With just over a month to go in the 2023 regular season, it is clear that the St. Louis Cardinals will not still be playing by the time the postseason begins.
Pitching struggles have plagued their season and taken them out of postseason contention.
After Monday night’s 11-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis owns a record of 55-71, sitting at a season-most 16 games below the .500 mark.
The Cardinals have been in this position multiple times this season.
However, Cardinals beat writer Jeff Jones noted a potential silver lining, that every time the Cardinals have hit 16 games below the .500 mark, they have been able to win the next day and not fall any further below.
The upside for the Cardinals is that, on the the five previous occasions when they’ve fallen to a season-worst 16 games below .500, they’ve won their next game. And hey, tomorrow is an Adam Wainwright start, so he’s drawing live for 199!
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) August 22, 2023
St. Louis will have Adam Wainwright on the mound for Tuesday’s game against the Pirates, as he attempts to move closer to 200 career wins.
At this point, the Cardinals have not been more than 16 games below the .500 mark, which somewhat works in their favor as they take on the Pirates this week.
But the 2023 season has been anything but normal for the Cardinals, who are usually clear postseason contenders.
A loss on Tuesday would take them to 17 games below .500, and the Cardinals haven’t been that far under .500 in quite a while.
They’ll turn to Wainwright hoping to avoid that and to try and get as close to .500 as they can before the end of the regular season.
St. Louis last finished under .500 in 2007.
That year, they went 78-84 on the heels of their 2006 World Series championship run.
NEXT: The Cardinals Own A Confusing 2023 Mark
