The team's offensive woes have been discussed ad nauseum, but what I think we haven't really touched on in detail is just what these deficiencies do for the teams we face. Obviously it's easier to beat a team when it's only scoring 2-3 runs/game, but the lack of offensive production turns basically any pitcher into a "quality starter" when facing the Cards. Consider the following table:

I realize that traditional pitching stats (e.g., W/L, ERA) don't tell the whole story and are often misleading, but I think they are useful for descriptive purposes. If we look at the starting performances for each of the pitchers we've faced since 4/26 (i.e., the last game against the Cubs), which can loosely be considered the start of the Cards' troubles, given their disappointing 12-15 May, we can clearly see that 25 out of the last 37 starters we've faced have turned in "quality starts" against whatever lineup iteration we've happened to pencil in for that particular day.

Of course, one of the pitchers among the 37 counted for this exercise was Edison Volquez, who left his start on 6/1 with an injury after 1 IP. Unfortunately for the Birdos, the incomparable Mike Lincoln and company filled in admirably, yielding just 1 ER and 5 H over 8 strong innings of relief. We should probably discard this start from the pool, so we're looking at 25/36 now, but however you slice it, failing to put up more than 1 ER against 8 innings of bullpen mop-up duty when a stud starter leaves the game is pretty disappointing, to say the least.

As far as the performances of those remaining 12 starters, many of them looked pretty strong against our anemic offense as well. If we relax the "quality start" criteria by just one unit (i.e., 5+ IP, 4 ER or fewer), we can add 3 more performances to the "quality" starts against the Cards pool, for a running tab of 28 out of the past 36 pitchers we've faced. Clearly, you can't win baseball games when you don't score runs and our glaring offensive troubles really stack the deck against the team, even when the opposing team sends a very average starter to the hill.

During this period, the Cards have tallied a meager 130 runs over 37 games, good for a 3.5 runs/game average. Four times during this period we've lost when the opponent has scored 3 or fewer runs; we've lost another game when the opposition only scored 4 runs.

Further, it's not like the Cards have been facing off against baseball's best. Scan the table and instead of names like Lincecum, Hamels, and Greinke, you'll see such world beaters as JoJo Reyes (0-2; 7.00 ERA total, but 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER vs. STL), Shairon Martis (5-1; 5.31 ERA total, but a complete game, 5 hit, 1 ER performance vs. STL), Joe Blanton (4-3; 5.86 ERA total, but 6 IP, 4 hit, 1 ER), Ross Ohlendorf (5-5; 4.85 ERA total, but 12 IP, 9 H, 6 ER in two games vs. STL), Luke Hochevar (0-2; 10.80 ERA total, but 6.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER vs. STL), Manny Parra (3-7; 6.75 ERA total, but 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ERA vs. STL), and Jorge "Cy" De La Rosa (1-6; 5.28 ERA total, but 6.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER vs. STL) absolutely shutting down the Cardinals' bats.  

Thankfully, prior to last night, anyway, our collective pitching staff was among the best in baseball. Unfortunately, the starters (or the team, usually) don't have the glamour stats (e.g., Wins) to show for their efforts. If not for some gutsy (and perhaps unsustainable) performances by our starters over the last month-plus, this rough patch would look even worse within the context of the W/L column.

No matter which lens through which we look, I think it's clear that we need an offensive upgrade from somewhere in order to help pick up some of the slack. When the other team's 3rd, 4th, 5th, and/or call-up starters are regularly tossing up gems against your offense, it's fairly obvious that your lineup could use a significant shot in the arm. Our pitching staff can't be expected to be lights-out every night and at some point, our offense needs to throw up more than three-and-a-half runs per game on a regular basis.