ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals reached an all-time low in single-game attendance on Tuesday, at least for tickets sold in a regular season game at Busch Stadium III that was not affected by pandemic restrictions.

The Cardinals barely drew above 30,000 in attendance for Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The final total came in at 30,022.

The drop in paid attendance comes as the Cardinals postseason hopes have taken a dramatic turn for the worse over the last several weeks. The Cardinals have lost eight of their last 10 games, now sitting three games below .500 (61-64) and six games out of their closest path to postseason via the Wild Card. Their 10-17 record since All-Star break ranks among MLB’s worst.

The Cardinals have dealt with sputtering attendance for much of the season, only eclipsing 40,000 in 16 of 61 home games this season. One night game in early-April ended among the lowest in Cardinals’ Busch III non-pandemic attendance with a mark of around 32,000.

The Cardinals rank seventh in average attendance this season (36,536 as of Tuesday, according to Baseball-Reference), but it’s a notable fall from fourth last year and a decrease of around 4,000 in paid attendance per game.

Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III discussed attendance trends in May with FOX 2 Sports Director Martin Kilcoyne, acknowledging attendance is based on tickets sold and calling it the “bread and butter of the Cardinals franchise.” He noted that the Cardinals sell around 70 percent of their tickets before Opening Day, largely in part through season ticket packages.

He said that the last 30 percent “is a function of how the team plays, and maybe your schedule, your promotional work you do, and various things that play out during the season.” He called team performance a “swing factor” in determining attendance.

What does Tuesday’s mark mean for the rest of the Cardinals season moving forward? Weekend matchups should draw more than week days. But with the team’s postseason hopes quickly taking a nosedive and fan frustrations mounting over the possibility of two straight losing seasons, there’s a chance many games moving forward could end up closer to 30,000 than 40,000.

It remains to be seen if Tuesday’s mark will hold as the record low for this season. The Cardinals host the NL Central-leading Brewers for two more games Wednesday and Thursday before a brief road trip to Minnesota, followed by another weekday homestand. Then there are 13 home games in September.