There’s just something about when the calendar turns to October that makes the Cardinals come alive. Maybe they put something in the water in St. Louis when fall rolls around – I don’t know. But the Cardinals have become a staple of postseason baseball.
Depending on your loyalties, you will either remember St. Louis’ historic run in 2011 forever, or you’ll never be able to forget it.
First, the Cardinals came roaring back to claim the Wild Card spot from the Atlanta Braves, despite being 10.5 games back with 32 games to play. Then, after a thrilling Game 5 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series in which Chris Carpenter pitched a complete game shutout to outduel Phillies ace Roy Halladay, the Cardinals beat Milwaukee in six games in the National League Championship Series and moved on to the World Series against the Texas Rangers.
In perhaps the most exciting World Series in recent memory, St. Louis was down to its last strike twice in Game 6, both times tying the score and eventually walking off with a home run by David Freese in the 11th inning. Naturally, the Redbirds would go on to win Game 7 by a score of 6-2 and take home the Commissioner’s Trophy.
In 2012, St. Louis utilized the new Wild Card Game, defeating Atlanta and moving on the the NLDS to face the Washington Nationals. In another action-packed series, the Nationals and Cardinals had to settle things in Game 5. The Nationals took a 6-0 lead and had the Cardinals one out away from elimination, down by a tally of 7-5.
But the Cardiac Cardinals weren’t done. A two-out rally put St. Louis ahead 9-7, a score that held up in the bottom of the ninth. The Cardinals would later lose Game 7 of the NLCS to the eventual World Series champion, the San Francisco Giants.
That brings us to the present.
On Friday night, St. Louis punched its ticket to another World Series, though this time there wasn’t a dramatic late-season streak to make the playoffs, nor was there a moment the Cardinals were on the brink of elimination. Still, this postseason run has been anything but conventional.
After 11 games, the Cardinals are batting .210 with an on-base percentage of .285. The highest individual batting average among players who have played in more than half of these games is .268, a mark held by Matt Adams.
In comparison to St. Louis’ last World Series run in 2011, Adams’ current batting average would have put him at eighth best. That 2011 team also boasted a collective batting average of .271 and an on-base percentage of .353. Since 2011, the Cardinals have also lost middle-of-the-lineup hitters Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman and future Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa. Of four pitchers in the starting rotation, one is a rookie and another is a sophomore.
Yet, despite of all this, we find the Cardinals back in the World Series because it’s still the Cardinals, and that means anything is possible.
St. Louis may not win the World Series this year, but two things are for sure: The Cardinals won’t go away lightly, and it won’t be boring. So whether you want St. Louis or Boston to win this year’s fall classic, or even if you don’t care at all, enjoy the series. It won’t disappoint.
