With another quality start on Monday night in Philadelphia, the St. Louis Cardinals rotation would establish their longest string of quality starts since 1973.
The “quality start” is a stat that is not universally loved. The term is tagged to a starting outing if the pitcher lasts at least six innings and allows three or fewer runs. In reaching the minimum innings with the maximum runs yielded, the resulting 4.50 ERA would hardly be exemplary, critics observe.
Yet in 2010, the five members of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation have been pitching much better than that. Through Chris Carpenter’s seven shutout inning outing against Cincinnati on Sunday, the club has put together a string of 11 consecutive quality starts. The ace started the run, had one in the middle and logged the most recent one as well. The team is 8-3 over their last 11 games.
11 ties the longest run for the Cardinals rotation since 1973. At this exact time of year in 2003, the starters had an 11-game quality streak ...
Original Story:
