The St. Louis Cardinals have had winning seasons in 15 straight years, but they currently have the worst record in the National League at 10-22. St. Louis lost 11-7 to the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, giving the Cardinals losses in six straight games, with the last three at home.
While there have been problems across the board, the most alarming issue for St. Louis has been in the pitching department. The Cardinals have a 4.79 ERA as a team and a 5.48 ERA from their starting pitchers.
Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty allowed 10 earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings pitched on Thursday, raising his ERA to 6.29 on the season. As a 23-year-old in 2019, Flaherty had a 2.75 ERA over 196 1/3 innings pitched- he was a legitimate ace. Now, Flaherty summarizes the Cardinals’ stunning dreadful start to the 2023 season.
Rise and shine, Rengifo hit a rocket! 🚀#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/KyVJkqa2zR
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) May 4, 2023
After Thursday’s loss, Flaherty was very honest with the media about the team’s struggles and his own struggles in the early going.
Flaherty told the media that he wasn’t removed due to injury after being hit by a comebacker; he was removed because he “sucked.”
“My hand’s fine. I didn’t get taken out because of my hand. I got taken out because I sucked,” Flaherty told the media, according to John Denton of MLB.com.
#STLCards RHP Jack Flaherty on the come-backer off his left forearm:
“My hand’s fine. I didn’t get taken out because of my hand. I got taken out because I sucked.”
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) May 4, 2023
Flaherty added that everybody on the Cardinals is “f—— frustrated.”about the rough start to the season.
“Of course, everybody’s f—— frustrated. It is what it is, but we’re way better than this. That’s the thing — we know we’re better than this and we’re going to climb out of this. At some point, we’re going to figure it out. I was hoping it would be today and I was hoping to put together a good start, but I didn’t do it.”
The good news for Flaherty and Cardinals is that there’s still a long way to go in the season. Even with this NL-worst start, FanGraphs still gives the Cardinals a 23.5% chance to make the postseason. But they’re well into danger territory with 22 losses just 32 games into the season.
