This St. Louis Cardinals statistic puts current offensive woes in perspective

As the regular season winds down, the St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in a major funk at the plate.

After being blanked 1-0 by the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, the St. Louis Cardinals have extended their earned run scoreless streak to 42 innings. The Cardinals only mustered two hits on Wednesday at Petco Park as San Diego starter Blake Snell struck out 13 in his seven innings of work.

The “earned run” designation is important because St. Louis did score in the 11th inning in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds to secure a 1-0 victory. However, since the runner started on second base in extra innings, the run surrendered by Cincinnati reliever Fernando Cruz was unearned.

St. Louis last plated an earned run in the third inning of the first game of that doubleheader, part of a five-run explosion the Cardinals put together in the second and third frames on their way to a 5-1 victory. However, since then, the bats have gone silent for St. Louis.

Cardinals offense is silent

Over the last four games (in which the Cardinals have gone 1-3), St. Louis is hitting just .116 (14-for-121).

The offensive struggles come as St. Louis still lead the Milwaukee Brewers by 7.5 games in the National League Central. While the division is all but locked up, the Cardinals misfiring at the plate is concerning as St. Louis continues a West Coast swing versus the Padres then moves on to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers this weekend. The Dodgers and Padres are both teams St. Louis (who will be the third seed in the NL postseason, barring something unforeseen) could see in the postseason.

With MVP front-runner Paul Goldschmidt, perennial slugger Nolan Arenado, and milestone-chasing Albert Pujols in the lineup, it’s likely the zeroes for St. Louis will end soon. Still, with just 12 regular-season games left, St. Louis needs to get its bats firing before meaningful October baseball begins.