cardinals have been participants in seven shutouts over their last eight games.
In addition to being victimized by five shutouts, the Redbirds also pitched two shoutouts in their two wins at Cleveland.
This stuff is loony. Which makes sense in a season that doesn’t make sense. The 2025 Cardinals have pretty much been meshugana all year – and heck, that even applies to last offseason.
To update a note that I offered Wednesday …
+ In their last 10 losses, the Cardinals have scored four runs. Total. They were shut out six times, scrimped for a single run in another loss, and “erupted” for exactly two runs in their other two setbacks.
+ And over the same stretch of season – June 14 through July 2 – the Cardinals won 11 games and averaged 7.45 runs per successful outcome. They never scored fewer than five runs in any conquest – and had eight or more runs five times.
Can the Cardinals pick a lane, and stay with it?
What’s up with all of these hideous crashes where this team looks like the famously hopeless 1962 Mets?
What’s up with all of these ruthless beatdowns and smackdowns of opponents – the occasions where the 2025 Cardinals look like the 105-win St. Louis team that destroyed pitchers with a lineup that included Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Larry Walker, Edgar Renteria, and Reggie Sanders? Hell, even John Mabry slugged .504 for the ‘04 Cards.
So what will we see next as the Cardinals prepare to reacquaint themselves with the Cubs at Wrigley Field?
Brendan Donovan had the perfect summation of the dreadful 72 hours in Pittsburgh:
“We sucked. We didn’t score any runs. We’re on to Chicago. That’s all I got,” Donovan told reporters.
Straight and to the point.
BIRD BYTES
1) The Cardinals getting swept in Pittsburgh is not the apocalypse. The Cardinals are a very streaky team. That’s been well established, so nothing should surprise us when they (a) stack a bunch of wins or (b) when they get slapped around and look weak.
2) Was STL’s inability to score even a crummy little run in 27 innings of baseball embarrassing? Yes. It was horrendous. And there are no excuses to justify it. I’ve got another stat for you: remember back on April 9, when the Cardinals closed a three-game series at Pittsburgh by losing 2-1 in 13 innings? OK, if we take that loss and add it to this week’s sweep, the Cardinals are 0-4 in their last four games at PNC Park and have scored one run in 40 innings. Good grief.
3) I also detect some snobbery in the Cardinal territories, with folks acting like losing to the Pirates is a shocking and unacceptable failure that’s simply incomprehensible. Politely, I would suggest this: pay attention to what teams are doing, and how they’re trending.
4) The Pirates have a winning record (25-24) since firing Derek Shelton and promoting coach Don Kelly to the manager’s office. Since May 20, the Pirates are 23-17 for a .575 winning percentage that ranks fourth-best in the National League over that time; only the Dodgers, Brewers and Cubs have done better.
Which also means, that over the past 44 days, the Pittsburgh crew has a better record than the Phillies, Mets, Padres, Cardinals, Giants, Diamondbacks, and Braves. And a higher winning percentage over that time than some prominent American League teams – Yankees, Red Sox and Mariners. The Pirates are raising the Jolly Roger.
5) This is also a molten-lava hot Pittsburgh outfit that has won eight of its last 10 games including their last six in a row. In shredding the Mets and the Cardinals in back-to-back three-game three-game series, the Pirates outscored New York and St. Louis 43-4.
The Mets, who have a $330 million payroll, were outscored by 26 runs during the three losses to the Pirates, who rank 26th in the majors with a $92 million payroll. So, do ya really think the Cardinals are so high and mighty that getting swept by the Pirates is unimaginable? Please. Do you really watch this team? Haven’t you seen enough to know that they’re up and down, they zig and zag, and swerve all over the place?
6) The Pirates have good pitching. This season their starting-pitching ranks 9th among the 30 teams in ERA. Their bullpen also ranks 9th in ERA. But during their 23-17 streak the Bucs are 6th in starting-pitching ERA and 2nd in bullpen ERA. And when a team pitches that well, it can beat any opponent. And over the last 40 games, 20 of the 23 Pirates’ victories have come against the Cubs, Brewers, Phillies, Padres, Diamondbacks, Tigers, Astros, Reds, Mets and Cardinals. I don’t think the fans of any of those ballclubs should be snooty about losing to the Pirates.
7) So, what’s next? Try to go to Wrigley Field and win at least one game. Stop the bleeding. If they can’t win the series, then at least get out of there with one victory. The Cubs are 27-15 at home, so it will be tough … especially considering that Miles Mikolas will start the first game, and Erick Fedde is scheduled to start the third game – with Matthew Liberatore pitching in the middle game.
