On Wednesday night, fans of the St. Louis Cardinals felt a familiar ache after a heartbreaking 10-7 loss to the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.
They had overcome an early 3-0 deficit against Cristian Javier and led 7-5 going into the eighth inning until José Altuve and José Abreu reversed the trend and put Houston on top.
Although the Cardinals have been playing a little better in recent weeks, the bullpen has been the main culprit for their June woes.
Last night marked the 25th time this season that the Cardinals lost a game after leading earlier.
Only the Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s have more such losses than the Cardinals, as noted by MLB.com’s John Denton.
Launch issues abound for STL. After losing a 7-5 lead over Wed, the #CardsSTLCards they have lost 25 games in which they had an advantage. only the #Royalty (29) #As (26) have more losses of this type.
only the #Rocky Mountains (6.51) & #Reds (5.91) have worse starting ERAs than STL (4.85) in the National League.
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) June 29, 2023
Adding insult to injury, the Cardinals haven’t gotten any good pitching this season either.
Their rotation has a collective 4.85 ERA this season.
The Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds are the only teams with higher starting ERAs.
The Reds own a 5.91 mark while the Rockies own a 6.51 mark.
But the bullpen was the reason St. Louis came up short on Wednesday.
Right-hander Giovanny Gallegos allowed five runs in just two-thirds of an inning, all on home runs by Altuve and Abreu.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 33-46 on the season after they moved within five outs of a series win against the defending champions.
They will turn to Adam Wainwright, hoping to avoid a series loss on Thursday.
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