I’m eating a big helping of crow today after a wild night of baseball saw the St. Louis Cardinals win the NL Wildcard.
From the very beginning of this season, I never believed the Cardinals had a snowball’s chance of making the playoffs. I didn’t believe the club had addressed some of its most glaring needs during the offseason and picked the Cards to finish fourth in the NL Central.
Not more than a month ago, I was looking like a genius when St. Louis was 69-64 and 10 and-a-half games back of the Atlanta Braves in the Wildcard race.
But in the most boring of the four games involving teams vying for playoff berths, the Cardinals bombed the Houston Astros 8-0 behind the pitching of Chris Carpenter, and it proved to be the win that pushed St. Louis into the playoffs.
Although the Cardinals-Astros game started an hour later than the Braves-Phillies, St. Louis finished off Houston and then got to watch as Philadelphia scored a run in the 9th to tie their game and then pushed across another run in the 13th inning to end Atlanta’s season.
The Phillies win capped an improbable comeback for the Cardinals, a club that played an entire season without Adam Wainwright, a very shaky defense, a terrible bullpen, numerous injuries and saw Albert Pujols fail to hit .300 and drive in at least 100 runs for the first time in his 11-year career.
Despite all of that, St. Louis still found a way to make the playoffs.
Maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Braves’ pitchers Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson hadn’t been lost to injuries.
Atlanta was clearly the better team throughout the season, that is until St. Louis swept the Braves in a three-game series three weeks ago that brought the Cardinals to within 4 and-a-half games of Atlanta.
But after sweeping the series from the Braves, St. Louis could never take full advantage. They lost games that should have been won, the most cringing of which was an 8-6 loss to the New York Mets on September 22 in a game where the Cards’ had a 6-2 lead entering the 9th.
St. Louis finished the regular season tied for fourth among all MLB clubs in errors and hit into the more double plays than any team in baseball. The Cardinals had the second most blown saves and were next to last in stolen bases, yet they managed to find a way.
Now the Cardinals will face the vaunted Phillies in the NLDS, a team they owe a debt of gratitude to after Philadelphia swept the Braves to help them make their unlikely run to the playoffs.
St. Louis won the season series 6 to 3, but they’ll be decided underdogs in the NLDS.
Philadelphia is unquestionably baseball’s best team with a pitching staff that should carry them all the way to a World Series title, but following all of the dramatic games we saw on Wednesday anything seems possible.
So today I’ll gladly eat crow and tip my cap to the Cardinals. I don’t believe they’ll beat the Phillies, but then again, what the hell do I know?
