What do these 19 players have in common?

Jason Bay
Miguel Cabrera
Tony Clark
J.D. Closser
Morgan Ensberg
Luis Gonzalez (the one on the Rockies)
Troy Glaus
Shawn Green
Andruw Jones
Derrek Lee
Felipe Lopez
Mark Loretta
Xavier Nady
Jorge Piedra
Kelly Stinnett
Cory Sullivan
Mark Sweeney
Luis Terrero
Rickie Weeks

Answer:

These 19 are the only non-pitchers to fan against Jason Marquis in his last 13 starts, dating back to June 15 and covering 77.1 innings. Four of the 19---all of them Diamondbacks (Clark, Glaus, Green and Stinnett)---have had the dubious distinction of striking out twice against Marquis in this period.

Overall, the lack of strikeouts----just 29 over his last 13 starts, during which he is 1-10 and the team is 1-12---has to be one of the most intriguing pieces of of the puzzle in figuring out the great mystery of Marquis.

To be sure, Marquis has had some fine games in this stretch. But the fact that the only three games in which he had more than two strikeouts also happen to be three of his four best starts during the drought makes a case that this is a pitcher who, unlike Mark Mulder, simply cannot forego his Ks and still be effective.

When Mark Mulder is not striking people out, he's inducing grounders with well-located pitches and he's still staying around the strike zone. In Mulder's last 10 starts, he's fanned more than 3 just once, yet he's allowed two or fewer runs 8 times and he's 6-1. Despite his lack of Ks, Mulder is somehow able to pitch out of jams.

With Marquis, it appears to be the exact opposite---when he needs to get an out, it seems as if he simply can't find a way to get it. In last night's game (and granted, when your team scores zero runs you won't get the win, no matter what you do), after allowing singles to the first three hitters, Marquis was a strike away from escaping with just one run scoring, and then he threw a ball, another ball, allowed a foul, then another ball, to lose Doumit and load the bases. The he got two strikes on the next batter, Wigginton--again, one strike away from being out of the inning---before an outside delivery was poked down the line for a triple. Perhaps it was good defensive hitting, maybe just bad luck, but the bottom line was Marquis couldn't put either hitter away and now it was 4-0.

We all know that Marquis receives the worst run support among Cardinal starters, but in Marquis' 12 "non-wins" during the funk, seven times he's allowed at least 5 runs---meaning the Birds would have to score at minimum 6 (and usually many more) runs to win. His inability to avoid baserunners (1.63 WHIP since 6/15) and his lack of strikeouts are a formula for disaster.

I have no idea if the lack of strikeouts are related to Marquis' problems with his "game plan" and, specifically, his sinker, but Dave Duncan has his opinions:

"It was a repeat performance," said Duncan. "When he pitches well, he does certain things. When he pitches bad, he does the same certain things. And they're not the same.

"He goes away from his strength as a pitcher and it doesn't work for him. He's got to build his game around his strengths and complement them with the other stuff that he does. His strength is to throw sinkers in the bottom of the strike zone. He didn't do that today. When he did throw a sinker, it was up way too much of the time.

Maybe, sometimes, you have to bottom out before you can begin on a road to redemption. If that's the case, then I hope that last night was the nadir for Marquis, or else his next start may be his last for some time, and maybe his last as a Cardinal.