On April 24th, the St. Louis Cardinals began a daunting 17-game stretch with no off days, which could have been a breaking point after a strong start to the season. They handled that stretch well, and after a rainout against the Milwaukee Brewers, which gave them an off day, it became 16 games in 17 days. The Cardinals have gone 14-9 since the beginning of that stretch, and are a half-game back of the division lead.
Another gauntlet kicked off on Tuesday night as the Cardinals will face all four National League Central opponents over the next four series, with just one off day between the Brewers and the series with the Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals have been playing some inspiring baseball, and it is finally time to put it to the test against the rest of the division.
Despite the offensive production dropoff, 21st in runs in the league since April 24th, the Cardinals have been able to climb their record to nine games above .500 after Tuesday night's victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. That has been in part due to the pitching staff; in the same span, the Cardinals' pitchers have a team ERA of 3.40 and rank 8th in the league. That is a pretty good turnaround for a staff that was in the bottom 5 of the league at the beginning of the season.
In the 22 games played since the start of one of the toughest stretches of the season, not including Tuesday night's victory, the Cardinals' starters have turned in 12 quality starts, and most of the ones that were not worthy of that title were strong outings that did not go six full innings. While the Cardinals are still struggling with accumulating strikeouts on the mound, a couple of recent performances have been career-high numbers in the K column. While he failed to get through the fifth on Tuesday, Matthew Liberatore struck out a career high nine batters, and Michael McGreevy recently set a new high against the San Diego Padres with nine of his own. While it is not the expectation from the Cardinals' pitching staff, they have shown that when they need it, they can get the strikeout at the right time.
The never-say-die spirit of this team has allowed them to pull off improbable wins, no matter how they need to be done. If the offense gives just enough support to take a lead to the ninth in a low-scoring affair, the bullpen latches down and holds on. If the starter comes out and struggles or the bullpen blows a late lead, the Cardinals' offense rallies and finds a way to make something happen.
Over the next two weeks, the Cardinals are going to show their true colors to members of their division, and if Tuesday night's thrilling walk-off victory, capped by an Ivan Herrera walk-off home run, is not enough proof, they are ready to do it all over again the next day. There is something special about the way this group approaches every game with a chip on their shoulder, almost like they had been written off all winter long, that reminds me of some other Cardinals teams that were pretty special when the odds were stacked against them. But that is something for further down the line, and just like Han Solo, these Cardinals look to be saying “Never tell me the odds”.