ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals' bats keep quietly improving even as they leave many more opportunities to score on the basepaths.
The fifth run consistently eludes St. Louis, which has scored at least four in each of its last five games since going scoreless in the last 13 innings of the opening series at Chicago's Wrigley Field a week ago. The Cardinals have reached five runs only once this season, in an 11-inning, 7-5 win over Cincinnati on Sunday, the same game that featured their lone three-run inning.
Many statistics paint a promising picture for the Cardinals' offense, which ranks fourth in the National League with a .248 batting average and fifth in on-base percentage at .319. St. Louis also possesses the National League's sixth-best strikeout percentage (19.6) and walk-to-strikeout ratio (0.44), according to FanGraphs.
Those figures keep rising along with the hit totals, including an average of 9.4 hits over the last five games. They've moved up to fourth in the NL with 8.7 hits per game for the season and even added six walks to the mix in Monday's 5-4 loss.
Every starter except Matt Adams has pulled his average above the Mendoza line, and even the big first baseman hit safely in his last three starts. More runs could be just a matter of time for an offense seeking to show it's better than the one that floundered often a year ago.
"I think we're fine," Adams says. "I think anybody that has that many off days at the beginning of the season, it's going to be tough on them. So we're getting back into a routine and I think it's definitely showing."
Just a few key elements are missing to keep the Cardinals slightly below the unusually low NL average of 3.71 runs per game, starting with an all-too-familiar problem. St. Louis has hit only four home runs, all at the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, and it's no coincidence two of them came on the same day the Cardinals scored a season-high seven runs.
Only three teams have hit fewer long balls, and St. Louis hasn't seen much power yet from perhaps its two most capable home run hitters, Jason Heyward and Matt Holliday. Heyward leads the team with four doubles, but all nine of Holliday's hits have been singles. Holliday doubled his RBI total with a two-run single in the first inning of Wednesday's 4-2 win over Milwaukee.
Watch the Cardinals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every St. Louis Cardinals game on FOX Sports Midwest.
"He's hitting the ball hard," Matheny says. "That's all we preach. The rest of the stuff will happen and he's got a nice approach. We're real happy with where he is right now."
The Cardinals stranded seven runners against the Brewers and now average 8.1 runners left on base per game. Only two major league teams average more.
Which, in some respects, is encouraging. Find some timely hitting, sprinkle in a few home runs, and the St. Louis offense should be humming right along.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
