ST. LOUIS -- Hours before his 1,000th regular-season game as Cardinals manager, Mike Matheny huddled with club officials in his office. The data presented to him was revealing, the conclusion drawn from it compelling. Simply put, few offensive units underperformed their batted-ball metrics more than the Cardinals over the season's first month, when well-struck drives routinely resulted in outs.
Their luck appeared prime to return in time, perhaps with the warm weather.
It took nine innings, but those results came Tuesday. Stymied by James Shields for the first six innings, St.