Brian
Walton
TheCardinalNation.com
Apr
25, 2010
Through the
first 17 games, ten percent of the season, St. Louis Cardinals hitters are
striking out at a team-record rate.
The 2010 St. Louis Cardinals have relied on
home runs and stellar starting pitching to forge a 10-7 record, good enough for
first place in the National League Central Division. They have prevailed
despite a high level of strikeouts.
Part of that
winning formula was followed on Saturday night, as Adam
Wainwright held San Francisco
hitters off the scoreboard for seven innings but they eventually got to him for
two runs in the Giants' 2-0 home win.
On the other
half of the ongoing winning formula, the Cardinals offense sputtered again. Not
only do they remain stuck on 60.5 percent of their runs scored via home runs
(46 of 76 runs), they did not score at all Saturday after plating just one run
on Friday. It was their second consecutive defeat at San Francisco and first
series loss of the season.
Further, Barry
Zito fanned ten batters Saturday night, increasing the Cardinals
