Stat of the Day: Playing their Cards Right

The St. Louis Cardinals have three starting pitchers with ERAs under 3.00. Chris Carpenter leads the NL with a 2.10 ERA, while Adam Wrainwright has earned 12 wins with his 2.80 ERA, and Joel Pineiro maintains a slim 2.84 ERA. How many Red Sox starters have a sub-3.00 ERA? Zero. What about the Yankees? Zero. Tampa Bay? Nada. As a team, the Cards have the third-lowest ERA in the Majors, to go along with the second-fewest walks. With the acquisition of Matt Holliday (.606 BA, 10 RBI, 3 HR, 1.061 SLG in nine games since joining the Cardinals), look for the Cardinals to make a run here in the second half. As of today, they lead the Cubs by 0.5 games in the NL Central, and are 7-3 in their last ten games.