How Do The St. Louis Cardinals Keep Doing It? How Bout Luck?

The St. Louis Cardinals have a high powered offense and sit in second place in the NL Central behind the Cincinnati Reds.

The St. Louis Cardinals are in second place, one spot ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But despite having one of the best offenses in baseball based on select statistics, the team also has some interesting things happening that have helped them reach their perch.

The most interesting thing is the Cardinals average on ground balls.  It sort of surprised me.  The Cardinals have hit .278 on groundballs this season.  Sounds strange right?    The second highest average is .255 and that belongs to the Nationals.  The Red Birds have 41 more groundball hits than the Nats.  We aren’t talking small sample.

A whole lot of groundballs are getting through the infield for the Cards.  Check out the whole story here on FanGraphs.

Yeh, that’s all we got–but we really liked Kurt’s photoshop of the Cardinals–so we thought we would find something lucky to share with you.

The Cardinals have to regress in those numbers, it’s only logical.    And that’s a good sign for the Bucs.

In some other bad Cardinals news, check this out…

Starter Adam Wainwright gave up five runs in five innings last night against the Mets. Afterward he had some quotes that I envision him saying really fast and in a nervous tone. Perhaps that’s because he is a really good pitcher on the team in front of the Bucs, but also because it just sounds that way too.

Wainwright has thrown over 170 innings in 2012 now.

"“What’s 170 innings? I threw 60 more than that two times. I’m not even winded at all. My body is physically in shape to pitch a long season. In my mind, I have a new elbow to do it with.“I wouldn’t say there’s any reason to talk about (fatigue) at all. I’ve just had bad starts. My arm’s not even getting sore, and that’s the truth. I haven’t had a sore elbow or shoulder all year. Not one time, since about two months into the season.”"

The St. Louis Cardinals first-year manager Mike Matheny talked about fastball command being the problem.

"“Right now, it’s one of those spots where he’s not pitching like he normally does. We’re going to try to make some minor adjustments to get him locked back in.”"

Minor adjustments being made to Wainwright make me nervous, what if they get him fixed?  As a Pirates fan that sucks.

"“A couple of starts ago, he was very impressive. He had a couple of nice outings, as impressive as he’s ever had.”"

We’re big fans of bad Cardinals news, stay tuned for more as the season winds to an exciting conclusion.