On Saturday, Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn suffocated the Giants for 7.0 innings (STL 6, SF 0) before a sprained ankle forced him from the game. In doing so, he improved his 2015 numbers to ... well, pretty much what St. Louis rotation label-mates John Lackey, Carlos Martinez, and Michael Wacha have purveyed this year. Insofar as the season in our midst is concerned, those guys are all pretty much the same pitcher. 

There's also Jaime Garcia, of course, who's been the Cardinals' best starter on a rate basis (1.77 ERA). However, the start to Garcia's season was delayed as he recovered from thoracic outlet syndrome, and then he missed more than three weeks with a groin strain. So while Garcia's excellence is noted, let's keep the focus of this Internet dispatch on the Cards' front four. Here's why we're doing that ... 

Lackey, Lynn, Martinez, and Wacha in 2015
Pitcher/stat Games Innings ERA Runs/game FIP K/BB ratio Innings/start QS %
Lackey  26  172 2/3  2.92  3.08  3.61  3.18  6.4 77%
Lynn  25  147 2/3  2.80 3.23  3.26  2.79  6.0 68%
Martinez  26  157 1/3  2.91  3.20  3.29  2.89  6.2 75%
Wacha  25  154 2/3  2.69  3.03  3.24  3.35  6.3 72%
Data via Baseball-Reference.com

(FIP = Fielding Independent Pitching; QS% = quality start percentage)

Yep, all pretty much the same guy! As you can see, there's a remarkable level of statistical compression up and down and across the table above. The ERAs are in line, as are the per-game workloads. Heck, even the underlying peripherals track similarly, as evidenced by the FIP and K/BB columns. They're also all right-handed! So they run that out there four out of every five days, more or less, and then Garcia drops in on occasion and fares even better, generally speaking. Optimal state of affairs, that.

At this writing, the Cardinals lead the majors with a rotation ERA of 2.77. Yes, that figure is correct: After 129 games, the Cardinals have a comfortably sub-3.00 rotation ERA. To put that figure in context, the average NL starter this season has an ERA of 4.02. As well, the Cardinals have logged quality starts in 70 percent of their games this season, which is versus a league-average figure of 51 percent. Oh, and bear in mind that the Cardinals' corps of starters is running those numbers despite having gotten just 25 innings from injured ace Adam Wainwright.

Anyhow, if that 2.77 rotation ERA holds up, then it'll be the lowest full-season mark since the 1985 Dodgers' rotation ran an ERA of 2.71. In large part, this -- this steady excellence in the rotation -- is why the Cardinals in late August have given up roughly 150 runs fewer than the average team in 2015. That, in turn, is why they're on pace for 104 wins.

So call the Cardinals' front four starters "consistently dominating" or "dominatingly consistent," but call them one or the other. Or both, if you prefer.

The Cardinals’ big four starters: Consistently dominant or dominantly consistent? Yes!
The Cardinals’ big four starters: Consistently dominant or dominantly consistent? Yes! (USATSI)