Random Statistical Information

With a day off yesterday, there's not much to do but look forward to this series coming up with the Brewers.  Let's see what we can find out.

First off, our traditional examination of how the starting pitchers have done against the batters they are going to be facing.  The Cards toss out Braden Looper tonight.  Looper has had some issues with the Brewers, or at least those players that make up the team now.  Jason Kendall could continue his hot streak tonight, as he's beaten around Looper at a .467 clip in his career.  Then you have Prince Fielder, who is 3-6 with a home run against Looper.  It could be a short evening for the Cardinal starter.

Dave Bush will be on the mound for the Brewers, but he's had his own problems, though not where you'd expect.  He's limited Albert Pujols to a 1-for-8 with no homers, but Ryan Ludwick is 3 for 7 against him and Yadier Molina--yes, Yadier Molina--is 4 for 7 with 3 home runs.  That's more home runs than Molina has against any other pitcher.  (There's only two others, Mark Redman and former Cardinal Kip Wells, that he has more than one against.)  Of course, most of that was from this game, where he went deep in his first two at-bats as the Cards made their August push last year.

The Cardinals went 8-7 against the Brewers last year.  Since Milwaukee moved to the National League, the Cardinals are 91-59 (.607) against them.  You have to go all the way back until 1999 to find a year that St. Louis has a losing record against the Brew Crew.

Baseball Reference has some neat pages.  Like this one, which breaks down the scoring for the year.  The Cards haven't blown a lead greater than one, according to them.  I assume that means that they've not lost a game where they've lead by more than one, since they did have a two run lead in the ninth against San Francisco that got away, but they won the game in the tenth.

In five of their 13 games, they've scored in the first inning, which is big.  Getting that first run across early can help with winning ballgames.  Interestingly, their big inning has been the eighth.  They've scored in that inning seven times, piling up 15 runs in the process.  So never leave the game early!

On the flip side, the pitching staff has struggled in the fourth and the seventh, allowing 10 runs in both of those innings.  The seventh has had more impact, since those 10 runs have been scored in seven outings, rather than the eight outings it took for the fourth inning to pile them up.

A few things to keep in mind tonight as you are watching the ball game!


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