Albert's 6-year streak of 100 runs/100 rbi is in serious jeopardy:

He's now on pace---if he plays every game the rest of the way---to score 101.2 runs and to drive in 100.0 runs, leaving him little room for any kind of slump, such as the one he's in right now.

Albert has not driven in a run in the Cardinals' last 10 games. Since August 6, Albert has exactly two run-scoring hits that weren't home runs, and even his home runs are doing minimal damage: the six he hit since Aug. 6 (all in a seven-game stretch) were all solo shots except for one.

It would be a shame for him to get really close to one or both those marks and fall just short, but such a scenario seems to have a chance of playing out...

My impression is that Flores has gotten killed by the first batter he sees, and I was curious to see if the evidence bears that out.

Boy does it.

Flores was excellent the first few weeks of the season---as was the Cardinals' pitching in general---and through his first 9 appearances he was holding the opposition to a .172/.200/.207 line, largely on the strength of his performance vs. the first batter he saw: they were a combined 0-for-9, including 2 Ks and 5 infield pop-ups. Interestingly, there was only one inherited runner on base during this time, and he was stranded.

From then on, Flores has been an absolute disaster.

Since April 27, Flores has a 6.86 era and the opposition is hitting .371/.406/.551 against him. That is really, really bad. It's even worse when considering just the first batter.

Flores has come in to 26 games since April 27, and he has allowed the first batter he's faced to reach against him 14 times.

It's even uglier with runners on base: the first batter he faces when he comes in with at least one runner on has reached base 8 times in 11 opportunities---a whopping .727 on-base pctg.

Since April 27 Flores has allowed 8 of 18 inherited runners to score ON THE FIRST PLAY AFTER HE ENTERS THE GAME. That is stunningly, shockingly bad. I didn't bother figuring his overall strand rate because I was focused on the results of the first plate appearance, but it's clearly awful.

Here are Flores's overall numbers vs. the first batter he sees.

11-for-31, .355/.400/.516.
That includes his season-opening 0-for-9 run, and he's still yielding a .916 OPS on the season vs. first batters.

Since April 27, here are the numbers for Flores vs. the first batter he sees:

11-for-22, .500/.538/.727

So if it seems like every time Flores comes in, the first batter gets on base, take solace in the fact that it's really only 54% of the time.