Next task for Cardinals: Cool off baseball's hottest home team

By foxsports
Published

When the St. Louis Cardinals faced the San Francisco Giants earlier this season, the Cardinals won the series two games to one -- despite posting a team batting average of just .191 over the course of the series.

Cardinals' Lowest Team BA in Series Win vs. Giants Since 1914

Date Span Series W-L Team BA
6/5/1942 - 6/7/42 2-1 .161
6/9/1964 - 6/10/64 2-1 .172
5/14/1917 - 5/17/17 2-1 .178
8/22/1967 - 8/24/67 2-1 .181
8/17/2015 - 8/19/15 2-1 .191

Since July 10, the Giants are 15-3 in home games.

Highest Home Win Percentage Since July 10

Team W-L Win Percentage
San Francisco Giants 15-3 .833
Pittsburgh Pirates 15-4 .789
Houston Astros 17-5 .773
Kansas City Royals 17-6 .739
Toronto Blue Jays 14-5 .737

The Cardinals lead MLB with a 2.66 team ERA this season -- no other team has a sub-3.00 team ERA.

Largest Difference in Team ERA Between Top two Teams in MLB in ERA

Season Leader (ERA) Second (ERA) Difference
2003 Dodgers (3.16) Athletics (3.63) +0.47
1967 White Sox (2.45) Giants (2.92) +0.47
2015  Cardinals (2.66) Pirates (3.12) +0.46
1940 Reds (3.05) Dodgers (3.50) +0.45

Jason Heyward is trying to become the fifth different Cardinal (six instances) to lead the team in batting average and stolen bases in a season since 1985.

Cardinals' Team-Leader in BA and SB in Season Since 1985

Season Player BA SB
1992 Ozzie Smith .295 43
1993 Gregg Jefferies .342 46
1997 Delino DeShields .295 55
2005 Albert Pujols .330 16
2009 Albert Pujols .327 16
2015 Jason Heyward .286 20

Michael Wacha has been superb in two career starts versus the Giants, allowing just one run while walking one and striking out 13 over the two starts.

Pitcher R BBs/Ks Span Dates
Michael Wacha (STL) 1 1/13 5/31/2014 - 8/17/15
Zack Greinke (LAD) 0 1/15 7/25/2014 - 9/13/14
Cliff Lee (PHI) 0 0/15 8/4/2011 - 4/18/12
Jaime Garcia (STL) 1 1/15 8/22/2010 - 4/9/11
Clayton Kershaw (LAD) 0 1/13 9/14/2010 - 3/31/11
John Tudor (STL) 1 0/14 5/3/1985 - 7/24/85