Bases on balls may not be the most exciting element of the game, but they are an effective tactic for winning. And one of the most impressive aspects of the Cardinals’ 9-8 win over the Royals Sunday was that they drew 13 walks, led by a record five by Colby Rasmus, including the game-winning RBI.

First, Rasmus’s feat: Only 97 other players since 1919 have coaxed five free passes in a game, the single-most in one game. Three other Cardinals have tallied that many — Reggie Smith, Ted Sizemore and Solly Hemus. Rasmus himself had a four-walk game last year (8/13), and teammates Albert Pujols has had three four-walk games. Curiously, the Royals’ Alex Gordon has a quintuple-walk game to his credit.

Given the flack that Rasmus takes for striking out, we wonder how aware fans are of his propensity to walk. His walk rate this year has bubbled up to a Puma-like 14.7%, well over his career rate of 10.2, which made him the 3rd-likeliest on the team to turn the trick Sunday:

The Cardinals now lead the majors in walk rate (10.1%), no doubt a major contributor to the fact that they are the most potent offense in the majors and now lead the National League in Pythagorean Winning Percentage, a better predictor of future actual win %.

Not to take anything away from Rasmus, whose walks are helping him avoid outs (.391 OBP) better than all other major-league centerfielders save Matt Kemp (.399), but the number of five-walk games has been increasing since the 1980s.

And obviously Rasmus wasn’t the only Redbird walking Sunday. The 13 walks was the most by the team since they drew 12 back on 8/18/2000. They hadn’t drawn 13 or more since 1998, and were only three shy of the team record 16 set in 1974, when Smith had his five and Lou Brock drew four (and Keith Hernandez one, if you must know). And even if the Royals weren’t the most impressive pitching staff to walk against — they’re four-worst in BB/9 at 3.76 — the team patience isn’t a new thing, as it has been going on all season: The Cardinals are fifth-best in laying off pitches outside the strike zone, a stat that interestingly correlates to this year’s best teams (the Indians and Yankees are 1-2 in O-Swing % and Pythagorean Win %).

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.