8) Other than just scoring some dadgum runs – period, end of story, and stating the obvious – the Cardinals have to take advantage of opportunities to do just that. In their five shutout losses since June 26, the Redbirds went 3 for 28 with runners in scoring position against the Cubs and Pirates.
9) With Nolan Arenado (finger) and Willson Contreras (wrist) banged up – their status for Friday’s game is unknown at this point – it’s imperative for their primary hitters to get cranked up. In the sweep at Pittsburgh, Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Masyn Winn and Nolan Gorman combined for 7 hits in 49 at-bats (.143) with 14 strikeouts. That includes their combined 1 for 13 (and five strikeouts) with runners in scoring position.
10) The Cardinals’ left-handed batters went 7 for 48 (.146) in the Pirates series and were 1 for 14 with RISP.
11) No question, the five straight shutout losses are unsettling and troubling. The 3-5 record in the last eight games is discouraging. But here are a couple of other things to keep in mind about the Cardinals: in their last five series they’ve won three, lost one, and split the other for a 3-1-1 record. This team just played 15 games in a 14-day stretch and went 9-6. They’re a little beaten up and dragging, but the Cardinals have demonstrated the ability to rally after being in a rut. Wrigley Field might be the wrong place for that, but after a day off, the Cards should be highly energized for a weekend showdown against the rivals.
12) The Cardinals trail the Cubs by 5 games – and would fall to 5 and ½ out if the North Siders beat the Guardians on Thursday. But the Redbirds have been in worse shape than this; they trailed the Cubs by 7 games on June 17.
13) The Cardinals are fortunate because other NL wild-card contenders are having their own problems.
Through Wednesday:
– Mets, 4-14 in their last 18 games.
– Giants, 5-12 in the last 17.
– Diamondbacks, 2-5 in the last seven.
– Padres, 8-12 in the last 20.
14) Postseason probability: according to FanGraphs, as of early Thursday afternoon the Cardinals had a 38.1 percent chance of making the playoffs. The Clay Davenport projections – which I make sure to pay attention to – give the Cards a 50.6 percent shot at reaching the postseason tournament. In the NL, four teams have a postseason probability of 80.7 percent or higher: Dodgers, Cubs, Phillies, Mets. Next in line are the Brewers (53.3%) and the Cards. So the Davenport projections give St. Louis more of a chance to get into the tournament than San Diego (46.9%), Arizona (28.1%), San Francisco (27.4%), Cincinnati (23.4%) and Atlanta (7.3%.) It surprises me to see the Cardinals to be that high on the list, but I’ve followed (and respected) the Davenport forecast for many years.
15) How inconsistent are the Cardinals? The monthly winning percentages show us: .452 in March-April, .704 in May, and .467 in June-July.
The Cardinals have been as high as nine games over .500, and as low as five games below .500 (multiple times.) They won nine in a row in May as a part of a 12-1 stretch, then lapsed into a six-game losing streak in June while losing 10 of 14 games.
And as the excellent Cardinal blogger C-70 pointed out – subscribe to him on Substack, and it’s free – just look at STL’s season in 22-game segments.
9-13
5-17
12-10
11-11
Win a series from the Dodgers, sure. Win two series from the Phillies? Sure! Win a series against Houston? Yes. Sweep the Diamondbacks; get swept by the Pirates. Get swept by the Blue Jays; go sweep the Guardians.
Get stomped by the Mets, then win the rematch in their next series against the Metropolitans. Take two of three games from the Brewers in St. Louis, then lose three of four to the Brewers in Milwaukee.
Win the first two games of a four-game series against the Cubs at Busch Stadium – then get flattened by the Cubs in the final two games of the series.
On and on it goes. Eighty-eight games into a 162-game schedule, nothing can surprise me about this team. NOTHING.
They are a fun team with a fierce competitive streak. But they can also be flabbergasting and frustrating. They're exciting but enigmatic.
At 47-41, the Redbirds are winning more often than I anticipated going into the season ... and I’ll take that.
On the road to No. 162, there will be dangerous curves and smooth highways. They’ll play fast and free, and they’ll also have flat tires and get snarled in traffic. And at times, their battery will die, as it did in Pittsburgh.
Maybe the Cards will end up beating themselves by wrecking. Maybe they’ll end up beating the odds to make the playoffs.
Who knows? It’s been an adventure. And I like adventures.
Thanks for reading and have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend.
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. You can access all of his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX (104.1-FM and 1120-AM0 and he is a regular guest on the “Cardinal Territory” video show hosted by Katie Woo of The Athletic. Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast with Will Leitch on the Cardinals.