Cardinals may be on verge of making unfortunate history in 2024

The St. Louis Cardinals are coming apart at the seams. With Tuesday night's loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the team dropped to .500 on the season at 60-60.

The team needed to capitalize on the opportunity to feast on a sub-.500 team such as the Reds. Instead, they have lost the first two games of the series and are now looking at potentially being swept.

A sweep would put the Cardinals back under .500 for the first time since June 19, and they have a chance to make some unfortunate history, as was pointed out by analyst Brandon Kiley.

"Cardinals run differential is currently -56," Kiley wrote on Twitter while providing a list of teams with run differentials of -55 or lower to finish over .500.

While run differential doesn't always indicate the true identity of a team, it can be pretty telling at times. If the Cardinals finish over .500 with their current run differential, they would join the 2001 New York Mets, 1962 Philadelphia Phillies, 1921 St. Louis Browns, and 1905 Detroit Tigers.

Finishing over .500 is preferable, and it would be good for the Cardinals to be able to do that, as they would have a better chance at the postseason. However, with the run differential being so low, they would still be in historically bad company.

Even with a .500 record, their expected record is 54-66, which is the worst in the National League Central.

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