Cardinals reached troubling new low with series opening loss to Reds

The St. Louis Cardinals are struggling. After their 6-1 loss in their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, they fell to 60-59 and remained 7 1/2 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.

They sit just 2 1/2 games back of the third and final Wild Card spot but have two teams to jump over to get into that position. They have also lost 17 of their last 29 games.

On Monday night, they may have reached yet another new low, as was pointed out by Cardinals insider Brandon Kiley on Twitter.

"Cardinals run differential through 119 games in 2024 [is] -53. Cardinals run differential through 119 games in 2023 [is] -26," Kiley wrote.

This is certainly a concerning trend for St. Louis. Last year, they finished 71-91 and fell to last place in the NL Central. It was the worst season in St. Louis since 1990, and through 119 games last year, their run differential was better than it is through 119 games this year. Their expected record even suggests that they should be 54-65 rather than 60-59.

So, in a sense, they may be overperforming, even though they remain mired in mediocrity.

Their hopes of gaining a Wild Card spot by the end of the year are alive, but they are going to have to turn things around quick if they want to avoid missing the postseason for a second consecutive year. They also have an incredibly difficult schedule coming up and will face mostly teams above .500 for the rest of the season.

We'll see if they can weather the storm and reach the playoffs.

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