ST. LOUIS -- A heavy workload could cause trouble if the Cardinals can't find a way to shift some weight off the shoulders of an outstanding bullpen.
St. Louis relievers lead the National League with 10 wins and a 2.24 ERA to go along with a major league-best 16 saves in 19 opportunities. But as happy as he's been with their performance, manager Mike Matheny has some serious concerns about their 120 2/3 innings, the third most in the National League.
"It's the rest of our bullpen that's paying when we can't get our starters very deep in the game," Matheny said Saturday after a 4-3, 10-inning loss to Detroit in which starter Tyler Lyons went only 3 2/3 innings. "That's gotta change. We've got to figure out how to get it done."
A solid balance carried the Cardinals early in the season, when starters made it into the seventh inning in nine of the first 15 games. Then ace Adam Wainwright tore his Achilles while batting April 25 at Milwaukee, and suddenly everything shifted.
Five relievers stepped in to hold off the Brewers for a 5-3 win, setting the tone for a busy 21-game stretch featuring only one rest day. Starters have pitched into the seventh inning only three times, and the average amount of work for the bullpen increased from 2 2/3 innings per game before Wainwright's injury to nearly 3 2/3.
Extra-inning games have played a small factor, but most of the problems can be traced to less efficient outings for Cardinals starters. Their ERA jumped from 1.95 prior to Wainwright's injury to 4.60 in the past 21 games, and even some otherwise strong outings ended early due to high pitch counts.
Unsurprisingly, Wainwright's spot in the rotation has caused the most problems, with Tim Cooney and Tyler Lyons unable to get through the fifth inning in any of their combined four starts. The offense rallied to tie each game and the bullpen picked up the slack well by giving up only two runs in 20 2/3 innings, but a razor-thin margin for error resulted in a 2-2 record.
Matheny saw some positives from Lyons in three starts, most notably 17 strikeouts in 13 innings. But the Cardinals sent the left-hander back to Triple A Memphis in exchange for reliever Sam Tuivailala on Sunday morning, and all signs point to Jaime Garcia returning to the rotation Thursday in New York.
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Garcia drove to St. Louis on Friday night after giving up two runs and striking out six in six innings during a second rehab start for Double A Springfield. The left-hander said he's feeling even better than before a shoulder injury sidelined him during spring training.
"I could tell a big difference when I started throwing the simulated games before," said Garcia, who went 3-1 with a 4.12 ERA in seven starts for the Cardinals last season. "In my mind, I'm ready to compete. Maybe I just needed a little extra time. Who knows what really happened?"
Matheny stopped short of naming a starter for next Thursday but said he liked what he saw from Garcia over the past week. Marco Gonzales appears to be making progress in his recovery from a shoulder injury as well, though the 23-year-old prospect faced some struggles in two rehab starts for Memphis.
Better outings from a fifth starter won't cure all the recent issues, but the other four Cardinals in the rotation have shown the ability to pitch well deep into games this season. Lance Lynn, John Lackey, Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez all gave up two runs or fewer in their most recent start, but inefficiency prevented them from going beyond the sixth inning.
It's a problem the bullpen has been good enough to work around, at least for now.
"I don't know if we're completely dodging or just deflecting, because somebody is going to have to pay," Matheny said.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
